Conventional Food System Research Articles

Involving Rural Youth in Agroecological Nature-Positive Farming and Culinary Agri-Ecotourism for Sustainable Development: The Indian Scenario

Industrial food systems produce most of the food that we consume globally today. But many observers acknowledge that industrial agriculture cannot be sustained in the long run. As such, agroecological practices that encourage sustainable farming practices with a focus on local markets and the local economy are being promoted more and more to change the way food systems work. The current research examines how rural youth can best be involved in food system transformation as a potential agent of change. The research considers the potential of payments for environmental services (PESs) in the study area. The economic potential of gastronomic agri-ecotourism in various traditional agricultural landscapes of different agroecosystems of India has also been investigated. Gastronomic agri-ecotourism has the potential to provide economic benefits to traditional agricultural landscapes and agroecosystems while also promoting sustainable tourism practices. The results of an exploratory study on rural youth participation in nature-friendly agroecological regenerative farming and culinary agri-ecotourism initiatives are presented in this paper in an effort to increase the sustainability of conventional farming and food systems. This study, which was carried out in four different agroecological settings in India, sheds light on the opportunities and problems faced by rural youth, as well as their motivations.

Farming with a mission: the case of nonprofit farms

AbstractOrganizations interested in food alterity, security, and justice are often governed as 501(c)(3) nonprofits. As such, they are required to fulfill missions beyond profit maximization. This study focuses on the role of nonprofits in the agrifood system. Looking at nonprofit farms as both farms and as nonprofits, we seek to understand whether nonprofit organizations, as an alternative mode of governance, creates the possibility of an alternative economic practice, set apart from the conventional food system. We constructed a national database of nonprofit farms and the characteristics of the counties in which they are located. Our findings indicate that nonprofit farms tend not to be in the places with the most need of the services provided, which we argue is due to the structure of nonprofit governance, namely that nonprofits, while not profit-maximizing, are dependent on external resources, particularly donations. While they do operate as an alternative economic practice, their nonprofit mode of governance renders them unable to repair the failures of the current food system. Nevertheless, these farms do contribute to their local communities, both in terms of meeting their mission and as members of a broader local food system infrastructure. This is true whether or not these farms specifically state that food system transformation is part of their mission.

Alternative Food Practices as Pathways to Cope with Climate Distress.

Experiences of distress and challenging emotions in response to the climate crisis are increasingly common, particularly among young adults. These experiences can include challenging emotions caused by the harmful environmental impacts of conventional food systems, as their contributions to greenhouse gas emissions have become more widely known. While recent studies have examined various experiences of climate distress, the interaction between climate distress and food practice remains poorly understood. In this research, we turn to this intersection by examining the experiences of climate distress of young adults who have alternative food practices, and the interaction between their climate distress and their alternative food practices. Guided by an exploratory, single case study research approach, this research draws from 20 semi-structured interviews conducted with young adults located in urban centres in the Southeastern Prairie Region of Canada. Thematic analysis of the findings reveals that participants experience a variety of climate emotions and a personal responsibility to act in response to the climate crisis. The findings suggest that because of their ability to facilitate a meaningful and practical environmental impact, alternative food practices represent significant climate actions and may be pathways to facilitate coping or managing climate distress among young adults. Results demonstrate the psychological impacts of the climate crisis on young adults, highlighting the need for action on climate change and climate distress. Increasing the accessibility of alternative food practices may support young adults in coping with challenging climate emotions.

Food systems under shock: the evolution of food security status of Karantina residents after the Beirut explosion

