Food Self-provisioning Research Articles

Food self-provisioning: Implications for sustainable agroecological transition in rural Nigeria

Agroecology is a sustainable farming method that has the potential to revolutionize the global agricultural sector by promoting cleaner and more environmentally friendly practices. However, the question of how to effectively transition to a sustainable agroecology system remains a topic of debate, particularly in developing economies. In many developing countries, subsistence farming plays a crucial role in supporting the livelihoods of countless households. Therefore, it is essential to explore the connection between food self-provisioning and the shift towards agroecology. Using primary data from rural Nigeria and by applying an ordered logistic regression, the study demonstrates that when farmers are primarily dependent on their own produce for sustenance, there is a natural inclination towards methods ensuring long-term soil health and ecological balance. We observed that self-provisioning leads to a 10.9 % increase in agroecology transition, and this result was statistically significant (P-value 0.001). This paradigm not only promotes sustainable agricultural practices but also underscores a holistic approach where agriculture coexists harmoniously with nature. As the global challenges of climate change and increasing food demand loom large, understanding and supporting these farmer-driven solutions become paramount. The results beckon policymakers and stakeholders to frame strategies grounded in farmers' intrinsic motivations, ensuring a sustainable agricultural future that is ecologically viable, culturally resonant, and economically beneficial.

Bridging biodiversity and gardening: Unravelling the interplay of socio-demographic factors, garden practices, and garden characteristics

The expansion of urban areas threatens biodiversity and disrupts ecological relationships, thereby impeding key ecosystem services. To avert irreversible consequences, there is a focus on improving the biodiversity value of domestic gardens. We employ machine learning and network analysis and examine gardening practices and garden owners’ environmental consciousness in Hungary through a questionnaire-based study to untangle the interplay among socio-demographic factors, garden management and -characteristics. We found that the activities determined as biodiversity-positive were widespread among respondents, but ubiquitous pesticide use (62.14%), lack of undisturbed areas (49.52%), and frequent mowing (32.06%) were also present. Middle-aged respondents demonstrated more biodiversity-supporting activities than those over 55, who had long-term gardening experience and were predominantly conventional gardeners. Respondents of towns showed the least biodiversity-positive activities, whereas those living in cities and the countryside fared better. Additionally, multiple interconnected garden characteristics revealed various types of gardens distinguished by care practices and use, such as gardens for food self-provisioning, ornamental gardens, or those prioritizing biodiversity support. Our results show that garden owners use pesticides independently of socio-demographic parameters, gardening practices, or garden characteristics, suggesting widespread pesticide use in Hungary. Our findings suggest that strategies to promote biodiversity-friendly gardening may not be equally suitable for all gardener owners with different cultural backgrounds, environmental consciousness and gardening habits. Factors like differences between societal groups underscore the preference for in-person programs over online information transfer in several cases, for instance, among the elderly and those living in the countryside. We offer fresh perspectives on the intricate connections between garden diversity, characteristics, and practices, and it lays the groundwork for future research into the sociological drivers of gardening practices in Eastern Europe. Our work emphasises that optimizing gardens for multiple ecosystem services, including biodiversity conservation and enhancing human well-being, requires a nuanced understanding of both ecological and socio-demographic factors.

Oh My Gulay! Sa FNRI: Exploring the Potential of Workplace Urban Garden for Food Self-provisioning

This study explores the potential of workplace edible gardens in promoting food self-provisioning (FSP) and in helping enhance food security in the Philippines. In 2017, an urban edible garden or Oh My Gulay! Sa FNRI (OMG) was set up in front of the Department of Science and Technology–Food and Nutrition Research Institute (DOST-FNRI) Building to showcase the concept of an urban garden in a workplace. This is an example of FSP in the workplace. The study used primary and secondary data. Primary data included OMG vegetable volume harvested from 2018–2022 and the garden’s land area. Secondary data were the national vegetable volume harvested and area from the Philippine Statistics Office (PSA). The characteristics and practices of OMG were also used to measure the OMG’s productivity (yield and number of servings produced). The productivity of OMG was compared to the national productivity of 34 vegetable crops in the Philippines (PSA 2018–2022), except for 2020. The results demonstrate that an FSP in the workplace setting like OMG can provide adequate quantity to supply the vegetable recommendation for five adult individuals, following the WHO/FAO recommendation of consuming 400 g/d or 146 kg per adult individual per year of fruits and vegetables or a family composed of two adults and two children following the WHO/FAP recommendation of 1,300 g/d of fruits and vegetables. In addition, for every 71 m2 of land cultivated in a manner similar to the OMG, it can sustain an adult's vegetable needs for an entire year. Furthermore, with a larger area of 397 m2, the OMG garden can adequately supply a family with sufficient vegetables for a year, thereby showcasing its capacity to contribute to long-term food security at the household level. Study results provide evidence regarding workplace food provisioning to help address food insecurity in the country.

