Localizing Global Food

Short Food Supply Chains as Responses to Agri-Food System Challenges

Agni Kalfagianni, Sophia Skordili, Agni Kalfagianni, Sophia Skordili

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9781138327368
• eBook ISBN: 9780429830211
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Ecology
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Short food supply chains (SFSCs) rely primarily on local production and processing practices for the provision of food and are, in principle, more sustainable in social, economic and environmental terms than supply chains where production and consumption are widely separated.

This book reviews and assesses recent initiatives on this topic from an interdisciplinary perspective. In theoretical terms it draws on and advances two key concepts, namely, place (particularly embeddedness in local economic networks and communities) and governance (particularly in addressing sustainability concerns in an inclusive and socially just manner). Empirically, the book examines a diverse set of SFSCs such as small-scale entrepreneurship,
farmers' markets, community supported agriculture and grassroots and solidarity networks. The main examples discussed are from Europe and North America, but the issues are applicable in a global context.

The book is of interest to advanced students, researchers and professionals in food studies, sociology, geography, planning, politics and environmental studies.

1Localizing global food

An introduction

Agni Kalfagianni and Sophia Skordili

Introduction

On 25 September 2015, at the seventieth anniversary of the United Nations (UN), 193 heads of state and government agreed on 17 Sustainable Development Goals and 169 targets, which will guide UN action for the next 15 years. Goal 2, Zero Hunger, sets specific targets to “end hunger and all forms of malnutrition by 2030” (United Nations, 2015) and interacts very closely with environmental, economic and social justice goals (FAO, 2016). Accordingly, food and agriculture assume centre stage in the 2030 global Agenda for Sustainable Development. Concurrently, there is increasing realization at the international level that responses to the multiple challenges facing the agri-food system need to be interconnected and systemic.

In this context, short food supply chains (SFSCs), which aim to shorten the distance between production and consumption in the provision of food (Marsden et al., 2002), appear promising. Ranging from farmers’ markets, to community supported agriculture (CSA) projects, and to alternative food retail chains – to name a few examples – SFSCs appear as innovative forms of reorganizing the food system from global to local, giving visibility and face to the largely obscure and anonymous conditions of food production that characterize the conventional food system (CFS).

But do they live up to this promise? While the literature has started to examine SFSCs from a variety of perspectives, this has not, as yet, been carried out in a systematic and comprehensive manner. In particular, a large proportion of monographs and edited volumes have a specific focus on the rise of social movements in this context, rather than on SFSCs. Thus, Gottlieb and Joshi (2010) recount the evolution of the food justice movement in the USA. Alkon and Agyeman (2011) investigate how race and class inequalities develop in the food system and give future directions for the food justice movement. Hayes-Conroy (2014) examines the evolution of the organic movement in the USA; studying school gardens and slow food movements in Berkeley, California and rural Nova Scotia, she questions the tendency of alternative food activism to promote sameness over social difference. Hunt (2015) undertakes a historical analysis of the local food movement in the UK and the USA and examines, in a comparative fashion, its role in developing effective national policy strategies. Two relatively recent reports by Santini et al. (2013) and Galli and Brunori (2013) provide a meta-analysis of the literature on SFSCs regarding their impact on sustainability and health followed by a number of case-studies from European Union (EU) countries. Although insightful, these reports are largely empirical and lack the theoretical basis which could contextualize and explain the observed impact. Moreover, a number of edited volumes examine broader questions of the effectiveness and legitimacy of agri-food system governance but lack any specific focus on SFSCs (e.g. Clapp and Fuchs, 2009; Havinga et al., 2015; Rayfuse, 2012; Spaargaren et al., 2012).

There is a gap, then, in a theoretically informed and systematic understanding of the potential of SFSCs to provide an adequate response to the economic, social and environmental – i.e. sustainability – agri-food system challenges. This book aims to address this gap. Analytically, it draws on and advances two key concepts: place (particularly embeddedness in local networks and communities) and governance (particularly the aspects of agency – i.e. the capacity to act and constitute in the context of plurality – and diversity and fairness – i.e. the ability to respond to the three dimensions of crisis in an inclusive and socially just manner). Empirically, the book draws on a variety of cases from Europe and North America.