Robust food systems are crucial for ensuring access to affordable and nutritious food, particularly in times of crisis. Economic instability, currency devaluation, and political turmoil can disrupt food systems, leading to higher food prices, compromised nutrition, and increased vulnerability. Lebanon is a stark example of this, where a catastrophic explosion in Beirut’s Port in 2020 worsened an existing economic and humanitarian crisis. The depreciation of the Lebanese currency led to soaring food prices, impacting people’s ability to buy food, and pushing many into poverty, illustrating the significant impact of the state food systems during crises (FAO, 2021). In times of crisis, a simplified food system, relying on emergency food aid supplies, replaces conventional food system, as food aid and cash transfers become the primary source upon which the affected population depends to ensure their food security and meet their essential needs. In this article we report on research conducted between 2020 and 2022 focusing on the impacts of the Beirut explosion on food security status of the permanent residents the Karantina neighborhood—the closest residential area to the Beirut port. We surveyed 100 households chosen at random, examining shifts in food security and nutrition at three intervals: 6 months prior to the explosion, 6 months following it, and 2 years after the event. The findings revealed a sharp decline in food security and diet quality among residents in the two-year period following the explosion. The proportion of food-secure households fell from 71% to 2%, while those with acceptable food consumption decreased from 96% to 30%. Additionally, income and debt situations worsened significantly. Almost 95% of residents resorted to crisis coping strategies, such as using savings, borrowing money for food, selling furniture, withdrawing children from school, and reducing education and health expenses, rendering them highly vulnerable. Food and cash assistance were provided to all households for 6 months to one-year post-explosion, resulting in improved food security and consumption after 6 months. However, these gains diminished 2 years later, once the assistance ended, revealing a lack of resilience in the food system. In conclusion, soon after the assistance stopped, the prolonged deterioration of Lebanon’s economic situation, compounded by multiple crises, pushed these households further into poverty, exacerbating food insecurity. This research underscores the critical importance of sustained support and comprehensive economic reforms to rebuild food systems and promote nutrition resilience in crisis-affected regions.

From food security to food sovereignty: preparing social workers to effectively intervene in food systems

ABSTRACT Globally, conventional food systems are failing to produce enough high quality, nutritious food for the world’s population. For those in the helping professions, the most typical entry point into this crisis is emergency food assistance services. However, current food systems are also threaded through with legacies of racialized violence, ongoing exploitation of land and labor, the effects of pollution and climate change, the crisis of hunger, and the desire of peoples across the globe to choose how to nourish their communities. As such, social work education must pay greater attention to the complexity of food systems to prepare future practitioners to effectively intervene in this arena. This paper introduces a conceptual model that distinguishes between food security, food justice, and food sovereignty—examining the model’s utility to social work education and practice. To explore opportunities to integrate course content and practice in food systems, we offer a case study of a community-engaged project to advance food sovereignty efforts in Oregon, tracing contributions to student learning as well as to the community partner. We conclude with implications for social work education so that future practitioners can intervene more effectively and intentionally in food systems.

Measuring the Impact of Strategic Decisions on the Sustainability of Short Food Supply Chains – A Simulation-Based Approach

Short Food Supply Chains have logistics costs almost four times higher than the average of the agri-food sector [8]. And yet, the environmental impact of small-size farms involved in such initiatives is believed to be much better, with less input and less soil depletion. With the agricultural sector responsible for 26% of CO2 emissions, economically viable and environmentally friendly initiatives in this sector can have huge impacts in terms of climate change mitigation. This paper proposes a simulation-based approach, applied on an existing short food supply chain. The performance of the system is measured and analyzed in three dimensions: economic, environmental, and social, with qualitative discussions on their correlations. The framework of indicators proposed is based on a literature review of usual KPIs for Food Supply Chains. We adapted the set of indicators in order to evaluate the performance of the actual organization, and simulate the impact of three optimization possibilities, chosen based on local opportunities. Our results enable us to facilitate decision-making for the organization, by visualizing the impact of each strategic decision on sustainability. The outcomes of this research provide input for further studies investigating the logistical organization in SFSCs, helping these initiatives become a viable and sustainable alternative to conventional food systems. For this paper, we limited the study to past available data regarding demand and supply, and we also limited the scope of the supply chain to the producers, customers, and association.

