Sustainable Agri-food Systems Research Articles

FROM FARM TO FORK: HUMAN HEALTH AND WELL-BEING THROUGH SUSTAINABLE AGRI-FOOD SYSTEMS

From Farm to Fork Strategy is at the heart of the European Green Deal – the new growth strategy of the EU and a key to the implementation of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). From Farm to Fork Strategy is designed for building a fair, healthy and environmentally-friendly food system with an integrated food safety policy in the Union. Current paper presents some of the strategic accents of the main European documents and initiatives concerning future sustainable agri-food systems in the context of human health and well-being through the ecological, economic and social aspects of sustainability. Special attention is also paid to how the future Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) will contribute to the EU Green Deal, food quality and safety, and sustainable development as a whole. Particular examples are presented showing the support to the agriculture and food sectors amid Coronavirus and rural responses to the COVID-19 crisis as collected by the European Network for Rural Development (ENRD). Good practices from Bulgaria are also analyzed regarding the initiatives of promoting local food through farmers’ markets and online platforms and new challenges and best solutions. Conclusions focus on the general measures and actions for the effective transition to a fair, healthy and environmentally-friendly agri-food system. JEL Codes: I31, Q12, Q18, Q56

Challenges for agroecology development for the building of sustainable agri-food systems

Environmental and social crises in agriculture have led to growing recognition that more ecologically sustainable and socially just food and agricultural systems are needed. This thematic number of the International Journal of Agriculture and Natural Resources gathers the papers submitted to the workshop “Challenges for agroecology development for the building of sustainable agri-food systems,” an OECD Co-operative Research Programme-sponsored conference. The aim of the workshop was to promote the transition from conventional agriculture towards agroecology as a science, practice and social movement through sharing the experiences of different OECD countries: Australia, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the United States. The main topics discussed at the workshop included i) agroecology development in OECD countries: local experiences and international collaboration; ii) agroecology as a social movement and related public policies; iii) agroecology education to promote sustainable agri-food systems; and iv) science, innovation and technologies in agroecological systems. While not a comprehensive assessment of the state of agroecology in OECD countries, this thematic number integrates diverse perspectives on some main research and policy advances and uncovers some existing gaps in agroecology practice as an approach for transitioning towards ecologically sustainable and socially just agricultural systems

Significance of Plant Growth Promoting Rhizobacteria in Grain Legumes: Growth Promotion and Crop Production.

Grain legumes are an important component of sustainable agri-food systems. They establish symbiotic association with rhizobia and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, thus reducing the use of chemical fertilizers. Several other free-living microbial communities (PGPR—plant growth promoting rhizobacteria) residing in the soil-root interface are also known to influence biogeochemical cycles and improve legume productivity. The growth and function of these microorganisms are affected by root exudate molecules secreted in the rhizosphere region. PGPRs produce the chemicals which stimulate growth and functions of leguminous crops at different growth stages. They promote plant growth by nitrogen fixation, solubilization as well as mineralization of phosphorus, and production of phytohormone(s). The co-inoculation of PGPRs along with rhizobia has shown to enhance nodulation and symbiotic interaction. The recent molecular tools are helpful to understand and predict the establishment and function of PGPRs and plant response. In this review, we provide an overview of various growth promoting mechanisms of PGPR inoculations in the production of leguminous crops.

Diversity and potentiality of multi-criteria decision analysis methods for agri-food research

