Environmental Sustainability Aspects in Short Food Supply Chains: the Views of Organic Farmers and Consumers

Blockchain Enabled Quality Management in Short Food Supply Chains

The production and distribution of food are among the hot topics debated in the context of sustainable development. Short food supply chains (SFSCs) are now widely believed to be more sustainable in comparison to mass food delivery systems. To date, very little quantitative evidence exists on the impacts of various types of food supply chains. Using a cross-sectional quantitative approach, this study assesses the sustainability of distribution channels in short and long food supply chains based on 208 food producers across seven countries: France, Hungary, Italy, Norway, Poland, the United Kingdom, and Vietnam. Ten distribution channel types are used in this study. To provide a comprehensive sustainability assessment, a set of economic, social, and environmental indicators are applied. Indicators commonly used in the literature are used, supported by original indicators constructed specifically for the present study. In total, 486 chains are examined and the study confirms that individual producers participate simultaneously in several, short and long chains. Participation in SFSCs is beneficial for producers from an economic perspective. SFSCs allow producers to capture a large proportion of margin otherwise absorbed by different intermediaries. It appears, however, that ’longer’ supply channels generate lower environmental impacts per unit of production when measured in terms of food miles and carbon footprint. Finally, ambiguous results are found regarding social dimension, with significant differences across types of chains.

Why buying directly from producers is a valuable choice? Expanding the scope of short food supply chains in Spain

Improving the eco-efficiency of food systems is one of the major global challenges faced by the modern world. Short food supply chains (SFSCs) are commonly regarded to be less harmful to the environment, among various reasons, due to their organizational distribution and thus the shortened physical distance between primary producers and final consumers. In this paper, we empirically test this hypothesis, by assessing and comparing the environmental impacts of short and long food supply chains. Based on the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach, we calculate eco-efficiency indicators for nine types of food distribution chains. The analysis is performed on a sample of 428 short and long food supply chains from six European countries. Our results indicate that, on average, long food supply chains may generate less negative environmental impacts than short chains (in terms of fossil fuel energy consumption, pollution, and GHG emissions) per kg of a given product. The values of eco-efficiency indicators display a large variability across analyzed chains, and especially across different types of SFSCs. The analysis shows that the environmental impacts of the food distribution process are not only determined by the geographical distance between producer and consumer, but depend on numerous factors, including the supply chain infrastructure.

Increasing the competitiveness of primary producers and supporting the local development in rural areas were one of the main objectives of the Slovak government within the 2014-2020 program period. Supporting local producers and applying short food supply chains were the main tools for fulfilling these objectives. Short food supply chains are a relatively new concept in Slovakia, associated primarily with the sale of the quality agricultural products directly from the farm. The paper focuses on the evaluation of the performance of agricultural enterprises in Slovakia in the short food supply chains by comparing the economic indicators of enterprises in and outside the short food supply chains over a period of 10 years. This time period captures a relatively stable development of the economic results of enterprises, with a slight increase in 2017, when the enterprises concluded contracts with the Agricultural Paying Agency. This year is considered to be the start of the enterprises in the short food supply chains, providing the results in terms of the observed economic indicators significantly different from the enterprises outside the short food supply chains due to their size and economic power. In connection with the above facts, we have identified the following research questions: 1) Is the size of the agricultural enterprise a factor that influences the success of companies in short food supply chains? 2) Are micro and small agricultural enterprises operating in short food supply chains able to improve their economic results despite their disadvantages compared to large enterprises?

Recent literature demonstrates the contribution of short food supply chains (SFSC) to regional economies and sustainable food systems, and acknowledges their role as drivers for sustainable development. Moreover, different types of SFSC have been supported by urban food policies (UFP) over the few last years and actors from the food chain became part of new institutional settings for urban food policies. However, evidence from the sustainability impact assessment (SIA) of these SFSC in urban contexts is limited. Our paper presents an approach for the development of an SIA framework for different SFSC types. In addition, a practical application of the tool in four metropolitan regions (Berlin, London, Ljubljana and Nairobi) is tested. The conceptual development of the SIA framework is based on an in-depth analysis of existing SIA frameworks and methods for assessing the sustainability of agriculture, food chains and food systems and adapted to the specific needs of analysing SFSC in metropolitan regions. The operational value and utility of the framework and the tool were tested with social and natural scientists and local stakeholders. The assessment results demonstrate that SFSC seems to be more sustainable than the baseline (long global food chains) in the social dimension, but also feature specific strengths and weaknesses concerning their economic and environmental sustainability. This might give an indication for regional adjusted strategies and food chain innovations that improve the sustainability performance may be required. We found the tool useful for framing the dialogue between food chain actors, consumers and policy, because it makes benefits and trade-offs of the chain types operating in an urban–rural context more visible and communicable.

