Crossing Sociological, Ecological, and Nutritional Perspectives on Agrifood Systems Transitions: Towards a Transdisciplinary Territorial Approach

Claire Lamine,Danièle Magda,Marie-Josèphe Amiot

doi:10.3390/su11051284

Abstract

The need to reconnect agriculture, environment, food, and health when addressing agrifood system transitions is widely acknowledged. However, most analytical frameworks, especially in the expanding literature about “system approaches”, rely on impact-based approaches and, thus, tend to overlook ecological processes as well as social ones. This article aims at demonstrating that a territorial approach to agrifood system transitions is more appropriate to tackle the reconnection between agriculture, food, environment, and health than the larger scales (global or national food systems) or the smaller ones (such as those of alternative food systems) usually addressed in the literature. Co-elaborated by a sociologist, an ecologist, and a nutritionist, this article is based on a focused analysis of the literature that has addressed agrifood system transitions in the food and health sciences and in the social sciences and on the reflexive analysis of two past projects dealing with such transitions. It shows that a territorial approach allows including in the analysis the diverse agrifood systems’ components as well the ecological and social processes that may create functionalities for improving agrifood systems’ sustainability. This territorial approach is based on systemic and processual thinking and on a transdisciplinary perspective combining an objectification stance and a pragmatist constructivist one. It should allow actors and researchers to build a shared understanding of the transition processes within their shared territorial agrifood system, despite possibly different and diverging views.

Highlights

While most human communities have long relied—and some still rely—on a universal pattern that articulated agriculture, food, and the local environment holistically, these elements have been disconnected through the modernization and industrialization processes
It is widely acknowledged that the challenge of feeding equitably, sustainably, and healthily the global population requires taking into account the effects of global changes in food systems
The reflexive and interdisciplinary analysis of two past projects and literature showed that the reconnection of agriculture, food, environment, and health within agrifood systems transitions would be better tackled through territorial approaches

Summary

Introduction

While most human communities have long relied—and some still rely—on a universal pattern that articulated agriculture, food, and the local environment holistically, these elements have been disconnected through the modernization and industrialization processes. The need to stop “sustaining the unsustainable” [5] and to transition to sustainable consumption and production patterns that may reconnect agriculture, environment, food, and health is increasingly advocated at different levels, from local civil societies to scientific commissions and global policymaking [6,7,8]. It is present in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development from the United Nations [9], with an explicit articulation between food security, nutrition, and sustainable agriculture in SDG2 (“Zero hunger”)

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Conclusion