Foodshed, Agricultural Diversification and Self-Sufficiency Assessment: Beyond the Isotropic Circle Foodshed—A Case Study from Avignon (France)

José Luis Vicente-Vicente,Michel Moulery,Annette Piorr,Claude Napoléone,Esther Sanz-Sanz

doi:10.3390/agriculture11020143

Abstract

The regionalization of food systems in order to shorten supply chains and develop local agriculture to feed city regions presents particular challenges for food planning and policy. The existing foodshed approaches enable one to assess the theoretical capacity of the food self-sufficiency of a specific region, but they struggle to consider the diversity of existing crops in a way that could be usable to inform decisions and support urban food strategies. Most studies are based on the definition of the area required to meet local consumption, obtaining a map represented as an isotropic circle around the city, without considering the site-specific pedoclimatic, geographical, and socioeconomic conditions which are essential for the development of local food supply chains. In this study, we propose a first stage to fill this gap by combining the Metropolitan Foodshed and Self-sufficiency Scenario model, which already considers regional yields and specific land use covers, with spatially-explicit data on the cropping patterns, soil and topography. We use the available Europe-wide data and apply the methodology in the city region of Avignon (France), initially considering a foodshed with a radius of 30 km. Our results show that even though a theoretically-high potential self-sufficiency could be achieved for all of the food commodities consumed (>80%), when the specific pedological conditions of the area are considered, this could be suitable only for domestic plant-based products, whereas an expansion of the initial foodshed to a radius of 100 km was required for animal products to provide >70% self-sufficiency. We conclude that it is necessary to shift the analysis from the size assessment to the commodity-group–specific spatial configuration of the foodshed based on biophysical and socioeconomic features, and discuss avenues for further research to enable the development of a foodshed assessment as a complex of complementary pieces, i.e., the ‘foodshed archipelago’.

Highlights

The specific objectives of the study to achieve this end are threefold: (i) to propose and assess a foodshed with a radius of 30 km for the city region of Avignon, which could potentially provide a high degree of self-sufficiency; (ii) to assess the role of agricultural and livestock diversification in increasing the current self-sufficiency within the initial foodshed with a radius of 30 km; and (iii) to propose and discuss the expansion of the initial foodshed considering the landscape heterogeneity and anisotropy, in order to develop a more realistic scenario in terms of achieving a high degree of food self-sufficiency
By combining these outcomes with the different biophysical maps—is an appropriate and realistic way of evaluating the theoretical potential and current food self-sufficiency dea radius of 60 km, is only 38,000 ha, and is around 97,000 ha in the case considering a radius of 100 km, suggesting that it is especially after 60 km that the plots used for extensive agriculture appear, whereas the soils closer to the foodshed that was initially proposed are mostly used for commercial agriculture (Figure 7)
Our study shows that assessing the size of the foodshed both quantitatively—by applying the MFSS model and assessing the supply-demand balance—and qualitatively—by combining these outcomes with the different biophysical maps—is an appropriate and realistic way of evaluating the theoretical potential and current food self-sufficiency degree at a regional level

Summary

Introduction

Feeding the city on sustainable and healthy agriculture became a local policy concern [4,5,6], and proximity is an effective way to enhance the confidence. Social awareness about sustainable regional food security requests an increase in regional—or domestic—food self-sufficiency levels [6,9,10,11,12,13,14], where dietary patterns, consumer behaviors, and diversified farming play an important role [5,15]. In addition to implementing farming-related concepts, such as ecological intensification, the challenge is to enhance the efficiency of food chains, building upon proximity in all of the diversity of emerging concepts, and linking local agricultural supply to the urban final demand [10].

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Discussion

Conclusion