There is a growing demand for moving towards sustainable agri-food systems which per nature covers a complex network of activities and domains; such systems will benefit from multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) methods. Although some reviews on MCDA in agri-food research have been published, none of them covered the whole value chain. In this article, a corpus of 954 articles published by INRA scientists from 2007 to 2017 was used to study the diversity and potentiality of MCDA techniques. For the first time, experts from more than 10 agri-food domains worked altogether to annotate the articles, carry out a multivariate analysis, and finally interpret the statistical results to identify the specificities of certain domains and the complementarities between domains and to suggest avenues for future agri-food research. One-third of the studies were based only on a list of indicators, even when their purpose was to choose, sort, or rank options. Regardless of the scientific discipline in the agri-food sector, MCDA studies rarely considered temporal dynamics, spatial scale changes, or stakeholder contributions. As the agri-food system becomes increasingly sustainable in the near future, the use of MCDA methods will accelerate. To become more effective, they will have to include ecosystem services, even outside the scope of ecological studies. Similarly, MCDA studies will need to include participatory science to involve stakeholders (i.e., public authorities, governmental agencies) and end-users (i.e., farmers, producers, industrials, consumers) in the construction of the multi-criteria evaluation but also in the resulting decisions.

An LCA-Based Environmental Performance of Rice Production for Developing a Sustainable Agri-Food System in Malaysia.

This study aims to assess the environmental impacts of conventional and organic rice cultivations and proposes a sustainable conceptual framework of rice farming based on the life cycle assessment (LCA) approach. A cradle-to-gate LCA was performed by using the ReCiPe 2016 method and SimaPro 8.5 software. The functional unit was one ton of rice grains harvested. Primary data were obtained from the farmer, while secondary data were collected from Ecoinvent 3.0, the Agri Footprint 3.0 database and the literature. The total characterization factors for global warming potential (GWP), water consumption potential (WCP) and fossil fuel depletion potential (FFP) were 457.89 kg CO2-eq, 98.18 m3 and 84.56 kg oil-eq, respectively, at the midpoint level for conventional rice, while the impacts for organic rice were 140.55 kg CO2-eq, 29.45 m3 and 22.25 kg oil-eq, respectively. At the endpoint level, the total characterization factors for human health damage (HH), ecosystem damage (ED) and resource availability (RA) for conventional rice were 9.63 × 10-4 DALY, 5.54 × 10-6 species.year and 30.98 Dollar, respectively, while for organic rice, the impacts were 2.60 × 10-4 DALY, 2.28 × 10-6 species.year and 8.44 Dollar, respectively. Rice cultivation impacted the environment, particularly in relation to three impact categories: GWP, WCP and FFP. The cultivation phase of rice production was the main contributor to environmental impacts due to the production and application of fertilizer and pesticides. It can be concluded that the application of LCA in agricultural sector is able to provide information and responses for policy makers in understanding the potential environmental impacts at various spatial levels.

Modelling the scaling up of sustainable farming into Agroecology Territories: Potentials and bottlenecks at the landscape level in a Mediterranean case study

There is a need for a socioecological transition towards sustainable agri-food systems that recover the organic functioning and the closure of socio-metabolic cycles at the lower feasible scales. This implies an agroecology leap forward aimed at scaling up eco-functional intensification practices from the plot to the landscape level, and identifying synergies and trade offs involved in these jump of scale. We present a new methodology to devise feasible, viable and desirable prospective horizons of agroecology landscapes to inform deliberative processes for decision-making: A Sustainable Agroecological Farm Reproductive Analysis (SAFRA). The model is based on biophysical fund-flow integrated and reproductive accounting of the Agrarian Metabolism, which allows to identify the optimal configuration of land uses, livestock densities, diets and the amount of sustainable population to maximize any given societal objective. The results of this SAFRA modelling, run for a Mediterranean case study, identify the potentials of that scaling up processes towards agroecology territories by means of eco-functional intensification practices addressed to the closure of the yield gap with industrial agriculture. These results challenge the concept of sustainability under the current socioecological functioning of nutrient cycles, and help to devise a potential transitionary near-to-sustainable horizon by using the soil nutrients stock, something easily applicable in over-fertilised western agricultural soils as a feasible first step in the socio-ecological transition. Finally, the results also show that shifting from current diets towards local healthy diets would maximize the synergies among the agroecosystem components (livestock, crops, forests, pastures, farmers and society) by recovering complex agro-silvo-pastoral mosaics that have the potential to increase up to 125% the joint organic yields.

