Abstract
Despite the fact that policy makers and governments are promoting the development of diverse agro-bio food systems to push and promote sustainability, they are challenging to implement because of a series of obstacles that hinder a successful transition from a conventional to an agro-ecological model of agriculture. Produce is extremely heterogeneous and agricultural technology is often not standard, rather alternative, and knowledge is contextual, tacit and place-specific. However, information about the characteristics of these systems is still sparse and difficult to analyse because of the complexity and multidimensionality. As a result, the aim of this paper is to review the existing literature in order to identify a coding system that allows for the creation of a meta-database of case studies on agroecological transitions. This coding system will be piloted in six case studies dealing with agrobiodiversity along cereal food systems producing grains, bread and pasta in France, Italy and the UK. In this analysis, we found that both the transition towards sustainable agriculture and the reduction of transaction costs require social innovation, which benefits from strong social capital. In the conclusions, we discuss the efficacy of the proposed coding scheme and its ability to capture in-depth information contained in similar case studies.
Highlights
Despite the fact that policy makers and governments are promoting the development of diverse agro-bio food systems to promote sustainability, these systems are challenging to implement because of the obstacles that hinder a successful transition from a conventional to an agro-ecological model of agriculture
Agroecological transitions are long-term, complex and multidimensional processes whereby innovations initially developed by small initiatives spread to larger contexts involving a wider network of agents and institutions
Their study intertwines technical, ecological and social aspects. As they concern relationships of a group of agents with a new technique and a new approach to the surrounding agro-ecosystem, the characteristics of the social interaction of people involved, of the new technological solutions adopted and the specificities of the agro ecosystem are of paramount importance
Summary
Despite the fact that policy makers and governments are promoting the development of diverse agro-bio food systems to promote sustainability, these systems are challenging to implement because of the obstacles that hinder a successful transition from a conventional to an agro-ecological model of agriculture. Agro-ecological systems show higher transaction costs for the use of markets determined by lack of standardization and misalignment with the dominant technology and its institutional setting (e.g., market standards, and safety regulations) Even if these costs are difficult to measure and escape accountancy, they highlight aspects that are common to a set of sustainable transition paths that can be conceptualized as agroecological transitions (AET) [5]. We take advantage of the availability of a number of case studies on diversity-based wheat chains collected across selected EU countries by means of a shared protocol developed via a participatory approach with partners of the CeReRE thematic network Benefitting from this source of information, we test and propose in this sense, as a first attempt, a coding scheme for analysing AET case studies in other specific contexts.
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