Regional Food Supply Research Articles

Potentials and Limitations of Regional Organic Food Supply: A Qualitative Analysis of Two Food Chain Types in the Berlin Metropolitan Region

Regional food systems and organic agriculture are both considered more sustainable than the conventional, globalized food system they provide an alternative to. The emergence and expansion of alternative forms of food supply are influenced by various factors on different scales. Using the food systems approach we aim to study potentials and limitations of regional organic food supply in the Berlin metropolitan region (BMR). Based on the literature, we developed an analytical framework and identified determinants of regional organic food provision along the three major levels of the supply chain: agricultural production, food chain organization, and consumption. Then, we examined a qualitative case study with two different types of alternative food networks (A) organic community supported agriculture (CSA) and (B) organic retail trade. Factors that hinder or promote the provision of regional organic food were identified through qualitative interviews and assessed by regional stakeholders in a workshop. Our findings show that demand for regional organic food is higher than regional supply, which could offer good possibilities for organic farmers. However, actors in these two food chains need to overcome some obstacles, including limited access to land, increasing renting prices, insufficient processing capacities, and unsupportive political environment for organic farming.

Assessing Values-based Sourcing Strategies in Regional Food Supply Networks: An Agent-based Approach

Assessing Values-based Sourcing Strategies in Regional Food Supply Networks: An Agent-based Approach

Analysis of Food Hub Commerce and Participation Using Agent-Based Modeling: Integrating Financial and Social Drivers.

Factors influencing long-term viability of an intermediated regional food supply network (food hub) were modeled using agent-based modeling techniques informed by interview data gathered from food hub participants. Previous analyses of food hub dynamics focused primarily on financial drivers rather than social factors and have not used mathematical models. Based on qualitative and quantitative data gathered from 22 customers and 11 vendors at a midwestern food hub, an agent-based model (ABM) was created with distinct consumer personas characterizing the range of consumer priorities. A comparison study determined if the ABM behaved differently than a model based on traditional economic assumptions. Further simulation studies assessed the effect of changes in parameters, such as producer reliability and the consumer profiles, on long-term food hub sustainability. The persona-based ABM model produced different and more resilient results than the more traditional way of modeling consumers. Reduced producer reliability significantly reduced trade; in some instances, a modest reduction in reliability threatened the sustainability of the system. Finally, a modest increase in price-driven consumers at the outset of the simulation quickly resulted in those consumers becoming a majority of the overall customer base. Results suggest that social factors, such as desire to support the community, can be more important than financial factors. An ABM of food hub dynamics, based on human factors data gathered from the field, can be a useful tool for policy decisions. Similar approaches can be used for modeling customer dynamics with other sustainable organizations.

Introduction to the Symposium on American Food Resilience (Part 2)

The security of the US food supply faces unprecedented challenges due to changes in our food system and the environment during recent decades. The 27 articles in the Symposium on American Food Resilience examine the resilience of food production and distribution – the system’s ability to withstand shocks or stresses that could lead to disruption of the food supply. Four central questions provide a framework: The Symposium is in two parts. Part 1, which was published in the last issue of this Journal, laid out a conceptual framework and surveyed the problems. Part 2, which is in this issue, focuses on solutions. Paradigm shift is a major theme in Part 2. It revolves around two key ingredients: Concrete details are provided by case studies from New England, Ohio, North and South Carolina, and Wisconsin, where researchers or nonprofit organizations have collaborated with food system practitioners to strengthen and diversify regional food production and food supply chains. A case study from Washington applies the diversity perspective to a strategic analysis of regional capacity for disaster response. Resilience planning in Australia features strategic policy analysis with quantitative techniques such as linear programming optimization and system dynamics, which can profitably be employed elsewhere as well. Together, the Symposium articles provide a bounty of material that can be mined by researchers, teachers, policy makers, farmers, and other food system practitioners for application to their own circumstances.