The book has three main features which together signify its distinctiveness in the broader literature of food and agriculture and alternative forms of supply chain organization. More specifically: (a) it has a very distinct and solid focus on SFSCs and their variety instead of focusing on a specific type; (b) it debates SFSCs both theoretically and empirically as a viable alternative to addressing the sustainability challenges facing the contemporary agri-food system, and not simply as a temporary solution for the short term and for limited audiences; and (c) it draws on examples from the Global North, highlighting that the sustainability challenges facing the agri-food system are not endemic to developing countries but are evident at the very heart of the prosperous capitalist world, thus also underlying the need to radically rethink the global governance of food.

The broader context: the malfunctions of the conventional food system

Sustainable development is defined as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987). It consists of three pillars which seek a balanced approach towards achieving economic and social development and environmental protection. Scholars have long recognized that the conventional food system is challenging all three dimensions of sustainability. In the following we present a short overview of these challenges. Each heading is understood in its wider sense so as to provide a fuller account.

Economic

In the economic dimension of sustainability we observe three main challenges: the escalating dominance of transnational corporations (TNCs) in food supply chains; the externalization of sustainability costs on the basis of efficiency arguments; and the price volatility of commodities as a result of the financialization and concentration of the agri-food system.

More specifically, the power and global reach of the leading agro-industrial TNCs has reached unprecedented heights. Concentration is extremely high in the technology intensive chemical, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology industries, the engines of industrial agriculture. The same six TNCs control 75 per cent of all private sector plant breeding research, 60 per cent of the commercial seed market and 76 per cent of global agrochemical sales (ETC Group, 2013). In parallel, large processing industries, trading companies and supermarket chains – the “food empires”, according to van der Ploeg – increasingly exert a monopolistic power over the entire food supply chain (van der Ploeg, 2010). Private capital moves around borders and controls the global food system, under dense private regulation schemes (Kalfagianni, 2014), and is largely unaccountable. Importantly, a decreasing proportion of total value added is captured by corporate actors in long supply chains, with devastating effects on small family farms, processing firms and independent retailers.

Supporters of the large industrial agri-food model argue that, although far from ideal, food is cheaper and safer than ever before (Fresco and Poppe, 2016). They further note that for several developed countries, the proportion of household income spent on food consumption has dropped drastically (EIU, 2015). According to the neoliberal view, the success of the conventional food system is the triumph of the economic mechanisms of economies of scale and free trade. The large volume of production can guarantee low production costs while the specialization of trade partners along the lines of the principle of comparative advantage can lead to benefits for all. However, the economic efficiency of the conventional food system is highly questioned. It is well documented that the main advantage of big firms should be traced to their ability to externalize various sources of economic, social and environmental costs. The internalization of these negative externalities into prices would increase the cost of “real” food considerably with shattering effects on agri-food corporations’ profitability. According to the New Economics Foundation, if adverse environmental impacts were included, the total external cost of the UK food system is estimated to be between £11 billion and £26 billion. Hence, consumers’ effective food bill is at least 12–28 per cent greater than the price paid at the till (NEF, 2010: 5).

Further, the recent global food and financial crisis in 2008 revealed the inherent instability and vulnerability of the prevailing conventional food system. Price volatility for basic food commodities increased the number of hungry people by 75 million during 2008 and demonstrated the inefficiencies of international trade in turbulent times (McMichael and Schneider, 2011). As Clapp (2014) notes, such volatility is closely associated with the financialization of the global food system, i.e. the increasing role of financial investors on agricultural commodities futures markets. Likewise, the financial strand of the crisis revealed that relying only on a few gigantic food suppliers can be a very risky choice for the resilience of the food provision system. Due to the fundamental importance of uninterrupted food provision a more diversified production base is considered necessary in order to strengthen the resilience of the system against shocks (Sage, 2013).

