Agro-food Networks Research Articles

Configuring more responsible knowledge-based bio-economies: the case of alternative agro-food networks

ABSTRACT The ‘knowledge-based bio-economy’ (KBBE) constitutes a prominent research and innovation policy narrative underlining the centrality of knowledge and innovation as important products and resources driving contemporary economies and societies. However, a narrow understanding of the KBBE prevails, resulting in the exclusion of a wider diversity of stakeholders and knowledges that could lead to the production of more responsible research and innovation (RRI). This paper aims to contribute to configuring more responsible knowledge-based bio-economies, by exploring the potential of other economic developments, such as this of alternative agro-food networks (AAFNs) to constitute knowledge-based bio-economies. Drawing on research conducted in the Northwest England, this paper unpacks the diversity of knowledges and knowledge production processes within AAFNs, arguing for their potential to constitute an alternative, more responsible KBBE. In doing so, it encourages consideration of the centrality of knowledge inclusion and reflexivity in configuring more responsible research and innovation processes for agriculture and food.

Networks of solidarity economy, tools for local development and social innovation

The article analyzes the capability of enterprises and social enterprises (as reported by Borzaga and Fazzi (Le imprese sociali, Carocci Editore, Roma, 2011); as reported by Drapery (Comprendre l’économie social, Dunod, Paris 2007)) in promoting local sustainable development, starting from the organization of alternative agro-food networks Renting et al. (Environ Plann 35:393–411, 2003). The analysis starts from a case study of 40 solidarity purchasing groups of solidarity economy in Italy. In particular, the article focuses on the solidarity economic network “REES Marche”. Meanwhile, solidarity purchasing groups (SPGs) in the literature have been studied under the perspective of consumers, even those of the Marche Orazi (DES.so. Economia solidali e cittadini consapevoli, Cattedrale, Ancona, 2011), this article means to go ahead underlining also the perspective of producers.The analysis of data raises up 4 types of possible organizations linked to solidarity purchasing groups, with different levels of social innovation in promoting a sustainable development. Results show that a sustainable local development is enhanced by a thick social cooperation among enterprises into a network, as, for example, that of SPGs. Moreover, it is promoted by a reorganization of the productive chain on local, ecological and ethical basis that directly impacts on production and consumption of fair products. Furthermore, the article shows that the direct relationship among entrepreneur and consumers stimulates a social innovation in solving problems.We use a mixed method approach: a quantitative analysis of statistical data on the web site of REES Marche; a qualitative analysis based on participatory observation and on data collected through 34 in-depth interviews with network’s members.

ТРАНСФОРМАЦІЯ АГРОПРОДОВОЛЬЧИХ ЛАНЦЮГІВ В КОНТЕКСТІ ВІЙНИ В УКРАЇНІ

Full-scale military operations in Ukraine in 2022 have disrupted economic ties and caused changes in the local agro-food chains which are integrated into the global agro-food networks. As a result of the blocking of sea and land logistics flows, food security was under threat. The purpose of the article is to systemize transformational processes in the national agro-food chains and define factors that make impact to the micro and small agribusiness economic model in the war conditions. The research methodology is based on the value chain approach as a scientific method. The study was conducted using the method of online questionnaires and telephone interviews. The target audience of research included the founders, directors and chief agronomists of agricultural enterprises specialized in the grains and oil crops growing and processing on the cultivated land plots from 780 to 6000 hectares, which are applying traditional and organic approaches of agriculture. Processing of the research results was carried out using statistical and economic methods, analysis and synthesis, etc. The research confirms that due to military actions in Ukraine 98% of respondents choose a "survival" strategy. They motivated their decision by the influence of external and internal factors such as currency risks and restrictions, sharp price increasing for the fuel and energy carriers, price reduction for the grain and oil crops on the domestic market, unstable economic and political environment. Limited access to logistics flows due to their blocking (destruction) and a multiple increasing of the transportation costs became the biggest challenges of the period of martial law (98% of respondents). The majority of surveyed agricultural producers (90%) optimized costs, for this purpose they used BigData technologies more actively. The results of the research confirm that small and medium agro producers will make the transition from the raw materials producing model to the added value creation model, that will allow producers significantly decrease logistics costs. These transformational processes in agro-food chains in complete uncertainty conditions require further study and systematization.