Developing biodiversity-based solutions for sustainable food systems through transdisciplinary Sustainable Development Goals Labs (SDG-Labs)

Although biodiversity is a central component of food systems, conventional food systems have become one of the major drivers of biodiversity loss globally. There is an increasing need to transform food systems to provide sufficient and nutritious food, but with minimal negative impacts on the environment and society. One of the possible avenues to enable the sustainable transformation of food systems might be through the development of locally appropriate biodiversity-based solutions. In this paper we report the insights and lessons learned during the design and implementation of transdisciplinary projects that employed the concept of Sustainable Development Goals labs (SDG-Labs) to create biodiversity-based solutions to transform food systems. The six SDG-Labs outlined in this paper were implemented in Armenia, China, Japan, Madagascar, Thailand, and Uganda. Collectively they developed very diverse biodiversity-based solutions that used different components of biodiversity, ranging from novel cultivation systems with endangered plants, to gardens using tree species for wind breaks, or novel tea-forestry production systems. Beyond their ability to leverage different components of biodiversity to transform local food systems (also conserving biodiversity in the process), all solutions had multiple co-benefits such as climate change adaptation/mitigation and livelihoods generation, among other sustainability domains. Through a Strengths-Weaknesses-Opportunities-Threats (SWOT) analysis we synthesized the experiences gained during the design and implementation of all six SDG-Labs. The findings suggest the great promise of these transdisciplinary approaches for developing solutions at the biodiversity-food-climate nexus. However, this synthesis paper also points to the multiple context-specific challenges that should be overcomed to maximize the potential of SDG-Labs to both enable the sustainable transformation of (local) food systems and/or be scaled up effectively.

Re-Thinking Knowledge in Community-Supported Agriculture to Achieve Transformational Change towards Sustainability

Community-supported agriculture has gained a significant amount of prominence in recent years by offering a more sustainable and morally acceptable alternative to conventional food systems. Their organization offers a modern take on how to manage production by supporting the usage and exchange of knowledge between all stakeholders involved. The leverage points concept argues that re-thinking how knowledge is produced and used in systems is one of the key realms of leverage in which transformation towards sustainability can be achieved. Current sustainability research lacks a focus on deep leverage points that bear great potential for transformational change. This concept, however, revolves around these deep realms of leverage and has not been applied to CSA yet. Thus, a qualitative study with semi-structured interviews has been performed at 22 CSA farms in Germany in order to gather detailed insights on the production and flow of knowledge and analyze if and to what degree these CSAs have the potential to leverage transformational change towards sustainability. This analysis helps to understand how certain mechanisms can influence sustainability in a positive manner and promote the usage of these mechanisms in the agricultural landscape. Ultimately, the data indicates that CSAs do bear great potential to leverage sustainability transformation in regard to re-thinking agriculture. Characteristics that lead to this cognition are a highly cooperative, participatory and transparent structure, characteristics that allow for the creation and exchange of information to flourish.

Conceptualization of alternative food networks in Latin America: a case study of a local food system in Southwestern Colombia

Alternative Food Networks (AFN) is a concept that has emerged in opposition to conventional food systems and the global food regime. AFN are localized food networks that connect actors from food producers to consumers creating a pathway that strengthens ecological, social, and economic sustainability. Much of the literature on AFN focuses on geographies and food systems in the Global North, often recommending schemes such as farmers’ markets, community supported agriculture, organic certification, and fair trade. However, these strategies are not always appropriate for food systems in the Global South. In Colombia, small producers have maintained a parallel traditional food system, despite the growing pressure and investments to transition to a conventional food system. This research analyses the local food system of Cauca addressing the following questions: 1) what are the dynamics of the local food system in the Andean region of Cauca and 2) how can the local food system in the Andean region of Cauca be conceptualized as an alternative food network in the context of the Global South? To answer these questions, transdisciplinary research was carried out using SWOT analysis during multiple stakeholder workshops, followed by a reflexive thematic analysis of the results. The results show coexistence of both traditional and conventional food system dynamics, with participants assigning greater value to traditional food systems and agroecological production (akin to AFN literature), yet the economic insecurity and socio-political unrest that underlies daily life prohibits a more robust transition from conventional food system. It is argued that the understanding of AFN should be expanded to incorporate socio-cultural context as well as the dynamics of AFN in the Global South.

