Abstract
Innovations supporting a shift towards more sustainable food systems can be developed within the dominant food system regime or in alternative niches. No study has compared the challenges faced in each context. This paper, based on an analysis of 25 cases of European innovations that support crop diversification, explores the extent to which barriers to crop diversification can be related to the proximity of innovation settings with dominant food systems. Drawing on a qualitative analysis of interviews and participatory brainstorming, we highlight 46 different barriers to crop diversification across the cases, at different levels: production; downstream operations from farm to retailing, marketing and consumers; and contracts and coordination between actors. To characterise the diversity of innovation strategies at food system level, we introduce the concept of "food system innovation settings" combining: (i) the type of innovative practice promoted at farm level; (ii) the type of value chain supporting that innovation; and (iii) the type of agriculture involved (organic or conventional). Through a multiple correspondence analysis, we show different patterns of barriers to crop diversification according to three ideal-types of food system innovation settings: (i) "Changing from within", where longer rotations are fostered on conventional farms involved in commodity supply chains; (ii) "Building outside", where crop diversification integrates intercropping on organic farms involved in local supply chains; and (iii) "Playing horizontal", where actors promote alternative crop diversification strategies-either strictly speaking horizontal at spatial level (e.g. strip cropping) or socially horizontal (arrangement between farmers)-without directly challenging the vertical organisation of dominant value chains. We recommend designing targeted research and policy actions according to the food systems they seek to develop. We then discuss further development of our approach to analyse barriers faced in intermediate and hybrid food system configurations.
Highlights
Transition toward more sustainability requires changes in food systems [1,2,3,4]
In line with the rationale of this European project, the 25 cases were initially selected to cover a wide range of situations as far as farms’ pedoclimatic conditions and diversification strategies were concerned. This initial selection did not take into account the type of value chain and/or agriculture, which explains that the cases design is not optimal with regard to the variables considered in this study
Among the 25 cases, we characterised three categories of diversification practices, value chains and types of agriculture, based on a preliminary qualitative analysis of interviews with innovation teams. These categories were tailored to reflect the preliminary links that we found between the diversity of innovation settings and existing barriers
Summary
Transition toward more sustainability requires changes in food systems [1,2,3,4]. While agroecology scholars initially emphasised the need for sustainable innovations at the farm level [5,6,7], social movements and researchers have increasingly acknowledged the necessity to analyse. Innovation within or outside dominant food systems? Different challenges for crop diversification in Europe innovation programme (https://ec.europa.eu/ programmes/horizon2020/en) under grant agreement No 72748. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript
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