Tuning stakeholder expectations in organic strawberry production – A sixteen-year case study of co-development of a strawberry knowledge network in California

Californian strawberry growers have been relying on methyl bromide for several decades. Notwithstanding the substantial dependence on this broad-spectrum biocide, a phase out was planned due to its ozone layer depleting character. With the aim to meet sustainability issues facing the emerging organic strawberry producers and reinforce the interaction among local actors, a research network was developed through 2004–2020.In this paper we investigated the factors affecting the creation and dissemination of knowledge within the above-mentioned multi-year network. Embeddedness in agro-food networks is the framework that we chose, while from an empirical point of view we analyzed a case study with many available datasets.We observed a progressive build-up of trust among people throughout the sixteen years. The shared activities and the already established relationship provided the base of this strong networking. Furthermore, innovative methods emerging from network activities provided critical information and management approaches for expanding organic production in the region.Relational embeddedness explains the observed performance, whereas a complementary role seems to be played by the structural aspect of the same framework at the regional level.The facilitation function by a university within a participatory method, the unique role of advisors along with the connection to the industry contributed to the reinforcement of the network allowing new ways of stable multi-year co-operation.

El centro de acopio Sareko: aprendizajes para la gobernanza de las redes agroalimentarias alternativas en un salto de escala

Las consecuencias a escala local del sistema agroalimentario global, las necesidades de ejecutar saltos de escala en las experiencias de producción y comercialización agroecológicas y sus relaciones de poder intrínsecas, evidencian la oportunidad de la reflexión y el debate en torno a la construcción de sistemas y estrategias de gobernanza que faciliten prácticas sociales y organizativas sostenibles para las personas productoras y consumidoras, principalmente mediante la creación de Redes Agroalimentarias Alternativas (RAA).
 En este artículo se describe una experiencia innovadora en el ámbito de la comercialización de productos agroecológicos locales que se está desarrollando en Gipuzkoa: el proyecto piloto SAREKO, un Centro de Acopio (CA) de producción agroecológica que abastece al sector de la restauración en la comarca de Donostialdea. Mediante una metodología basada en la Investigación Acción Participativa, se parte de la sistematización de procesos para ordenar la información recogida en la dinamización del proyecto y para realizar una reflexión crítica colectiva sobre el mismo.
 Los resultados principales constatan que el salto de escala tiene que apoyarse en iniciativas híbridas, en las que se debe prestar atención a la comunicación y a la negociación que se establece dentro de la red y a la construcción de confianza entre los participantes. Se constata que la cooperación entre los actores y la estructura organizativa emergente se convierten en piezas clave para conformar la identidad del CA. Así, la orientación colaborativa en los espacios de decisión y la generación de procesos basados en la toma de decisiones por consenso determinan la forma de redistribuir el valor añadido a lo largo de toda la cadena alimentaria.

Exploring emergent practices in Alternative Food Networks: Voedselteams in Belgium

Current sustainability challenges in agro-food networks highlight the need for sustainability transitions in agro-food practices. This paper aims to contribute by analysing how emergent agro-food practices form and develop over time. Alternative Food Networks (AFNs) provide a locus to study how emergent agro-food practices are shaped and to understand the factors that influence how they develop over time. We take a social practices approach to study Voedselteams — a network of food buying groups in Belgium. We go beyond studying single practices, by analysing AFNs as consisting of bundles of practices. We use a mix of methods (desk-top study, structured and semi-structured interviews, participant observation and workshops). Our results show that becoming involved in an AFN may also mean getting involved in other ‘alternative’ practices. As such, engaging in an AFN may require more effort than gaining access to or provisioning food through more strongly routinised practices. Our results suggest that whether, and the extent to which, participants get involved in emergent practice-bundles depends on an interplay between their motivations and the ways in which the emergent practice-bundles are embedded in existing bundles of practices. The routinisation and professionalisation of alternative practices – more in line with existing practice bundles - may facilitate the participation of members willing to invest less time and effort in gaining access to food through an AFN. This suggests that the routinisation and alignment with the bundles of practices that shape daily lives are crucial for emergent practices to appeal to a wider public.