Transitions in South Korean public food procurement policy: Landscape context, institutionalization, and local agents

The main objective of transformative food actions is to effect fundamental changes in the institutional structures that shape current food practices. For those actions to gain constant momentum, it is necessary to understand the types of operations and the mechanisms through which they can permanently impact conventional food systems. To provide an empirical operationalization of the Multi-level Perspective, a prominent framework in the sustainability transition literature, this study examines the decades-long evolution of South Korea’s public food procurement policy. Policy paradigm shifts in South Korea describe transitional processes in which accumulated dynamics between local actors and the incumbent regime achieve a tipping point at the juncture of niche movements, landscape pressure, and institutionalization. This paper argues that niche and regime are not inherently confrontational, as is frequently assumed in the broader literature, by highlighting the fact that niche innovations can continuously inform adaptations and additional shifts in policy paradigm.

Reclaiming traditional food systems in alternative food networks. Insights from Mexico city peri-urban agriculture

ABSTRACT In the literature on how to make food systems just and sustainable, we often look at Alternative Food Networks (AFN) as a way forward. AFNs are initiatives that pose alternatives to conventional food systems (driven by productivism and harmful to human and environmental health). Despite this broad understanding of what AFNs can be, in practice, most cases presented in the literature look surprisingly alike. In this article, we challenge the scholars working on alternative food networks to look beyond the narrow definition of AFNs by considering cases of traditional agriculture and distribution systems. We illustrate this argument using the case of chinampas, a traditional agricultural system in Mexico City that contributes in different ways to local sustainability. Analysing semi-structured interviews conducted on site, we argue that chinampas can be defined as an alternative food network because of their modes of production, their diverse distribution channels, and their economic practices. We conclude that traditional food systems present an alternative to conventional food systems and should therefore be included in AFN research. Broadening the definition of AFNs so to include traditional and non-institutional practices can help identify diverse cases fitting this new lens, including in the Global North; it can also contribute to affirming the value of these traditional systems in building sustainable and just societies.

Low-Income Families’ Direct Participation in Food-Systems Innovation to Promote Healthy Food Behaviors

Low-income families, especially those who reside in food deserts, face significant systemic barriers regarding their ability to access affordable and nutritious food. The food behaviors exhibited by low-income families are a reflection of the shortcomings of the built environment and conventional food system. Policy and public-health initiatives to improve food security have, thus far, failed to deliver interventions that simultaneously address multiple pillars of food security. Centering the voices of the marginalized and their place-based knowledge may result in the development of food-access solutions that are a much better fit for the population that they intend to serve. Community-based participatory research has emerged as a solution to better meet the needs of communities in food-systems innovation, but little is known about the extent to which direct participation improves nutritional outcomes. The purpose of this research is to answer the following question: how can food-access solutions authentically engage marginalized community members in food-system innovation, and if participation is related to changes in their food behaviors, how is it related? This action research project leveraged a mixed-methods approach to analyze nutritional outcomes and define the nature of participation for 25 low-income families who reside in a food desert. Our findings suggest that nutritional outcomes improve when major barriers to healthy food consumption are addressed, for example, time, education, and transportation. Furthermore, participation in social innovations can be characterized by the nature of involvement as either a producer or consumer, actively or inactively involved. We conclude that when marginalized communities are at the center of food-systems innovation, individuals self-select their level of participation, and when primary barriers are addressed, deeper participation in food-systems innovation is associated with positive changes in healthy food behaviors.

In the garden with Lefebvre and Foucault: The cultivation of taste in spaces of food

Research on the conventional food system and alternative food networks has evolved largely in isolation from each other. This paper aims to narrow this gap by using a common theoretical framework to disclose the properties of spaces produced by both types of food systems. The theoretical tools used are Lefebvre’s spatial dialectic and Foucauldian analysis of discipline and governmentality. The results indicate constitutive differences in the nature of both types of spaces: while the conventional food system produces standardized relations and spaces, taking away attention from the food itself to other aspects of its sale and supressing knowledge about food provenance and ways of preparation, the diverse spaces of non-market production are shaped around the quality and “taste” of food. This means that the way out of the crisis-laden conventional food system may lead not only through frugality but also through the cultivation of “taste”, that is, the human interest to eat good food, whose taste includes the knowledge of ecological and social relations and cultures producing the spaces of food.