Do global food systems have an Achilles heel? The potential for regional food systems to support resilience in regional disasters

Today’s domestic US food production is the result of an industry optimized for competitive, high yielding, and high-growth production for a globalized market. Yet, industry growth may weaken food system resilience to abrupt disruptions by reducing the diversity of food supply sources. In this paper, we first explore shifts in food consumption toward reliance upon complex and long-distance food distribution, food imports, and out-of-home eating. Second, we discuss how large-scale, rapid-onset hazards may affect food access for both food secure and insecure households. We then consider whether and how regional food production might support regional food resilience. To illustrate these issues, we examine the case of western Washington, a region not only rich in agricultural production but also threatened by a Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake and tsunami. Such an event is expected to disrupt transportation and energy systems on which the dominant food distribution system relies. Whether a regional food supply—for the purposes of this paper, defined as food production in one or adjacent watersheds—can support a broader goal of community food resilience during large-scale disruption is a key theme of our paper. The discussion that ensues is not meant to offer simplistic, localist solutions as the one answer to disaster food provision, but neither should regional food sources be dismissed in food planning processes. Our exploration of regional farm production, small in scale and flexible, suggests regional production can help support food security prior to the arrival of emergency relief and retail restocking. Yet in order to do so, we need to have in place a robust and regionally appropriate food resilience strategy. This strategy should address caloric need, storage, and distribution, and, in so doing, rebalance our dependence on food supplied through imports and complex, domestic supply chains. Clearly, diversity of food sourcing can add redundancy and flexibility, allowing more nimble food system adaptation in the face of disruption.

Water Security of the Azerbaijan Republic: current situation and perspectives

One of the actual global problems of the XXI century is water provision for the population and various sectors of economy. Under the conditions of population growth and development of the economy all over the world, the usage of water resources has increased rapidly and water provision has worsened sharply in most regions and countries. As a result of climate change and global warming, a tendency of decrease of available water resources is observed. Aggravation of water problems directly affects food supply and ecological safety in certain regions. At present, water has become one of the decisive factors for the sustainable development of Azerbaijan Republic. Concerning improving water supply in the future, not only water demand management and more economical use are required; it is also important that modern education, research and practical design and construction works for increasing water resources management are accelerated. In this way, priorities for the country’s water policy also include achieving good ecological status in rivers, lakes and water resources, and aiming at supply of water of international standards for the population and different sectors of the economy. Water resources of the Azerbaijan Republic, their use and security are characterized by the figures in Table 1.

Comparing environmental impacts of regional and national-scale food supply chains: A case study of processed tomatoes

This study uses life cycle assessment methodology to quantify the energy use, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and water use of processed tomato products grown, processed, and consumed within the Great Lakes region of the United States, and tomato products produced in California and then shipped to the Great Lakes region for consumption. The purpose is to assess the potential for regional food systems to reduce selected environmental impacts, particularly the energy and GHG footprints, of consumer-ready, processed food products, when compared to national-scale food systems in which consumer products are shipped long distances. The study also examines the role of different types of food processing in influencing life cycle energy use, water use, and emissions.Our results indicate that California-produced conventional and organic tomato paste and canned diced tomatoes are almost equivalent in energy use and GHG emissions to regionally produced and consumed products, but use of developed water resources is significantly higher for California-grown products. California tomato production benefits from higher per hectare yields and soil amendments with lower carbon dioxide emissions. These efficiencies substantially offset the added energy use and GHG emissions associated with long-distance shipment of products to the Great Lakes region, as long as shipments are made by rail rather than by truck. Paste, the more processed and concentrated product evaluated, amplifies any environmental advantages or disadvantages accrued in the field production stage, due to its raw tomato to finished product ratio of 6:1, suggesting that comparative regional advantage can play a role in lowering life cycle environmental impacts of highly condensed foods shipped long distances.

Developing a service offering for a logistical service provider—Case of local food supply chain

This study introduces a process of building potential business models for a logistic service provider operating in a local food supply chain. As a starting point, the logistical service needs of different participants in regional food supply chains are analyzed. Based on the analysis, two potential service offerings for a logistical service provider or an integrating entrepreneur of a local food supply chain are formed. Business models for the two service offerings are developed and analyzed using the Business Model Canvas. The study shows that this approach builds a logical connection between the services offered and the fundaments of the business of a logistic service provider.

Prehranska varnost sveta in Slovenije

V začetku 21. st. se pridelava hrane na prebivalca ni povečevala, hrana pa je postala pomembna strateška dobrina. V pričakovanih negotovih razmerah nestabilne oskrbe s hrano na globalni ravni postaja vprašanje lokalne, regionalne in državne samooskrbe s hrano zelo pomembno. Slovenija z domačo pridelavo ne pokriva svojih potreb po kmetijsko-živilskih proizvodih. Vendar strokovne ocene kažejo, da Slovenija razpolaga z dovolj velikimi potenciali kmetijskih zemljišč, da prehransko varnost bistveno poveča do leta 2030.