Social

In the social dimension the conventional food system has been associated, among other things, with adverse health effects, lack of transparency and exclusionary consequences for local varieties of plants necessary for the survival of local food cultures.

First, the conventional food system has led to large scale homogenization of food production and consumption patterns. Heavily advertised mass produced global brands enjoy a large share in international markets. These are, however, criticized for the high content of sugar and saturated fat with several diet related concerns for human health. Currently 650 million people are obese and more than 1.2 billion are overweight (WHO, 2018). While obesity has attracted the focus of attention in the Global North, it is not just a problem for developed countries. As a result of the “retail revolution” (Reardon et al., 2007) – the fast penetration of large grocery retail chains to the developing world – a food transition is taking place resulting in a movement away from traditional nutritional patterns towards western diet products sold by supermarkets, with associated diet and health related problems (Sage, 2013).

Second, consumers are increasingly disconnected from food production as supply chains become longer and more complex. Although a variety of food labelling and certification schemes can currently be identified, their large number and diversity often serves to overwhelm consumers rather than empower them (see Van Loo et al., 2015). Simultaneously, many current efforts to increase transparency in conventional food chains are led by large TNCs which are largely unaccountable to the general public regarding their effects on (often small) suppliers and places of production.

Third, the conventional food system has been associated with the exclusion of cultural long-standing local varieties of plants and breeds which rarely comply with the strict unified quality standards set by the coordinators of long food supply products. Accordingly, they are excluded from global chains. This results in loss of taste, local variation and traditions, which is further accompanied by the loss of local knowledge and eradication of long-standing community and social networks articulated around food.

Environmental

In the environmental dimension, challenges are multiple and cumulative. Scholars warn that agriculture, in particular, is “a major force driving the environment beyond the ‘planetary boundaries’ ”, a set of earth system thresholds that have been proposed as essential to keep the earth hospitable for the human species (Foley et al., 2011). Freshwater use and biogeochemical flows are two of the boundaries particularly related to agricultural activities, but changes in biosphere integrity and climate change are closely connected as well.

More specifically, intensification of agricultural production has been associated with increased demands on water availability for irrigation (Molden and Fraiture, 2004), increased pollution from agricultural input and soil loss (Pretty et al., 2005) and increased demand for energy (Matson et al., 1997). Indeed, irrigated agriculture accounts for about 80 per cent of global water use (Molden et al., 2007), while water scarcity is a critical concern, particularly in developing countries (Fedoroff et al., 2010). Furthermore, extensive use of fertilizers pollutes both land and water, while studies simultaneously warn about a global depletion of phosphorous, which is essential for plants to grow (Gunther, 2005; Smil, 2000a, 2000b) and expected to reach its peak by 2030 (Cordell et al., 2009). Likewise, land use modification for food production results in negative impacts for the functioning of ecosystems and biodiversity (Defries et al., 2004; Geist et al., 2005; Wood et al., 2005).

Moreover, agriculture is a major contributor to climate change, accounting for 10–12 per cent of total global anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 2005 (IPCC, 2007). The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) estimates that agricultural emissions from crop and livestock production grew from 4.7 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO₂ eq.) in 2001 to over 5.3 billion tonnes in 2011, a 14 per cent increase (FAO, 2014). Simultaneously, climate change impacts on agriculture are expected to generate additional challenges for food security in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia (Fisher et al., 2012) as well as for groups with limited adaptation capacity, in particular smallholder and subsistence farmers, pastoralists and artisanal fisherfolk (IPCC, 2007).

Next to agriculture, environmental impacts occur at all stages of the supply chain. In this context, much recent at...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• Notes on contributors
• Preface
• List of abbreviations
• 1 Localizing global food: an introduction
• Part I Innovative local agri-food governance
• Part II Local agri-food systems
• Part III Alternative agri-food market channels
• Index