An insight into market and non-market alternative food networks in Czechia during Covid-19 and beyond.

The Covid-19 pandemic affected food systems in many countries and emphasized a lot of already existing social, economic and environmental agri-food problems. Alternative food networks (AFNs), praised for their ability to improve the food systems, were under stress, however, at the same time, the changed conditions may have opened new possibilities. In this paper we address the importance of AFNs during the pandemic and investigate how households have changed their participation in AFNs. Our research is novel by simultaneously focusing on both market and non-market AFNs which are often studied separately. A representative questionnaire study of Czech households was carried out in Autumn 2021 to provide a case study of food and consumption behavior of the European country after several waves of Covid-19. Based on the responses of 515 participants, the results show that 68% of Czech households participate in some form of AFNs, be it shopping or food self-provisioning, i.e., non-market food procurement in the form of gardening. Focusing on the market AFNs, farmers' markets and farm gate sales are the most popular. Covid-19 and 2021 emerging economic pressures led to a decrease of consumption of organic food (22% of respondents) as well as fresh fruit and vegetables in general (10% of respondents) and a noticeable occurrence of food insecurity (18% of households). Based on these findings, the paper discusses the ability of AFNs to support food and nutritional resilience. Problems which may endanger market-oriented AFNs are discussed as well. By addressing both market and non-market AFNs, the paper brings new knowledge into the food environment and agri-food policies research.

A Path to Food Self-Provisioning and Experiences from Learning New Skills: An Autoethnographic Depiction

In this autoethnographic depiction, I tell a story of change and renewal. In the narrative, I present a story of personal choices and epiphanies that have changed the course of my life. At the turning point, I portray the process of learning new skills regarding food self-provisioning. I come from a privileged, but de-skilled, middle-class suburban background, and the past four years has been a diverse journey of insecurity, alienation, and fatigue, but also of learning, empowerment, and self-realization. From a person with limited skills, to an at least somewhat skilled food neo-self-provisioner, I have partaken in a process of becoming, which is rich in experience but psychologically and physically demanding. The challenges of living a sustainable and ethical life, amidst contemporary societies, are plenty, but in this research the main hurdles are located in the shortage of time, and rootlessness, in the form of eroded communal bonds, lack of peer support, and broken intergenerational relations.

Evaluating Importance of Community Gardens in Times of Calm and Crisis: From Relaxation to Food Self-Provisioning

The functions of community gardens (CGs) are determined by the preferences of their users and external factors such as government restrictions or the situation of the food market. Recent food prices increases and COVID-19 restrictions have shown the importance of CGs as a place for both food self-provisioning (FSP) and relaxation. These have influenced how much the benefits provided by CGs in the form of ecosystem services (ES) are appreciated. This study aims to demonstrate how ES provided by the CG ‘Žížala na Terase’ in Czechia are affected in times of crisis related to the COVID-19 pandemic and to increased food prices, which trigger a demand for greater FSP. The results indicate that the importance of social interaction and educational ES decreased significantly in the COVID-19 scenario. On the contrary, the role of CGs as places for recreation increased. In the FSP scenario, the provisioning ES increased at the expense of recreational ES. The results of the economic assessment further show that the most important monetarily valued ES provided by CGs are cultural ES, followed by provisioning ES. This study demonstrates both the multifunctionality and adaptability of CGs to the current social crises and dynamic urban conditions.

Chinese food self-provisioning: key sustainability policy lessons hidden in plain sight

Chinese food self-provisioning: key sustainability policy lessons hidden in plain sight

Exploring the motivations behind food self-provisioning in the Czech Republic

Exploring the motivations behind food self-provisioning in the Czech Republic

Dachas and food democracy—What makes a (good) food citizen?