Co-benefits and Trade-Offs From Agro-Food System Redesign for Circularity: A Case Study With the FAN Agent-Based Model

Realizing more sustainable food, feed, and bioenergy systems will require interventions such as increased recycling of nutrients and coordination of biomass flows among farms. Innovative tools to explore the co-benefits and trade-offs of improving flow circularity in agro-food systems at different scales are needed to better understand the efficacy of these sustainability solutions. Here, we applied the FAN (Flows in Agro-food Networks) agent-based model to simulate contrasting scenarios of material flows locally in a small farming region of France. These scenarios aim to enhance: (1) best management practices at the farm scale; (2) organic material recycling and biogas production collectively across the agricultural landscape; and (3) system redesign toward complete local circularity through crop and livestock symbiosis, fewer livestock, and elimination of external inputs. Scenario simulation outcomes are assessed in terms of their degree of circularity and food production. We find that best management practices at the farm scale and collective solutions for recycling (organic fertilization and anaerobic digestion) substantially improved the degree of circularity by tightening the local nitrogen (N) cycle without affecting food production. Among other co-benefits, changes in farm rotations to feed livestock locally increased the degree of circularity without appreciably impacting food production. The maximum circularity scenario showed considerable potential to mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, however, they involved large trade-offs with food production that were even more pronounced with fewer livestock animals. Although regulating livestock numbers combined with eliminating chemical fertilizers was the most effective at mitigating GHG emissions, when applied simultaneously it substantially impacted food and bioenergy production. Such trade-offs for soil fertility demonstrate the importance of coupling crops and livestock for reaching self-sufficient circular systems. Our study illustrates how the FAN agent-based model can be applied to account for multiple types of interactions involved in transitions toward circularity in local agro-food systems, including the potential for co-benefits, and unintended consequences of interventions.

Flows in Agro-food Networks (FAN): An agent-based model to simulate local agricultural material flows

Agro-food networks are characterized by complex material exchanges among farms, processors, consumers, and waste managers involved in fertilization, food, feed and bioenergy production. Better coordination of material exchanges at the local scale can facilitate more efficient resource use. Here, we present a new agent-based model, “Flows in Agro-food Networks” (FAN), which simulates the processing and exchange of fertilizers, feed, food and wastes among farms and multiple upstream or downstream partners (feed and fertilizer suppliers, food industries, waste processors, and anaerobic digesters) in small farming regions. FAN includes a series of environmental indicators that can be used to assess alternative scenarios in terms of ecosystem services, nutrient cycling, and resource autonomy. We use a French case study to demonstrate FAN’s dynamics and to explore the sensitivity of key parameters. We show a strong influence of spatial distance between agents, their disposition to exchange, and their preference for specific materials on local agro-food network simulations. FAN is powerful theoretical tool to explore and assess opportunities for a circular economy in small farming regions and to unravel interactions between recycling, environmental performance and food production.

Local food hubs in deprived areas: de-stigmatising food poverty?

ABSTRACTThis paper aims to explore the potential of “local food hubs” to address issues of stigma associated with the use of food banks in urban deprived areas. “Local Food Hubs” are a relocalised distribution channel, however, like other Alternative Agro-Food Networks (AAFNs), it can be an elite phenomenon for affluent areas and consumers. Our research focuses on the Open Food Network (OFN) local food hubs in order to explore their potential to constitute “an alternative” to the conventional ways of addressing food poverty. Currently, food banks are the main avenue for accessing food in conditions of food poverty, carrying significant implications of stigmatisation for their users. In this paper, drawing on existing social science research on stigma, we identify the diverse ways “local food hubs” help overcome as well as reproduce existing discourses and practices of stigmatisation. We conclude that, despite their efforts, as they currently stand, “local food hubs” are unable to address stigma in food poverty. We suggest that his is due to the specific individual-focused stigma-management strategies they employ, as well as the wider underlying societal structures that cause food poverty, and which local food hubs are unable to address by themselves. We thus propose that addressing the broader structural conditions that cause and reproduce stigma in food poverty is pivotal for “local food hubs” to be in a position to constitute an AAFN for all.

Ethical agro‐food networks in global peripheries, Part II: Re‐placing commodity dependence

AbstractThis is the second of a two‐part series of review articles on ethical agro‐food networks (AFNs) in global peripheries, with a focus on Latin America. This article focuses on origin or locality‐based strategies, including geographical indications (GIs) as well as alternative approaches to valorising place–product connections. It compares the impacts of origin‐based networks to fair trade and organics and identifies possibilities for alternative or hybrid conceptualisations of these networks. It concludes by suggesting some directions for future research on ethical AFNs in the Global South. These include more study of local agro‐food networks in the South, more explicit attention to the role of the State, and analysis of the discursive as well as material construction of ethical AFNs in global peripheries.

