Abstract
Criticism against agro-industrial food systems and intense farming practices is increasing. Local food chains have emerged as a promising approach for transitions towards sustainable food systems (in terms of environment, socio-economic equity and regional development) [1, 2]. The currently dire economic situation in Greece has 'stimulated' the emergence of alternative local food chains enabling the economic crisis to be understood within the context of resilience [3]. This paper aims to examine resilience as the ability of people, groups or communities to cope with external stresses and disturbances resulting from social, political and environmental change. A relatively new tendency could also be viewed as part of a wider revival of socially-motivated and solidarity based economic activities in the past decade. Local short food chains exist in a range of forms in both commercial and non-commercial settings. A comparison of different types of 'short' food networks is useful and will be presented. The methods employed will be based on a literature review, desktop research and information derived from an EU funded research project. Furthermore, key issues of the analysis will focus on activities, actors, type of products, area and territory, health and sustainability aspects, growth potential and innovation [cf. 4].
Highlights
Short Food Supply Chains (SFSCs) have been established in parallel to conventional food chains, in response to the dominant industrial food system that distances and detaches food production from food consumption; and simultaneously are increasingly taken into consideration by policy and decision makers [5]
Short food supply chains (SFSCs) have been considered as niches of new social relationships for those food system actors, mostly producers and consumers, who look for alternatives to the globalized agri-food model [4]
The objective of this paper is to focus on the characteristics and the diversity of typical SFSCs, which go beyond geographical nearness and no or limited number of intermediaries between producers and consumers
Summary
Short Food Supply Chains (SFSCs) have been established in parallel to conventional food chains, in response to the dominant industrial food system that distances and detaches food production from food consumption; and simultaneously are increasingly taken into consideration by policy and decision makers [5]. SFSCs can represent traditional and/or alternative ways of producing, distributing, retailing, and buying food This means to refuse the main characteristics of traditional supply chains, such as extreme productivity, standardization and industrial organisation, while paying greater attention to other aspects, such as social and environmental quality, origin and organic production of agro-food products. The Role of Short Food Supply Chains in Greece -- What Opportunities for Sustainable, Just and Democratic
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