Material input rates and dietary breadth during the Upper Paleolithic through Mesolithic at Franchthi and Klissoura 1 Caves (Peloponnese, Greece)

Two deeply stratified cave sites in southern Greece show how the relations between material input rates and human prey choice may reflect local site function and regional food supply effects simultaneously. The Upper Paleolithic through Mesolithic faunas at Klissoura Cave 1 and Franchthi Cave on the Argolid Peninsula (Peloponnese) provide clear evidence of diet expansion with time, based on increasing use of costly small animals. These cases also reflect, albeit to very different degrees, variation in occupation intensity as determined from sediment and artifact accumulation rates. Centrality is a critical issue for residential sites, and consistency (or the lack of it) in use provides a relative indication of site “importance” in the overall territory of foragers. Changes in site importance explain much of the variation in material inputs in Klissoura Cave 1, with the heaviest use of the site during the Upper Paleolithic and lighter use in the later periods. Small game data from Klissoura 1 nonetheless present a single general trend toward greater resource intensification with time. At Franchthi Cave, the intensity of occupations of the cave increased in tandem with intensified use of animal and plant resources. The parallel trends are explained by greater temporal consistency in the central importance of the latter site on the Pleistocene and early Holocene landscape.

SHORT FOOD SUPPLY CHAIN IN SARDINIA: FORMS OF COOPERATION BETWEEN PRIMARY PRODUCERS AND FINAL CONSUMERS

The diffusion of the short food supply chains in Sardinia, at present, is not the same as in other Italian regions. Several structural and economic conditions of the Regional food supply chain, prevent an extensive diffusion. Forms of cooperation between primary producers and final consumers, as the responsible buying groups, will promote the shortening of the food supply chain, offering to the primary producers an alternative way of marketing for the wide array of locally grown farm produce.

Trends in the start of the wet season over Africa

AbstractA quarter of a century of daily rainfall data from the Global Telecommunications System are used to define the temporal and spatial variability of the start of the wet season over Africa and surrounding extreme south of Europe and parts of the Middle East. From 1978 to 2002, the start of the wet season arrived later in the year for the majority of the region, as time progressed. In some parts of the continent, there was an annual increase in the start date of up to 4 days per year. On average, the start of the wet season arrived 9–21 days later from 1978 to 2002, depending on the threshold used to define the start of the rains (varying from 10–30 mm over 2 days, with no dry period in the following 10 days). It is noted that the inter‐annual variability of the start of the wet season is high with the range of start dates varying on average from 116 to 142 days dependent on the threshold used to determine the start date. These results may have important implications for agriculturists on all levels (from the individual farmer to those responsible for regional food supply), as knowledge of potential future climate changes starts to play an increasingly important role in the agricultural decision‐making process, such as sowing and harvesting times. Copyright © 2008 Royal Meteorological Society

Ecological issues related to ozone: agricultural issues

Research on the effects of ozone on agricultural crops and agro-ecosystems is needed for the development of regional emission reduction strategies, to underpin practical recommendations aiming to increase the sustainability of agricultural land management in a changing environment, and to secure food supply in regions with rapidly growing populations. Major limitations in current knowledge exist in several areas: (1) Modelling of ozone transfer and specifically stomatal ozone uptake under variable environmental conditions, using robust and well-validated dynamic models that can be linked to large-scale photochemical models lack coverage. (2) Processes involved in the initial reactions of ozone with extracellular and cellular components after entry through the stomata, and identification of key chemical species and their role in detoxification require additional study. (3) Scaling the effects from the level of individual cells to the whole-plant requires, for instance, a better understanding of the effects of ozone on carbon transport within the plant. (4) Implications of long-term ozone effects on community and whole-ecosystem level processes, with an emphasis on crop quality, element cycling and carbon sequestration, and biodiversity of pastures and rangelands require renewed efforts. The UNECE Convention on Long Range Trans-boundary Air Pollution shows, for example, that policy decisions may require the use of integrated assessment models. These models depend on quantitative exposure–response information to link quantitative effects at each level of organization to an effective ozone dose (i.e., the balance between the rate of ozone uptake by the foliage and the rate of ozone detoxification). In order to be effective in a policy, or technological context, results from future research must be funnelled into an appropriate knowledge transfer scheme. This requires data synthesis, up-scaling, and spatial aggregation. At the research level, interactions must be considered between the effects of ozone and factors that are either directly manipulated by man through crop management, or indirectly changed. The latter include elevated atmospheric CO 2, particulate matter, other pollutants such as nitrogen oxides, UV-B radiation, climate and associated soil moisture conditions.