Stakeholder Perceptions of Policy Tools in Support of Sustainable Food Consumption in Europe: Policy Implications

Transitioning agri-food systems towards increased sustainability and resilience requires that attention be paid to sustainable food consumption policies. Policy-making processes often require the engagement and acceptance of key stakeholders. This study analyses stakeholders’ solutions for creating sustainable agri-food systems, through interviews with a broad range of stakeholders including food value chain actors, non-governmental organizations, governmental institutions, research institutions and academic experts. The study draws on 38 in-depth, semi-structured interviews conducted in four European countries: France, Iceland, Italy and the UK, as well as three interviews with high-level EU experts. The interviewees’ solutions were analysed according to a five-category typology of policy tools, encompassing direct activity regulations, and market-based, knowledge-based, governance and strategic policy tools. Most of the identified solutions were located in the strategic tools category, reflecting shared recognition of the need to integrate food policy to achieve long-term goals. Emerging solutions—those which were most commonly identified among the different national contexts—were then used to derive empirically-grounded and more universally applicable recommendations for the advancement of sustainable food consumption policies.

An Actor-Oriented Multi-Criteria Assessment Framework to Support a Transition towards Sustainable Agricultural Systems Based on Crop Diversification

Crop diversification represents a key lever to support the development of sustainable agri-food systems. Knowledge on trade-offs and carry over effects from different crop diversification strategies is essential to inform agricultural stakeholders of potential costs and benefits. This knowledge is limited by existing data and performance measures predominantly focused on single crops, rather than complete rotations. Moreover, sustainability performance indicators are often used for assessment purposes, rather than supporting stakeholder learning and actions. A new set of 32 indicators was developed to address these needs, and used to evaluate the environmental, economic and social sustainability of the diversified agricultural systems highlighted in the case studies, which are often characterized by data availability constraints. This approach was tested in France, Germany and Italy to determine a critical ex-post diagnosis of the existing systems, and for the assessment of ex-ante innovative scenarios. The results will be used to support these case studies in the identification and design of more sustainable agricultural systems. Although the framework is based on feasible and proxy indicators, the assessment outcomes have allowed local actors to reflect on the effects generated by the implemented crop diversification strategies. Key issues include trade-offs occurring between optimizing economic and environmental performance.

Place-Based Pathways to Sustainability: Exploring Alignment between Geographical Indications and the Concept of Agroecology Territories in Wales

Geographical Indications (GIs) are regarded as important endogenous rural development mechanisms by the European Union. GIs have proven successful for some producers in some regions, delivering higher added value and safeguarding a product’s identity and heritage through the notion of terroir. Within the context of a gradual “greening” of GIs, this paper opens up questions about what potential they might have for transitions to agroecology territories, which are spaces engaged in a transition process towards sustainable agri-food systems. Using the Food and Agricultural Organization’s 10 elements of agroecology as a lens, we discuss whether GIs can serve as levers in delivering sustainable agri-food transitions, drawing on the case of the devolved nation of Wales. We base our narrative on a content analysis of GI product specification documents and data from interviews with GI stakeholders. Our case study illustrates that the discourse within the regulatory framework of some Welsh GIs has shifted from one of technicality towards the integration of some agroecology elements in more recent GI product specifications. In this respect, we argue that there is evidence of a “first generation” and “second generation” assortment of GIs in Wales. However, any potential for levering an overall transition within this scheme towards an agroecology territory remains constrained by the piecemeal embedding of agroecology. The incorporation of agroecology is emerging primarily from the ground-up—driven by independent organizational and place-based collective action, but unaccompanied, as yet, by any parallel shift amongst supporting administrative and regulatory authorities. We also discuss the importance of reflexive governance if GIs are to be viable pathways for sustainability transitions. As such, the capacity for GIs to facilitate quality-led place-based food systems that enhance increasingly threatened environmental resources is contingent upon stakeholders adopting a territorial, reflexive governance approach.