Purpose: Good Agricultural Practices (GAP), Participatory Guarantee System (PGS), Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) and direct organic farmers’ markets (supply chains) with GAP and PGS for CSA are relatively new concepts and applications have not much studied. This study was carried out to evaluate the climate smartness of short organic food supply chains in a direct farmers’ market in Kurunegala, Sri Lanka.Research Method: Data were collected from all farmer venders (50) of the direct organic farmers’ market using a structured interview schedule and from two venders through in-depth interviews and observations. The economic, social and environmental sustainability aspects were assessed as the components of CSA.Findings: Results revealed that the income of farmer venders increased after joining the organic direct market and that was stable throughout the year achieving the economic sustainability. Involvement of small-scale farmers, adopting climate resilient production practices, access to information and markets, institutional support and collective actions were identified along the value chains as the elements of social sustainability. The average GHG emission along the two selected value chains of the direct market had reduced after joining the farmers market depicting the environmental sustainability. Therefore, the studied organic direct farmers’ market was climate smart.Research Limitations: Only two value chains of the market was studied due to its’ complexity and time and resource limitation. The calculations of GHG emission were based on default values as there were no country specific values. Therefore, the calculated GHG emission values are approximate.Originality/Value: The findings of the study are novel as most of the concepts studied are relatively new. Therefore, findings are important for understanding and future interventions.

Short Food Supply Chains (SFSCs) are central to the alternative food movement discourse. SFSCs are based upon the interrelations among actors who are directly involved in the production, processing, distribution, and consumption of food products. They depend upon actors mobilising resources of various kinds: skills; knowledge; labour; capital; buildings etc. External factors such as policies and regulations can also encourage the creation of these shorter chains. The development of SFSCs can still be hindered by a range of other factors. Nevertheless, bottlenecks can be overcome via the sharing of information on successful SFSCs through the dissemination of Good Practices between various actors and territories. The Short Supply Chain Knowledge and Innovation (SKIN) project uses the term ‘good’ rather than ‘best’ practice to draw attention to the subjective lens through which a practice is ultimately evaluated by an end-user. This paper first outlines the many issues that confront SFSC actors which represent bottlenecks to the adoption of ‘Good Practices’. It then documents the Good Practices collected as part of the SKIN project as tangible examples of how SFSCs overcome such challenges. Lessons learnt from project highlights are subsequently assessed in an effort to mitigate and offer solutions to the challenges associated with SFSCs. The paper demonstrates the considerable latent potential inherent to SFSCs. However, in order for the agricultural sector to realise the full promise of short supply chains it must first be conscious of the issues pertinent to their prosperity.

<p>The food system has become globalized and industrial. As a consequence, food travels long distances to reach consumers and its production is over-reliant on chemicals, leading to high levels of carbon emissions and soil degradation. Short food supply chains (SFSCs) have been advocated as more sustainable alternatives and have been explicitly mentioned by the Dutch government and the EU as a strategy towards achieving sustainability goals. While SFSCs are viable on a small scale, scaling and mainstreaming them has proven difficult due to low margins, high costs, and steep learning curves. Their economic underperformance is particularly glaring when compared to the highly cost-efficient - albeit energy and resource intensive - conventional commercial supply chains. In practice, SFSCs therefore remain isolated success stories, failing to contribute to systemic change in food systems. In efforts to enhance the performance of SFSCs, this paper introduces the GAIN transition model, a novel framework based on gamification which provides a holistic and actionable framework for SFSC actors to coalesce and strategize around a common vision. We illustrate the underlying principles of GAIN and its potential for institutionalizing SFSCs. We find that thus far, GAIN has helped to catalyze action and has proven a useful tool which provides a common language for actors to navigate this complex space. Future research and more dissemination are needed to conclude with more certainty on the quantitative impact of GAIN in terms of enabling and strengthening SFSCs.</p>