Against the backdrop of multiple crises within—and due to—the current industrial agri-food system, food is a highly political issue. As calls for food sovereignty grow louder and the war in Ukraine exposes the fragility of global food systems, the concept of food democracy calls on all (food) citizens to engage in a democratic and collective struggle for socially just and environmentally friendly food systems. To date, “Western” examples of food democracy and formal political procedures of civil society have dominated scholarship, ignoring the self-organized, low-key, and informal political activities around food in the post-socialist East. In this article, we shed light on the aspects of food democracy within Food Self-Provisioning (FSP) practices in Eastern Estonia, which is our case study. Our empirical data is based on semi-structured interviews conducted in 2019–2021 with 27 gardeners on their so-calleddachas—a Russian term for a plot of land with a seasonal allotment house used primarily for food production. The analysis focuses on the food-, farming-, and nutrition-related attitudes and practices of the gardeners, as well as the multitude of collective endeavors to improve food systems. Despite the precarious socio-economic and political status of the gardeners, we identified a variety of subtle, informal, and mundane forms of democratic practices and everyday resistance. We investigate the interplay of these aspects along the three dimensions of food democracy (input, throughput, output). On the one hand, FSP on Eastern Estonian dachas encompasses essential characteristics of the mainly “Western” concept of food democracy, allowing access to and participation in agricultural production while preserving (re)productive nature in the future. On the other hand, we caution against excessive optimism and romanticization of such local food communities, as they tend to remain exceptions and risk extinction or displacement if they are not valorized and reshaped through public discourse. We conclude with a plea for building and strengthening alliances between the marginalized elderly rural food producers and the more youthful urban food activists to achieve more democratic, just, and ecologically sound food systems.

Invisible (bio)economies: a framework to assess the ‘blind spots’ of dominant bioeconomy models

Bioeconomy as a new promissory discourse neither challenges the paradigm of economic growth, nor questions its embeddedness in capitalist (neo-)colonial patriarchal power relations. However, the calls for a ‘genuine’ socio-ecological transformation and for alternative bioeconomy visions imply exactly a destabilization of these power relations. Drawing on the Bielefeld subsistence approach and on its colonialism–capitalism–patriarchy nexus, I argue that the latest bioeconomy strategy and policy papers of both the EU and Estonia each disregard certain spheres of the bioeconomy due to the three-dimensional power relations. As a seemingly neutral political discourse, the bioeconomy is shaped by cultural assumptions and narratives that determine and perpetuate what is deemed worthy of protection and what is pushed aside as merely ‘natural’. As such, the current bioeconomy papers promote a ‘biomass-based model of capital accumulation’ that is essentially built on the prerequisite of the subordination, devaluation, appropriation and/or exploitation of (1) different geographical regions, (2) ecological foundations, and (3) prevalent bioeconomy practices. As a widespread agricultural practice in Eastern Europe, Food Self-Provisioning (FSP) serves as a good example of how predominant bioeconomy models (1) simply operate as new forms of postcolonial development discourse, instead of embracing the plurality of decolonial ‘alternatives to development’; (2) deepen the human–nature dichotomy by regarding nature as a mere resource to be extracted more efficiently instead of cultivating mutually nourishing partnership-like relation(ship)s with nature; and (3) maintain the separation between monetized and maintenance economies, rather than fostering ethics of care to overcome the structural separation between the latter.

Food self-provisioning: a review of health and climate implications

Non-technical summary The industrial food system is widely considered to be unsustainable due to its undesired climate and health effects. One proposed alternative to these problems is a more local system of food provisioning. This means involving individuals, households, and communities in growing and acquiring edibles, like vegetables and other food stuff. This study based on a literature review found that food self-provisioning practitioners are mainly driven by health concerns and less by reasoning linked to the environment, like climate change adaptation and mitigation. We propose that the potential of food self-provisioning is underutilised in developing the sustainability of food systems. Technical summary In this article, we review and analyse the literature and concept of ‘food self-provisioning’ in order to understand its potential as a response to contemporary challenges. The focus of the study is on investigating the meanings related to environmental problems, particularly climate change, and issues of health. Firstly, we show how food self-provisioning is conceptualised vis-à-vis health and the environment; and secondly, what the (potential) implications of food self-provisioning to interlinked human and non-human health and beyond are. Based on the conducted literature review (n = 44), meanings of food self-provisioning are found to connect primarily to issues of human health and only secondarily to environmental questions, and even more marginally to climate change mitigation and adaptation. Our analysis cuts across the scales of households, communities, cities, and regions, including their diverse geographies, and hereby also comments on the questions of multilevel organising of self-provisioning, and what the notion of ‘self’ implies in this context. Social media summary The potential of food self-provisioning is underutilised in developing the sustainability of food systems.