Global change and food and forest production: future scientific challenges

Production of food and forest products will need to increase to meet the world’s projected demand. This challenge can be met by either extensification or intensification but, with little new land available for agriculture in many regions of rapid population growth, intensification will be pre-eminent. Global, average cereal yields will need to rise from the current 2.9 to 4.2 Mg ha −1 by 2025. The task of increasing production will be made more complex by the additional and interactive effects of changes in climate, atmospheric composition, land use and other global change drivers. However, increasing production with existing technologies will, itself, enhance these major drivers of global change and have other substantial impacts. The global change agenda relating to food and forest products considers research into impacts, adaptation and mitigation. Adaptation and mitigation need to be considered together to harness new technologies (including the use of biotechnology and computer-assisted management schemes) and integrate them with existing technologies in production systems. Better economic, finance and trade policies will also be necessary to allow more open trade of food and forest products. These factors, together with the positive effects that increased atmospheric CO 2 concentration will have on yield will reduce the degree of intensification required to meet demand, thereby mitigating some of the unfavourable environmental consequences. However, there are several social and biophysical management issues associated with intensification that have proven intractable to past research approaches that urgently require resolution. Further research on improving nutrient use efficiency and other aspects of agronomic practice is clearly needed both to increase production and reduce harmful effects on other ecosystems. The effects of fluctuations of weather in the short term on agricultural production systems also warrant further study so that the longer term effects of climate variability and change can be better managed. Multidisciplinary research and interdisciplinary approaches to modelling will be required to apply knowledge both from individual crops to agricultural systems and from plot-scale research to regional food supply issues.

Developing quality in agro‐food supply chains: A Welsh perspective

This paper describes the challenges facing the agro‐food sector in Wales as it searches for a more sustainable future than that provided by the productivist post‐war food regime. Growing concerns for food quality, coupled with the potential for wider regional spin‐offs from quality foods have highlighted the opportunities for Wales to exploit environmental quality in its food production. At present, however, Wales has a complex array of supply chains with a varying emphasis on quality. This paper compares and contrasts two models of supply chain development in Wales—mainstream meat commodity production and organic foods—for purposes of focusing questions on the development of quality agro‐food production. The paper concludes by identifying critical opportunities for and constraints upon the wider embodiment of quality in regional food supply chains.

Total diet studies: the identification of core foods in the United States food supply.

Some total diet studies are based on the selection and analysis of core foods in a national or regional food supply. One way to select core foods is by computerized evaluation of the daily food intakes reported by subjects participating in national food consumption surveys. The foods consumed by the population groups of concern may be aggregated into core food groups. The foods within each group may be ranked according to daily intake and weight percentage of the total diet. The food that best represents each group may then be identified as a core food, and the daily consumption levels for each food group may then be assigned to the core food representing the group. Consumption levels may be determined for the specific age-sex categories of concern. To assess the representativeness of core foods identified in this manner, the food composition database of the national survey may be used to determine nutrient intakes based on the full range of foods in the database versus nutrient intakes based on the core foods.

Measuring Food Security in Africa: Conceptual, Empirical, and Policy Issues

The definition of food security has broadened since the term first came to prominence at the 1975 World Food Conference. Discussions of food security in the midand late 1970s were strongly influenced by the shortfall in world food production and run-up in prices early in that decade. Initially, food security meant avoiding transitory shortfalls in the aggregate supply of food. By the early 1980s, however, the world food supply situation had evolved markedly. The famines striking Africa took place in a world awash in grain. Clearly, inadequate levels of global food supply were not the cause of hunger. Sen's work focused attention on the lack of access by households and individuals to food because of low incomes (entitlements) as a cause of food insecurity, and other research has shown that for most of the hungry in the world, this lack of access is chronic, not transitory. Thus, the conceptual understanding of food insecurity has gradually evolved over the past fifteen years to include not only transitory problems of inadequate supply at the national level but also chronic problems of inadequate access and unequal distribution at the household level. D spite a broader understanding of the complexity of food insecurity, policy makers must still look for easily measured indicators to design programs to reach the food insecure. Often, these indicators are measures of regional or national food supply or its correlates (such as rainfall), as current information on household or individual entitlements to food is usually lacking. S me policy makers may think of supply shortfalls or the lack of domestic food self-suffi-