Opportunities and challenges of food policy councils in pursuit of food system sustainability and food democracy–a comparative case study from the Upper-Rhine region

Conventional food systems continue to jeopardize the health and well-being of people and the environment, with a number of related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) still far from being reached. Food Policy Councils (FPCs)—since several decades in North America, and more recently in Europe—have begun to facilitate sustainable food system governance activities among various stakeholders as an explicit alternative to the shaping of food systems by multinational food corporations and their governmental allies. In contrast to the former, FPCs pursue the goals of food system sustainability through broad democratic processes. Yet, at least in Europe, the agenda of FPCs is more an open promise than a firm reality (yet); and thus, it is widely unknown to what extent FPCs actually contribute to food system sustainability and do so with democratic processes. At this early stage, we offer a comparative case study across four FPCs from the Upper-Rhine Region (Freiburg, Basel, Mulhouse, Strasbourg)—all formed and founded within the past 5 years—to explore how successful different types of FPCs are in terms of contributing to food system sustainability and adhering to democratic and good governance principles. Our findings indicate mixed results, with the FPCs mostly preparing the ground for more significant efforts at later stages and struggling with a number of challenges in adhering to principles of democracy and good governance. Our study contributes to the theory of sustainable food systems and food democracy with the focus on the role of FPCs, and offers procedural insights on how to evaluate them regarding sustainable outcomes and democratic processes. The study also offers practical insights relevant to these four and other FPCs in Europe, supporting their efforts to achieve food system sustainability with democratic processes.

Effects of Food Cooperative Membership on What Consumers Buy and Where They Buy: Evidence from Korean Household Panel Data 2015–2019

Alternative food networks (AFNs) have emerged in response to the conventional industrial food system, which distances and detaches food production from food consumption. Food cooperatives are representative of AFNs where relationships between food producers and consumers are reconfigured. This study examines household food cooperative membership and changes in food purchase behavior using household panel data gathered by the Rural Development Administration of Korea. In particular, it aims to provide insight into the effect of AFNs on consumer food purchase behavior, including expenditure per food category and visit frequency ratio per store format. The ordinary least squares regression model was used. The findings show that depending on the ownership of AFNs, expenditure per food category and visit frequency ratio per store format vary. Food cooperative members tend to purchase less processed food and more fresh vegetables and fruits than nonmembers. Moreover, food cooperative membership significantly influences the decrease in visits to small supermarkets and traditional markets when purchasing groceries.

Reimagining Food: Readdressing and Respecting Values

The values associated with food are framed and constructed by market-based systems that assign attributes to different foods across the marketplace. The aim of the paper was to conceptualize the range of non-financial aspects associated with food in the literature examined and a typology was introduced to position a new set of non-financial food values, the alter-values, which support the creation of a more holistic approach to visualize and reimagine a more sustainable, resilient food system that readdresses and respects such values. The four alter-values of interest, intrinsic, production-related, supply chain related, and emotio-cultural values, were discussed in the context of changing food environments, and a visualization of the typology was presented to explain them. By focusing especially on intrinsic and emotio-cultural values, an adaptation of the current food environment beyond pecuniary-based emphasis was possible. Such an approach helps to challenge the structure of the conventional food system towards a more citizen-driven sustainable model, altering priorities, with a drive towards embedding values and going beyond perceiving food only in terms of exchange value, to considering food as a vital aspect of life.