Pro-environmental changes in lifestyle and consumer habits of Croatian students during the COVID-19 pandemic

Some studies that observed lifestyle changes during COVID-19 lockdown measures report positive implications for the environment. However, others warn that these pro-environmental changes may have only been temporary and that negative effects could outweigh the positive ones. In this paper, we examine whether the COVID-19 pandemic has influenced pro-environmental changes in the lifestyle and consumer habits of students in Croatia. The research was conducted between the end of 2020 and the start of 2021, using an online survey method, with a convenience sampling of N=1245 students from three Croatian Universities in Osijek, Split, and Zagreb. We looked at a range of lifestyle and consumer habits, such as mobility, shopping frequency and extent, food self-provisioning, as well as recycling and household savings, to see whether there were significant changes that can be classified as environmentally friendly. The results show that the pandemic did not have a significant long-term effect on pro-environmental behavior (PEB). Those who practiced PEB before the pandemic continued to do so, primarily motivated by environmental worldview and prioritizing environmental protection. For others, there were either no changes in PEB during the pandemic, or it was only short-term, connected to the limiting circumstances of the pandemic on their usual lifestyle.

The end of postsocialism (as we knew it): Diverse economies and the East

This paper brings together two streams of literature which rarely enter into conversation: diverse economies scholarship and critical readings of postsocialism. Mobilising the cases of food self-provisioning (FSP) in Czechia and agricultural cooperatives in Kyrgyzstan as an empirical basis for our reflections, we pursue a two-fold aim. Firstly, we call for attention to the postsocialist East as fertile ground for the study of diverse economies. Secondly, we offer a postcapitalist reading of postsocialism as embedded and emancipated theorising, arguing that diverse economies thinking can support novel representations of this geopolitical area and open space to appreciate economic diversity on the ground.

Who stewards whom? A paradox spectrum of human–nature relationships of Estonian dacha gardeners

This article contributes to the understanding of the complexity of human-nature relationships. Through hermeneutic analysis of more than 60 semi-structured in-depth interviews (2019-2021), I identify five prevalent human-nature relationship models within the Food Self-Provisioning (FSP) practice in Eastern Estonia (‘master', ‘user' and ‘steward of nature' as well as ‘partner with’ and ‘participant in nature'). As an ambiguous model, the ‘stewardship of nature’ merits my particular attention when exploring how gardeners perceive, relate to and act upon nature in general and their own gardening practice in particular.Using a relational sociological approach, I locate the observed relationship models within the so-called ‘space of social relationships with nature’ (see Eversberg et al. 2022 in this Special Issue) which allows me to capture the various ways in which humans mentally and practically relate to nature. The analysis reveals seemingly contrary yet concurrent manifestations of human-nature relationships that can only be explained by exploring their embeddedness in both social power relations and societal nature relations that constitute the individually observed human-nature relationships. Furthermore, I demonstrate how ‘immediate’ engagement with nature results in rather caring and partner-like relationships whereas ‘abstract’ and alienated experiences often feature instrumental logic with implicit or explicit hierarchy.

From coping strategy to hopeful everyday practice: Changing interpretations of food self‐provisioning

AbstractWhile alternative food networks (AFNs) have become the leading conceptualisation of sustainable food systems, vibrant scholarship on food self‐provisioning (FSP) in Central and Eastern Europe has remained confined to the geopolitical region it investigates. This article brings these two bodies of thought closer together in two steps. First, we trace four framings of FSP deployed over the last three decades—coping strategy, cultural practice, hobby and source of good food and reading FSP as transformative practice—to demonstrate its progressive affinity with AFNs. Second, we follow the most recent framing in highlighting the material reality of local food production as a feature shared by both FSP and AFNs. From this perspective, FSP can be understood as a more radical variant of AFNs given its more substantial environmental and social impact (FSP is more widespread and socially inclusive and less dependent on market transactions). By uncovering the epistemological underpinnings of these different framings of FSP and exploring their implications for food practices on the ground, this article draws general lessons for scholarship aiming to advance food system transformation.

Food insecurity, austerity, and household food production in Greece, 2009–2014

Despite the severity of the European economic crisis, its relation to key aspects of material deprivation remains understudied. In this paper, I use the Statistics on Income and Living Conditions dataset to analyze household food insecurity in austerity-ridden Greece between 2009 and 2014. First, I show that low-income, low-asset and non-EU citizens, as well as households in Athens and island regions, are more likely to experience higher rates of food insecurity. Second, low-income and immigrant households experience disproportionate increases in food insecurity during the crisis; low-income and single-mother households experience higher increases in child food insecurity during the same period. Third, I examine the hypothesis that households turned to the land during the crisis. I show evidence of a negative association between food self-provisioning and food insecurity; however, the share of households that produce food decreases during the crisis, casting doubt on self-provisioning as a widespread coping strategy.