- Experiences of short food supply chain: an explorative research in the province of Trento In the recent years there has been an increasing interest in the scientific literature for the so-called "Alternative Food Networks" which try to redefine the relationship between producers and consumers. Particularly interesting is the short food supply chain which allows both producers to get back some added value and consumers to have better food "with the farmers' face on it". Moreover, some part of the literature stressed that a shorter food supply chain promotes the rise of a new and more territorially based rural development. The investigation approach has been mainly sociological or geographical and mostly based on case studies. Little attention has been devoted to quantify the involved farmers' population. Since shorter food supply chains are becoming increasingly present in the Italian market, the aim of the paper is to contribute to deepen the knowledge about these experiences, starting from the specific context of the Autonomous Province of Trento. First of all, a census of the empirical variety of short food supply chains has been made. In addition to three farmer's markets, one box scheme (Biocesta) and other similar initiatives, farmers open their farms to consumers and visitors. The integration of three different databases allowed us to estimate the number of farms involved in the short supply chain. It represents the 12,8% of the full time farms. In order to shed light on structural conditions, economic performance and farmers' perceptions, we surveyed a convenience sample of 36 farms involved in the most innovative forms of short food supply chain. The surveyed farms are of small dimensions; the farmers are well educated and they are fully involved in the short food supply chain. Most part of the farms is highly diversified: the average number of products is 4.4 and the diversification is strengthened trough some processing. Only 28% of the sample sells the whole production through the short supply chain: this confirms that the major part of farms does not abandon the conventional system when opting for a shorter supply chain. Investigating the motivations that draw farmers to move towards a shorter supply chain shows that a better valorisation of their products represents the most important one. Nevertheless, other non-monetary reasons enter into the decision and gain top ranking positions such the direct contact with consumers and the enhancement of professional competences. The option for a shorter supply chain seems to have very interesting consequences. Actually, it pushed the 72% of farms to increase product diversification; it induced some farms to switch to organic production, to recover unusual vegetables and antique fruit cultivars, to pay greater attention to the landscape, to offer new services inside the farm and to strength the relations with other farms and the territory. These results support the idea that the short food supply chain enhances the multifunctional role of farms.JEL Codes: Q12, Q13Key words: short food supply chain, farmers' survey, structural and economic characteristics, Trentino

IntroductionThe COVID-19 pandemic has presented challenges to global food supply chains. Since the beginning of the pandemic researchers have studied various food supply chain issues influenced by the COVID-19 crisis, including impacts on consumer behavior, and logistical and organizational changes to food supply chains. Despite the proliferation of studies on food supply chains during the pandemic, only a few researchers have focused on short food supply chains and their resilience. Therefore, the aim of this study was to explore the resilience of short food supply chains during the COVID-19 pandemic using a direct purchasing (DP) network as a case study. The study considered three research questions. (1) How has the functioning of the DP network changed during the COVID-19 pandemic? (2) What role do resilience elements (i.e., readiness to shocks, responsiveness to disruption, and recovery from the crisis) play in the short food supply chain response to the COVID-19 crisis? (3) Which innovations in the short food supply chain would further the recovery process, and thus resilience, after the crisis?MethodsThis article presents a case study of a direct organic food purchasing network in Latvia. The analysis of economic data regarding the dynamics of organic product demand and supply in the DP network was supplemented with an analysis of qualitative data gathered through semi-structured in-depth interviews with representatives of three groups of DP network participants: consumers, producers, and DP network organizers.Results and discussionFrom the consumer and producer experiences, the DP network was a flexible short food chain that could adapt quickly in a crisis. While the number of DP distribution points and total number of purchases decreased during the pandemic, a statistically significant increase in the number of product units sold compared to the pre-COVID-19 period was observed. From the perspective of food chain resilience elements, the reactive strategies of the DP network as a short food supply chain were highlighted. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the organizational and product innovations introduced in the DP network played a key role in enhancing the resilience of the short supply chain in the context of the wider food system.

In the light of natural resource management challenges, the links between short food supply chains and sustainable development cannot be overlooked. Short food supply chains support the economic (e.g. income, product range offered, new jobs in rural areas), social (e.g. heritage, mutual trust between consumer and producer, local quality of life, especially for disadvantaged or peripheral people) and environmental (greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity) aspects of sustainability. Shortening food supply chains is a strategic objective of the European Union. Against this backdrop, we interrogate challenges in the functioning of short food supply chains using the results from 152 interviews with farmers already participating in SFSCs in Poland and in the Czech Republic. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse the responses. The results suggest that some of the farmers from Poland and Czech Republic do not see any barriers to participate in the short food supply chains. The rest of the farms regardless of the countryindicated the same constraints and problems related to their participation in the SFSCs. Responses differed only in frequency between Polish and Czech farms. These were time-consuming, the need to employ additional staff, the need to be available to customers at all times, and the need to find and keep customers themselves. To the least extent, farmers from both countries complained about the bureaucracy and formal requirements for participating in SFSC, the lack of infrastructure and the low financial resources and profitability of sales through SFSC. In addition, farmers from Poland were almost four times more likely than the Czech ones to emphasize the problem of participation in SFSCs was the seasonality of income.