Sustainable Marine Aquaponics: Effects of Shrimp to Plant Ratios and C/N Ratios

Integrated aquaponic food production systems are capable of producing more food on less land using less water than conventional food systems, and marine systems offer the potential of conserving freshwater resources. However, there have been few evaluations of species combinations or operational parameters in marine aquaponics. The goal of this experiment was evaluation of stocking density ratio of Pacific whiteleg shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) to three edible halophytes (Atriplex hortensis, Salsola komarovii, and Plantago coronopus) with two C/N ratios in a 3 × 2 factorial design. There were three stocking density ratios (shrimp: plant), 2:1, 3:1, and 5:1; and two C/N ratios, 12 and 15. The results indicated that stocking density ratio exerted a significant impact on shrimp growth. Shrimp reared in 2:1 and 3:1 treatments had better growth performance. In contrast, plants were affected by both stocking density ratio and C/N ratio. Halophytes grown in stocking density ratios of 3:1 and 5:1 with a C/N ratio of 15 had better growth performance and nutrient content. The concentrations of TAN and NO2– were below 0.2 mg/L throughout the experiment, including the higher stocking density ratio treatments. In conclusion, the stocking density ratio of 3:1 with a C/N ratio of 15 was suggested as the optimal condition for the operation of marine aquaponics in which whiteleg shrimp and the three halophytes are target crops.

Agroecology, Supply Chains, and COVID‐19: Lessons on Food System Transitions from Ecuador

AbstractIn cities, agroecological food consumption is often identified as an exclusive, middle‐class practice. In this article, we examine changes in agroecological food circuits in urban Ecuador, amid COVID‐19 breakdowns in conventional food systems. Through interviews with farmers, government officials, and NGO workers in 2020 and 2021, our research identifies three sets of experiences with distinct implications for agroecological transitions. First, some agroecological circuits could no longer function due to regulations on food circulation that favored the corporate food sector. Second, some circuits temporarily expanded to reach more urban middle‐class consumers, using online platforms and government infrastructures. Third, urban collectives and neighborhood organizations re‐appropriated urban spaces – from cultural centers to city streets – to facilitate the circulation of agroecological foods in low‐income sectors. We highlight the spatial and social ‘re‐localization’ practices of these urban groups that challenge the hegemony of conventional food circuits, as they drive agroecological food consumption beyond the middle‐class.

Agroecological Transitions: A Systematic Review of Research Approaches and Prospects for Participatory Action Methods

There have been many calls for an agroecological transition to respond to food shocks and crises stemming from conventional food systems. Participatory action research and transformative epistemologies, where communities are research actors rather than objects, have been proposed as a way to enhance this transition. However, despite numerous case studies, there is presently no overview of how participatory approaches contribute to agroecological transitions. The present article therefore aims to understand the effect of applying participatory action research (PAR) in agroecology. We undertook a systematic review of articles reporting methods and results from case studies in agroecological research. On the one hand, our systematic review of 347 articles shows that the agroecological research scope is broad, with all three types—as science, a set of practices and social movement—well-represented in the corpus. However, we can see a clear focus on agroecology “as a set of practices” as the primary type of use of the concept. On the other hand, we found a few case studies (23) with a participatory approach while most studies used extractive research methods. These studies show that understanding the drivers and obstacles for achieving an agroecological transition requires long-term research and trust between researchers and farmers. Such transformative epistemologies open doors to new questions on designing long-term PAR research in agroecology when confronted with a short-term project-based society.

Response-to-Failure Analysis of Global Food System Initiatives: A Resilience Perspective

International food system initiatives have led the efforts to combat the threats to global food security resulting from the failure of the current food systems. This study set out to investigate and assess the contributions of global food system initiatives in tackling the food system challenges. In assessing the food system initiatives, we develop a three-step methodology for Food System Initiative (FSI) selection and then conduct a qualitative evaluation using relevant indicators based on food system failure narratives. Furthermore, the authors synthesize present literature in the context of the extent to which coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has compounded food system challenges and, together with the response-to-failure analysis, recreate a resilient transformational framework, which will be an invaluable tool to FSI during and after the COVID-19 era, and guarantee we build back better. The findings show that while considerable effort is being made in addressing food system failures, the current COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the challenges and would require a paradigm shift not only in the implementation of conventional food system initiatives but also in the role of food system actors. The food system resilience framework presented provides useful pathway in expanding the understanding of the role of all key stakeholders and in identifying tipping points for building the desired resilience moving forward.