Retos y estrategias para la reducción del uso de plaguicidas en Chiapas, México, desde la perspectiva de las organizaciones de la sociedad civil

La disminución y el no uso de plaguicidas dependen de factores económicos, políticos y culturales, por lo cual se deben considerar los procesos y actores involucrados, a fin de que sean más efectivas las acciones encaminadas a lograr sistemas agroalimentarios sustentables. En este trabajo se destacan las estrategias y retos de diferentes Organizaciones de la Sociedad Civil (OSC), enfocadas en proyectos alimentarios, que han identificado como relevantes la disminución o eliminación de plaguicidas. Se trabajó con una metodología cualitativa, basada en entrevistas semiestructuradas y análisis de narrativa, a través de cuatro categorías previamente construidas: a) Uso indiscriminado; b) Uso Regulado; c) Transición; y d) No uso. Esto permitió identificar los principales retos para disminuir o eliminar el uso de plaguicidas y estrategias entre las que destacan el respeto a la autonomía para fomentar los puentes de socialización, la importancia de la información, los procesos de formación entre las OSC y productores, la creación y fortalecimiento de espacios alternativos, el trabajo en redes y una postura política centrada en la agroecología.

Quantification of the Land Potential for Scaling Agroforestry in South Asia

Trees are an integral part of the sustainable farming practices that can withstand extreme weather events, pest risks, and optimize land and water productivity to achieve food, fuel, fodder and nutritional security while safeguarding the environmental flows. This study was undertaken to analyze the landscape potential for the South Asian region in the geospatial domain utilizing the FAO’s land suitability criteria. The key datasets were derived from satellite remote sensing at a global and regional scale for land, soil, climate, and topography and were used to model the agroforestry suitability across South Asia. Furthermore, the agroforestry suitability categories and tree cover dominance were investigated with respect to the total geographical area, agriculture land cover and with climate variables to understand the present and future trends. The comprehensive analysis revealed that 69% of the total geographical area retains 55% and greater suitability for agroforestry. The analysis revealed that nearly 73.4% of the landscape is absent (0%) of tree cover, 7.1%, shows 1–10% and 19.5% area having more than 10% tree cover. The tree dominance/hotspot analyses in the agriculture land were found notably high in the multiple farming components such as home gardens. The single crop of irrigated and rain-fed croplands showed high land suitability towards agroforestry. Such land can be utilized to enhance the tree cover that suits locally as per the farmer's need based on a community-driven participatory approach to bring the sustainability and resilience in degraded landscapes (FAO in Agroforestry for landscape restoration, 2017). The future climate data analysis showed a significant change in the distribution of temperature and precipitation that will influence future farming practices in South Asia. The agroforestry suitability and tree cover mapping results/analysis will assist crucially the agroforestry policymakers/planners in the various South Asian countries to implement and extend it to the new area. The analysis clearly shows that the advent of big data, remote sensing and GIS provide insights into the agroforestry interventions and scaling which further helps in building resilient landscapes for sustainable agri-food systems, livelihoods, safeguarding the environmental security and supporting some of the important sustainable development goals (SDGs).

Configuración de los sistemas socio-ecológicos en zonas metropolitanas. La experiencia en Mérida, Yucatán, México

El artículo tiene como objetivo analizar la configuración actual de los sistemas socio-ecológicos en ocho municipios de la zona metropolitana de Mérida (Yucatán, México), a partir de la integración de cartografía regional, entrevistas a actores clave y revisión bibliográfica. Los resultados evidencian que, aunque la zona de estudio ha tenido la histórica tendencia hacia los sectores secundario y terciario, en la actualidad hay dos sistemas socio-ecológicos marcadamente diferenciados, que proveen servicios ecosistémicos relevantes para la ciudad: en el norte caracterizado por la pesca, apicultura y turismo y en el sur por la apicultura y agricultura de temporal. Las recomendaciones destacan la relevancia de conservar y promover la relación sociedad-naturaleza con el fin de consolidar sistemas agroalimentarios sostenibles en la zona metropolitana y conectar las zonas de conservación existentes al norte de la zona de estudio con la selva baja; de tal forma que se constituya un corredor que contenga los servicios ecosistémicos ante el creciente desarrollo económico y urbano de la zona metropolitana.