The land-network problem: ecosystem carbon balance in planning sustainable agro-food supply chains

Global food demand will double by 2050 and strain agro-food supply chains. The increasing relevance of non-agrarian activities within the food supply chain mandates a systemic perspective for addressing sustainability. We consider the food supply chain as an ecosystem and define more inclusive boundaries. We present a design framework that supports strategic decision-making on agriculture and food distribution issues while addressing climate stability. We describe the methodology used to construct the framework, which entails a multi-disciplinary approach. An original land-network problem merges localized and large-scaled decisions as land-use allocation and location-allocation problems in an agro-food network. A linear programming model optimizes infrastructure, agriculture, and logistics costs and also balances carbon emissions within the agro-food ecosystem. A regional potato supply chain illustrates the effectiveness of the proposed model. Findings show the interdependency between infrastructure, production, distribution, and environmental resources. Results highlight the consequences of unbalanced planning focused solely on cost efficiency. In conclusion we identify enabling conditions, drivers and metrics for the design of cost effective and carbon balanced agro-food ecosystems.

Intermediaries in agro-food networks in Turkey: How middlemen respond to transforming food market structures

Intermediaries in agro-food networks in Turkey: How middlemen respond to transforming food market structures

Working in Regional Agro-food Networks – Strengthening Rural Development through Cooperation

Abstract Regional agro-food networks have an impact on the development of rural regions. Networks give small and medium sized enterprises the opportunity to gain access to further markets (e.g. through offering a wider common product range), to conduct more effective marketing or to synergize the variety of skills and knowhow of the network partners. Networks of the agricultural and food economy are also seen as a chance for rural regions because they can positively influence social and cultural lives as well as the natural and economic areas in regions. We analysed regional networks of the agricultural and food economy, investigated the strengths and weaknesses in the structure of agro-food networks and developed options for action to strengthen the collaboration within the networks and their regional marketing. In our paper we present the results of one case study in Eastern Germany. We show our findings of a strengths and weaknesses analysis and a constellation analysis. Therefore, success factors were identified and used to evaluate the networks qualitatively. In addition, we discuss how regional networks can support regional marketing and sustainable regional development.

Intensitàdegli scambi agroalimentari tra i Paesi del bacino del Mediterraneo

The Mediterranean has always been an area of strategic interest for the European Union (eu), which, since its establishment, has woven a compact network of relationships with its trading partners in the South and East of the Mediterranean, signing cooperation and then associative agreements with them. This study aims to present a view of how the agro-food trade network has evolved between the eu’s Mediterranean partner countries and their neighbors in North Africa and the Near East. To measure the extent of this trade specific indicators are used which are also widely used in economic literature, albeit to analyze trade in sectors unconnected to agro-food. In particular, analyses carried out by applying bilateral trade indices, according to Frankel and Rose (1997) and Traistaru (2004), showed, on the whole, a progressive weakening in the amount of agro-food trade in the period 1996-2010. An analysis of the intensity indices for bilateral trade between partners in the area helped to identify the main factors that regulate commercial relationships. These are especially historical and excolonial relationships, as in the case of France, or else connected with geographical proximity, which results in border trade. Conversely, the Association Agreements and the Stabilization and Association Agreement signed between the EU on the one hand and its Mediterranean partners on the other, have played a only a marginal role in almost all trade in food products, showing that there is no relationship between the positive trend in the amount of trade and the signing and operation of such agreements.

Documentary film and ethical foodscapes: three takes on Caribbean sugar

This article demonstrates how certain stories, voices and values around agro-food networks can be made powerful by documentary film. Our central argument is that documentaries mobilize ethics by presenting a partial and affective account of their subject matter, which makes their audience feel differently about the social relations that underpin the production of food and acts as a focal point for media scrutiny and political interventions. We focus attention on three documentaries about Caribbean sugar to explore multiple and disparate ethical claims made about the farmers, workers and communities that embody Caribbean sugar industries. Through a comparison of the three documentaries, we chart how the production and distribution of these films have entailed quite different ethical narratives, encounters and interventions. A key finding is that the context in which films are received is just as important as the content they deliver. The paper concludes with a guarded endorsement for using documentary film to transform the unequal life conditions experienced in the global food system, stressing the need for empirically-grounded critique of the context of documentaries and suggesting the important role that geographers might play as interlocutors in their reception.