The state and problems of food security ensuring in Russia

Most researchers adhere to the opinion that food security is the ability of the state, independently from other states and international organizations, to provide its citizens with safe and quality products that are enough for an active and healthy life. At the same time, sufficient food selfprovisioning of the state increases the level of national security and ensures independence from other states. Achieving an optimal level of food security always relates to the need to level out and eliminate the consequences of various threats and risks. Threats to food security often arise simultaneously with a decline in revenue of most of the population, poorly developed social infrastructure, imbalances in the development of the agricultural and industrial sectors of the economy, etc. These positions define the research topic, the relevance of which is determined by the current implementation of food security and the identified problems of its provision.

Enough to Feed Ourselves!-Food Plants in Bulgarian Rural Home Gardens.

The home garden is a unique human-nature interspace that accommodates a diverse spectrum of plant species and provides multiple services to households. One of the most important roles of home gardens is to shelter the agricultural plant diversity that provides for diverse and healthy nutrition, especially in rural communities. While tropical home gardens have received wide recognition due to their provisional function for the local communities, temperate and especially European home gardens have been discussed less frequently as a source of subsistence. The main objectives of the current study were to document plant species grown in Bulgarian rural home gardens and to explore related local knowledge and cultural practices that influence food plant diversity, its selection and preservation. Field work was focused on settlements situated in eight provinces in South and North-West Bulgaria. Participants representing 65 home gardens were approached through semi-structured interviews. Home gardens were found to harbor 145 cultivated and semi-cultivated plant taxa, used as food, medicinal and aromatic plants and as animal fodder. Members of the Rosaceae family were most numerous. The largest part of the garden area was occupied by vegetable crops of Solanaceae and Cucurbitaceae. In 63.1% of the studied households, the food growing area comprised more than 2/3 of the total size of the garden. Most preferred crops reflected the social and cultural importance of food self-provisioning, especially in the rural areas. The provisional role of the home gardens in regard to preparation of traditional foods and the driving forces for seed saving are discussed.

Food Self-Provisioning in the Czech Republic – A Comparison of Suburban and Peripheral Regions of Rural South Moravia

Abstract The Czech Republic ranks among the countries with a strong tradition of home food self-provisioning. In this article, we focused our attention specifically to the traditional and frequently neglected phenomenon of rural self-provisioning while newly introducing a data-based analysis of the phenomenon in two areas, i.e., suburbs and peripheries of the South Moravian region. Unlike the research carried out in the CR or EU to date, our survey aims exclusively at the analysis of households with access to land, which allow a more detailed scrutiny of growing a wide range of commodities, the attitudes to it and its perspectives. The results of the field study carried out in 178 rural households in two types of South Moravian regions (suburban and peripheral) from 2017 show the regional differences in food self-provisioning. They also contribute to a better understanding of a phenomenon whose variability within a rural territory is quite known a little. Even though the suburban and peripheral regions have very comparable natural conditions and opportunities of growing crops (a similar type of estate, nearly the same size of the gardens surveyed), we can observe rather remarkable differences, especially in the extent of the areas being farmed and in the scale of breeding domesticated animals (work demanding activities). Compared to that, only negligible differences were found in growing commodities demanding less work (fruit and tomato growing). The identified differences in attitudes to self-provisioning in the observed regions (depending on the varied types of population in the regions) allow for analysing the perspectives of particular self-provisioning activities both in South Moravia and the CR on the whole.

Unseen food: The importance of extra-market small farm's production for rural households in Europe

Small farms are a key part of the system of food flows that happen outside of marketing channels, and which is a crucial source of food for to the most vulnerable part of the world population living in the rural or connected to the rural through family and other social links. Food Self-Provisioning (FSP) is the largest share of these informal flows. For Europe and European small farms today, the role of FSP is relatively un-known. In this paper we address the relative weight and relevance of extra-market arrangements in small farms in Europe, thus contributing to the understanding of the multi-dimensional role of small farms in the regional food system they are part of, and also in the wellbeing of their own household. The analysis is based on 739 face-to-face interviews to small farms, in 24 regions of Europe across a North-South and East-West gradient. We show evidence that FSP is important in all types of small farms, and even if all small farms are in some way linked to the market, they continue producing food which circulates outside the market and may be quite relevant for the farm household, as well as for strengthening social ties in the rural communities and rural-urban interactions.