Effectiveness of Plant Beneficial Microbes: Overview of the Methodological Approaches for the Assessment of Root Colonization and Persistence.

Issues concerning the use of harmful chemical fertilizers and pesticides that have large negative impacts on environmental and human health have generated increasing interest in the use of beneficial microorganisms for the development of sustainable agri-food systems. A successful microbial inoculant has to colonize the root system, establish a positive interaction and persist in the environment in competition with native microorganisms living in the soil through rhizocompetence traits. Currently, several approaches based on culture-dependent, microscopic and molecular methods have been developed to follow bioinoculants in the soil and plant surface over time. Although culture-dependent methods are commonly used to estimate the persistence of bioinoculants, it is difficult to differentiate inoculated organisms from native populations based on morphological characteristics. Therefore, these methods should be used complementary to culture-independent approaches. Microscopy-based techniques (bright-field, electron and fluorescence microscopy) allow to obtain a picture of microbial colonization outside and inside plant tissues also at high resolution, but it is not possible to always distinguish living cells from dead cells by direct observation as well as distinguish bioinoculants from indigenous microbial populations living in soils. In addition, the development of metagenomic techniques, including the use of DNA probes, PCR-based methods, next-generation sequencing, whole-genome sequencing and pangenome methods, provides a complementary approach useful to understand plant–soil–microbe interactions. However, to ensure good results in microbiological analysis, the first fundamental prerequisite is correct soil sampling and sample preparation for the different methodological approaches that will be assayed. Here, we provide an overview of the advantages and limitations of the currently used methods and new methodological approaches that could be developed to assess the presence, plant colonization and soil persistence of bioinoculants in the rhizosphere. We further discuss the possibility of integrating multidisciplinary approaches to examine the variations in microbial communities after inoculation and to track the inoculated microbial strains.

Determinants of Farm Resilience to Climate Change: The Role of Farmer Entrepreneurship and Value Chain Collaborations

The concept of resilience gained traction in academic, policy, and development discourse in recent years, yet its conceptualization and application at the farm level has received little attention. For instance, recent policy recommendations present farm resilience as a silver bullet in dealing with agricultural risks and uncertainty, and in achieving sustainable agri-food systems. Yet, the question of what determines farm resilience in a smallholder farming set-up remains fuzzy. To address this knowledge gap, we firstly develop a novel conceptual framework based on determinants of farm resilience and farmer adaptive capacity as a pathway through which farm resilience is strengthened. The emphasis on adaptive capacity responds to a conceptual weakness inherent in studies that present socio-ecological systems as static systems. Secondly, based on a literature review, we propose mechanisms through which farmer entrepreneurship, membership in farmer organization, and farmer–buyer relationships may influence farmer adaptive capacity and thereby farm resilience. Based on our conceptual understanding of the determinants of farm resilience, we recommend approaches that augment farmer entrepreneurship, support farmer organizations, and strengthen farmer–buyer relationships.