Growing the social: alternative agrofood networks and social sustainability in the urban ethical foodscape

Agrofood practices have been an obvious domain in which to implement sustainability. Yet, despite the fact that food carries a dense set of social meanings and functions, sustainability’s social dimension has been relatively neglected in studies of sustainable food initiatives. In this article, we draw on research carried out for the European project “Facilitating Alternative Agro-food Networks” (FAAN), and describe various ways in which alternative agrofood networks in the city of Manchester manifest aspects of social sustainability and the “moral economy,” including relations of solidarity and justice with proximate and distant others, concern for land and for the global environment, social inclusion of the disadvantaged, and the reskilling of everyday life. However, we also argue for a different way of conceiving social sustainability, which involves not simply adding another “pillar” to the dominating dyad of the economic and the environmental, but subjecting the whole notion of sustainability to a sociomaterial turn—one that questions the ontological separation of economy, environment, and society. We show how this approach involves conceiving the urban “ethical foodscape” as a “moral taskscape” in which people dwell and move, interacting with soil, food, and each other through situated practices involving skill and judgment.

How milk does the world good: vernacular sustainability and alternative food systems in post-socialist Europe

Scholarly debates on sustainable consumption have generally overlooked alternative agro-food networks in the economies outside of Western Europe and North America. Building on practice-based theories, this article focuses on informal raw milk markets in post-socialist Lithuania to examine how such alternative systems emerge and operate in the changing political, social, and economic contexts. It makes two contributions to the scholarship on sustainable consumption. In considering semi-subsistence practices and poverty-driven consumption, this article argues for a richer, more critical, and inclusive theory of sustainability that takes into consideration vernacular forms of exchange and approaches poor consumers as subjects of global history. Second, it revisits practice theories and infrastructures of consumption approaches to consider ruptures, discontinuities, and historical change in infrastructures as a way to account for inequalities and experiences of marginalization.

Strengthening Alternative Agro-food Networks in the Eastern European Countryside

Strengthening Alternative Agro-food Networks in the Eastern European Countryside This paper will answer the question raised by the ongoing debate on the conditions of Alternative Agro-Food Networks (AAFN) strengthened in the specific context of different European countries. Modern, sustainable local food systems are built on the basis of social networks which linked different actors into a coherent, horizontal web. Producers, processors and consumers are bonded by a common vision and values which go far beyond simple market production. The issue of sustainable food production and consumption gains special importance in the post-transformation countries of Eastern Europe.

The value of commodity biographies: integrating tribal farmers in India into a global organic agro‐food network

The production of organic food has been regarded for a long time as being synonymous with ecological regional production systems. However, the increased production of organic food products has led to an ongoing industrialisation and also to a global spread of network structures within this segment of agriculture. This paper provides a case study of the integration of organic pepper farmers from an indigenous tribe in Kerala, India, into global agro‐food networks, linking them to a German producer of organic meat products. The results of this study show that the importance of the territorial embeddedness and the abandonment of the exercise of power can be crucial for the success of global organic agro‐food networks.

Exclusivity of Private Governance Structures in Agrofood Networks: Bayer and the Food Retailing and Processing Sector in India

Since the 1980s power distribution in agrofood networks has changed in many countries in Africa, Latin-America, South Asia, and the postsocialist countries in Europe and Asia. In the course of economic liberalization, retail and wholesale trade as well as the food processing and agroscience sector were opened up to foreign investment. Within the frame of such liberalization many states gradually refrained from directly governing this sector and reregulated the trade in a way that gave private companies the possibility to implement new power structures. We analyze the so-called ‘Food Chain Partnership’ (FCP) program implemented by the transnational company Bayer in India as an example for private governance in agrofood networks. Bayer is advancing and coordinating relations between the food processing and retailing industry and farmers. We explore whether such private activity can substitute for the activities of state institutions in governing agrofood networks. As the case study will show, the FCP model is highly selective in terms of farmers, who can participate (criteria include minimum farm size, irrigation facility, literacy, agricultural practices, and mobile phones), the crops that are covered, and the information passed on to the farmers. This limits the potential of market-driven instruments like the FCP to replace the traditional trade system as they concentrate only on those regions and products which are promising most profit to the companies. The global production network approach builds the analytical framework of this paper.