IntroductionHow food is produced, processed, distributed, and consumed significantly impacts the sustainability of food supply chains. Short food supply chains (SFSCs) have been promoted as an alternative approach to offer sustainable solutions. However, empirical studies provide mixed evidence, and the findings greatly vary based on context. This study explores the social, economic, and environmental sustainability practices in Atlantic Canada's SFSCs from the perspective of farm businesses (producers).MethodsA semi-structured survey was conducted among 64 farmers/producers who participated in Atlantic Canadian SFSCs. Participants were asked what channel they used to sell their products and how far this location is in comparison to the production location if sold to an intermediary, how they believe they could better to improve the sustainability of their production methods, what barriers stood in their way of implementation, and how supply chain supporters could help achieve their sustainability goals.ResultsThe findings show that most farm businesses linked to SFCSs have applied ecologically sound production methods such as organic farming, IPM, or other sustainable practices, including regenerative agriculture and no-till farming. Over two-thirds of farm businesses applied sustainable practices such as pasture rotations, green fertilizers, low-carbon couriers, locally sourced inputs, and compostable or recyclable packaging materials. Farm businesses in the Atlantic Provinces highly value the social sustainability of SFSCs, followed by economic and environmental sustainability. Most farm businesses linked to SFSCs were robust to supply- and demand-side shocks, registered a low number of layoffs and fast recovery of operations, and increased their profits during COVID-19 compared to pre-COVID-19 levels. Yet, several barriers remain, the most important ones being high capital costs and longer payback periods. Other barriers include inconsistent inter-provincial trading restrictions, lack of qualified workers and shrinking agricultural land base.DiscussionSFSCs in Atlantic Canadian SFSCs have implemented several sustainable practices in their production and distribution systems. Most of the farm businesses linked to SFSCs are small, are focused on specific product groups, target small towns or rural areas, and rely on direct-on farm sales to individual customers, and thus can play a crucial role by complementing longer food supply chains. By taking SFSCs in Atlantic Provinces as a case, this study expands our understanding of recent efforts and challenges local producers face to adopt sustainable practices in their production and distribution systems.

Consumers increasingly prefer more direct and more transparent food distribution channels, such as short food supply chains (SFSCs). Nonetheless, SFSCs face a variety of issues and challenges in their creation and functioning, resulting in limited performance and sustainability, as well as in difficulties of upscaling. This study aims at improving our understanding of SFSCs’ issues/challenges through a systematic review of the most recent literature. We perform a full-text content analysis of 44 studies, looking for answers to the research questions: At which parts of the SFSCs do the issues/challenges occur? How can we characterize the issues/challenges in SFSCs? While doing so, we offer a holistic perspective on SFSCs. We make use of the SCOR model to define SFSC processes as well as to describe the nature of these issues/challenges. The findings of this study shed light on the nature and strategic-tactical-operational level of the issues/challenges in SFSCs and point out the limitations in the existing literature such as the SFSC processes that are neglected. The holistic approach we suggest and the insight on SFSCs’ issues/challenges we provide can help researchers offer effective solutions and strategies to support the overall development of SFSCs.

The present study aims at describing the state-of-play of short food supply chains (SFSC) in the EU understood as being the chains in which foods involved are identified by, and traceable to a farmer and for which the number of intermediaries between farmer and consumer should be minimal or ideally nil. Several types of SFSCs can be identified, for example CSAs (Community-Supported Agriculture), on-farm sales, off-farm schemes (farmers markets, delivery schemes), collective sales in particular towards public institutions, being mostly local / proximity sales and in some cases distance sales. Such type of food chain has specific social impacts, economic impacts at regional and farm level as well as environmental impacts translating themselves into a clear interest of consumers. SFSCs are present throughout the EU, although there are some differences in the different MS in terms of dominating types of SFSCs. In general, they are dominantly small or micro-enterprises, composed of small-scale producers, often coupled to organic farming practices. Social values (quality products to consumers and direct contact with the producer) are the values usually highlighted by SFSCs before environmental or economic values. In terms of policy tools, there are pros and cons in developing a specific EU labelling scheme which could bring more recognition, clarity, protection and value added to SFSCs, while potential costs might be an obstacle. Anyhow, a possible labelling scheme should take into account the current different stages and situations of development of SFSCs in the EU and be flexible enough accommodate these differences. Other policy tools, in particular training and knowledge exchange in marketing and communication, are considered important and should continue to be funded by Rural Development programmes, as well as possibly other EU funds in view of the positive social and not specifically rural impacts.