Experimenting with RRI tools to Drive Sustainable Agri-Food Research: The SASS Case Study from Sub-Saharan Africa

The need to develop experimental tools for a responsible research and innovation (RRI) framework is relevant for managing research agendas and policy making that seriously take into account the complex conditions of innovation development (linked to multidisciplinarity and interaction processes) between the researchers and their fieldwork activities. The adoption of an RRI framework is even more important for multidisciplinary and complex issues, such as the agri-food system. In this context, the SASS (Sustainable Agri-food Systems for Sustainable Development (SASS) project represents a good example for verifying the application of the RRI strategy in a varied research group committed to the development of sustainable agri-food systems in Sub-Saharan Africa. The project, which involves more than 50 researchers from different fields of knowledge and theoretical backgrounds, showed the importance of the processes of reflection, re-driving, and convergence in the definition of research objectives and strategies. This process started by experimenting with new dedicated RRI tools in order to allow interactions between the researchers, including exchanging their experience in data collection and theoretical reflection development. With respect to this analysis, it was interesting to analyze how the RRI tools and strategies have been activated between researchers and different stakeholders, generating reflections capable of re-adapting the results towards shared and accessible innovation for the extended society. Following the discussion based on the description of the SASS-RRI agenda tools and following an internal verification given from an RRI-based web survey, this contribution provides new insights, in terms of tools and strategies, to promote and refine RRI approaches. This work underlines how RRI methods have promoted internal and external interactions to connect the research objectives towards a model of open innovation.

The Push, Pull, and Enabling Capacities Necessary for Legume Grain Inclusion into Sustainable Agri-Food Systems and Healthy Diets.

Legume grains are traditional crops that have been modernized as processed foods and animal protein alternatives in recent years. This modernization has largely been fueled by new technological developments driven by increased consumer demands for plant protein and gluten-free options. However, consumers must be mindful that legumes have other nutritional attributes besides protein that help achieve healthier diets, and recent evidence suggests that consuming 100 g of legume grains per day would promote nutrient-dense diets and could be a target level to harmonize international strategies for recommended daily allowances. The nutritional richness of legumes has been associated with a decrease in numerous disease risk factors and, given their long shelf life, legumes are excellent choices to combat food waste and may have a role to play in countries where cold storage is often a limitation in food preservation. Besides their inclusion in global diets, legumes should be included in sustainable cropping systems. The high number of edible species and cultivars available render them excellent contributors to biodiverse food and feed systems. Legume cultivation allows reducing environmental impacts by means of the ability of legumes to fix atmospheric nitrogen via a symbiosis with nitrogen-fixing bacteria, making them natural fertilizers. Still, despite the well-known health, nutritional, and environmental benefits, legumes are underrepresented in global agri-food systems. Efforts must be made to make legumes more attractive to the farmer, the industry, and ultimately the consumer, and for this proper local, regional, national, and global policy frameworks must be in place. Here, the local scenario of legumes is showcased, and the most relevant push, pull, and enabling capacities required to achieve sustainable diversified agri-food systems with legumes are discussed.

Food Chain Inefficiency (FCI): Accounting Conversion Efficiencies Across Entire Food Supply Chains to Re-define Food Loss and Waste

Achieving global food security requires a new approach that integrates not only all aspects of the growing, harvesting and processing of food (necessary to ensure sufficient affordable and sustainable production to alleviate hunger) but also the complexities associated with food consumption including deterring unhealthy overconsumption. Inefficiencies occur at various points along the agri-food supply chain but at present they are inadequately conceptualized via separate accounts of food loss, food waste, supply chain management, and public health. Here we re-define food loss and waste through the concept of conversion efficiency applied to the entire system, an approach up to now only applied to the primary processes of crop productivity. Nine conversion efficiencies are defined: sunlight capture efficiency; photosynthesis use efficiency; biomass allocation efficiency; harvesting efficiency; storage and distribution efficiency; processing efficiency; retailing efficiency; consumption efficiency; and dietary efficiency. Using the production and consumption of bread in the UK as an example, we demonstrate how efficiencies may be estimated and thus where the main inefficiencies lie, so indicating where the most significant improvements could be made. We suggest that our approach, which introduces the term Food Chain Inefficiency (FCI) to re-define food loss and waste, provides a rational and effective way to devise the practical interventions and policies needed to deliver a sustainable agri-food system.

