From Short Food Supply Chains to Sustainable Agriculture in Urban Food Systems: Food Democracy as a Vector of Transition

Yuna Chiffoleau,Arielle Canard,Sarah Millet-Amrani

doi:10.3390/agriculture6040057

Yuna Chiffoleau, Arielle Canard + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture6040057

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Abstract

In industrialized nations, local food networks have generally been analyzed through alternative food systems, in spite of the fact that they are much more diverse than this would imply. In France, ‘short food chains’ are both a continuation of a long tradition and a recent trend which now extends beyond activists, to consumers and producers as well. This paper will explore the conditions under which these chains can change the practices and knowledge of ordinary actors in urban food systems, from producers to urban consumers and policy-makers, in the area of agriculture and sustainability. It will consider the case study of the creation and development of an urban open-air market which has been analyzed using intervention research with input from economic sociology. We will highlight how personal relations, which are encouraged by a participatory context, support the evolution of practices and knowledge. We will also illustrate how a system of produce labelling has emerged as a mediation resource, and has increased changes as well as participation within the re-territorialization of the urban food system. By describing a concrete expression of food democracy which is spreading in France via a free collective trademark, and by showing its role in the transition of ‘ordinary’ actors towards a more sustainable agriculture, this paper will shine new light onto local food chains as well as traditional short food chains, and will call for more research on the subject.

Highlights

Since the 1990s in industrialized nations, ‘alternative’ food networks have generally been studied in the light of initiatives questioning the mainstream agro-industrial model [1]
To what extent could their entry into short chains change their representations, practices, knowledge, and expectations about their food system, and more precisely, its agricultural dimension? To assess those changes, we propose to use economic sociology theory, in which actors are seen to evolve in relation to their environment
Everyone agreed that short food chains were a good compromise, as they allowed retailers to procure from producers directly, regroup different supplies, and offer a wide range of produce that they knew the origin of and about which they were able to explain the methods of production

Summary

Introduction

Since the 1990s in industrialized nations, ‘alternative’ food networks have generally been studied in the light of initiatives questioning the mainstream agro-industrial model [1]. A more recent field of research has enlarged the scope of ‘alternative’ food chains by going beyond contesting direct-to-consumer channels, and analyzing the development of ‘values-based supply chains’ [7] as intermediate chains in which actors share a commitment to social, environmental, and/or economic values. As these chains are dedicated to Agriculture 2016, 6, 57; doi:10.3390/agriculture6040057 www.mdpi.com/journal/agriculture

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