Scaling up innovations in smallholder agriculture: Lessons from the Canadian international food security research fund

Scaling up food security innovations in low-income rural environments has often failed to achieve substantive and lasting results. This poor performance can be attributed to dominant, linear approaches associated with spreading innovations which entail technology research and development and subsequent transfer to farmers. Such approaches tend to overlook complexity elements and non-linear processes in smallholder agriculture, including multiple stress factors such as climate variability and economic risks that make the uptake of new agricultural innovations more unpredictable. This article presents programmatic lessons from the Canadian International Food Security Research Fund (CIFSRF) on scaling up. It considers projects that: i) deployed successfully pilot-tested innovations to reach and benefit large numbers of beneficiaries; and projects that ii) used innovations as an entry point to catalyse systematic change in the food and agricultural sector. The paper also outlines several key scaling up principles that can encourage better understanding of relevant socio-ecological dynamics and complexities in intervention areas as a way to support innovations (at scale) that can contribute to more sustainable system outcomes. Finally, the paper reflects on how predominant definitions of impact at scale, centered around rather narrow indicators around economic growth and technology transfer, might consider more holistic goals that encompass integrated agricultural interventions that advance sustainable agri-food system outcomes.

Modelling world agriculture as a learning machine? From mainstream models to Agribiom 1.0

Models of world agriculture and food systems are used widely to predict future scenarios of land and resource uses. Starting with a brief history of world agriculture models since the 1960s, which shows their hybrid character as well as their limitations in representing real world diversity and options, this article then presents an alternative modelling experience. We argue that models are tools of evidence, hence “truth machines”, but also tools of government, with a multi-faceted political dimension. For instance, the virtual realities that conventional models build incorporate value judgements about the future that remain invisible and difficult to challenge. For ease of computation and comparison, they standardise functional forms and parameters, eliding observable diversity and blacklisting sociotechnical policy options such as those based on agroecology and biological synergies. They are designed for prediction and prescription rather than for supporting public debate, which is also a (comfortable) political stance. In contrast, the Agrimonde experience – a foresight initiative based on the Agribiom model – shows that a model of world agriculture can be constructed as a “learning machine” that leaves room for a variety of scientific and stakeholder knowledge as well as public debate. This model and its partners unveiled some virtual realities, processes and actors that were invisible in mainstream models, and asserted a vision of sustainable agri-food systems by 2050. Agribiom and Agrimonde improved knowledge, policy-making and democracy. Overall, they highlighted the need for epistemic plurality and for engaging seriously in the production of models as learning machines.

\u2018The right thing to do\u2019: ethical motives in the interpretation of social sustainability in the UK\u2019s conventional food supply

This paper explores the role of ethics and responsibility as drivers of a transition to a more sustainable agri-food system, by drawing on an investigation of the governance of social sustainability in the UK’s conventional food supply. The paper investigates how and why various non-state actors in the conventional food supply construe certain social obligations as being part of the remit of the food supply; whether ethics plays a motivating role; and the extent to which their activities are linked to sustainability. The paper uses data collected via two surveys of diverse entities in the conventional food supply, the first a survey of public-facing websites, the second a series of in-depth interviews. The entities ranged from primary producers, manufacturers and food service operators to consultancies, standard-setting organisations and advocacy groups. The study finds that actors view a variety of socially focused or socially beneficial activities as legitimate governance concerns for the conventional food supply, and that ethics plays a role in motivating or justifying these activities. However, the activities are inconsistently associated with sustainability, a finding that may undermine the use of sustainability programmes as tools for driving ethical agendas. Moreover, the dominant business framing of the conventional food supply means that ethical considerations are often expressed in terms of more instrumental priorities. Social sustainability or responsibility actions can be justified on moral grounds as ‘the right thing to do’ but usually have to be backed up in more pragmatic terms as a way of ‘doing well by doing good’.