scholarly journals Civic agriculture in review: Then, now, and future directions

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Allison Kaika ◽  
Alexis Racelis
Keyword(s):  
Social Welfare ◽  
Supply Chains ◽  
Community Organizing ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Local Food ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Local Food Systems ◽  
Civic Agriculture ◽  
Community Theory ◽  
Civic Community

“Civic agriculture,” a term first coined by rural sociologist Thomas Lyson, refers to forms of agriculture that occur on a local level, from production to consumption, and are linked to a community’s social and economic development. Sixteen years since its original articulation, the term “civic agriculture” has taken on greater significance in research, political activism, and community organizing. Grown from the roots of civic community theory, civic agriculture functions as a new branch of civic community theory that is ripe for theorization. In revisiting the foundations of the term, this review paper seeks to consolidate current and future research in the field of civic agriculture with a focus on its link to social welfare. This begins by reviewing the foundations of civic community theory and discussing how they influence research related to civic agriculture. As we report in this paper, there remain considerable gaps in understanding of how civic agriculture can be fomented by—or is related to—indicators such as demographics, concentration of power, community cohesion, and civic engagement. Consequently, the assumed links between local food systems and social welfare must continue to be studied to determine correlation and causality. This understanding is particularly important during this time of global pandemic, when the flaws and inequities of global supply chains are exposed and where, in many cases, civic agriculture met the increasing interest in local food. The COVID-19 pandemic has amply demonstrated the fragility and instability of global food supply chains, making the need for local food systems more significant and more relevant to communities across the world.

scholarly journals Framing a Sustainable Local Food System—How Smaller Cities in Southern Germany Are Facing a New Policy Issue

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 1712 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jana Baldy
Keyword(s):  
Food Systems ◽  
Food System ◽  
Local Food ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Policy Issue ◽  
Local Food Systems ◽  
System Transformation ◽  
Agenda 21 ◽  
Southern Germany ◽  
Local Food System

Since Agenda 21, the local level has become important in terms of facing global challenges through local action. One of these is ensuring the sustainability of the food system. In German politics, this is a relatively new issue even at the local level. Nevertheless, two smaller cities in southern Germany have decided to change their local food systems towards sustainability. Hence, this paper deals with questions of how local actors are framing the food system and what this means for increasing sustainability. The analysis of qualitative interviews and participant observations based on frame analysis provides deeper insights into understandings of local food systems by actors. This paper aims to explore how framings of problems, solutions and motivations provide or restrict opportunities to increase local food system sustainability. Terms like sustainability or awareness are framed differently. Using the same term to mean different things can have negative effects on the acceptance of policymaking referring to food system transformation. Besides, this paper shows that omissions within the framing counteract the development of sustainable local food policy. Hence, it is important to reflect the political implications of absent framings as well to facilitate mutual understanding and consequently, food system change.

scholarly journals From globalism to localism: How structural economic shifts can support the local food movement

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-3
Author(s):  
Emily Duncan
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chains ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Food System ◽  
Local Food ◽  
Economic Globalization ◽  
Local Food Systems ◽  
Local Food Movement ◽  
Structural Forces ◽  
Food Movement

Local is Our Future was published shortly before the rise of the COVID-19 pandemic, yet it makes a timely contribution critiquing economic globalization given the experiences of 2020. It emphasizes the need for shorter supply chains and champions local food systems by focusing on the structural forces that currently control the food system.

scholarly journals Sprzedaż wina w ramach lokalnych systemów żywnościowych na przykładzie prawa włoskiego

2020 ◽  
pp. 203-214
Author(s):  
Anna Kapała
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chains ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Local Food ◽  
Local Food Systems ◽  
Agricultural Products ◽  
Farmers Markets ◽  
Short Supply ◽  
Special Instrument ◽  
Legal Provisions ◽  
Italian Law

The purpose of the considerations is to determine in what forms under Italian law wine producers-farmers may sell wine directly to consumers it it meets the criteria of local food systems. In this respect, the regulations on direct sales, so-called “wine routes,” agro-tourism, and farmers’ markets, as well as the “agricultural products from zero kilometres” indications have been analysed. It has been established that Italian laws allow selling wine in all the forms of the short supply chains analysed in the study. Legal provisions in this respect govern farmers and the agricultural products they produce, both unprocessed and processed, including wine. What is more, there is a special instrument created to support the sale of wine in short supply chains – “wine routes” while the Law on Agritourism explicitly allows the serving of wine produced on a given farm. All these represent a form of implementing the idea of local food systems where the conditions such as close proximity between the place of production and the place of sale, direct or close social relationship between the producer and the consumer, the lack of intermediaries or the participation of only one intermediary, are satisfied.

scholarly journals LOCAL FOOD SYSTEMS, SHORT SUPPLY CHAINS AND PERCEPTION OF LOCAL FOOD BY CONSUMERS: A REVIEW AND QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH

2018 ◽  
Vol 50 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Monika Radzymińska ◽  
Dominika Jakubowska
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chains ◽  
Quantitative Research ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Local Food ◽  
Local Food Systems ◽  
Environmental Benefits ◽  
Short Supply ◽  
Young Consumers ◽  
Production And Distribution ◽  
Indirect Technique

The purpose of this paper was to depict a concept of local food systems and short supply chains as well as to determine how local food is perceived and to identify local food attributes of relevance for the marketing communication targeted at young people. This paper consists of two parts. The first one presents the concepts of local food systems and short supply chains based on the analysis of literature data. The sec- ond part describes the results of a quantitative study on the young consumers’ perception of and willingness to buy local food. Based on an indirect technique, the study was carried out with a group of 155 Polish students. The questionnaire survey demonstrated that when characterizing local food, young consumers invoked the socioeconomic benefits relat- ed to its production. They paid less attention to the specific attributes of food products and to environmental benefits of their production and distribution, which might suggest that the initiatives undertaken to promote those products were poor- ly effective. The research results provide a useful source of knowledge for small local food businesses and policymakers engaged in supporting local food systems (especially public sector bodies and researchers).

The public plate in the transnational city: Tensions among food procurement, global trade and local legislation

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-42
Author(s):  
Jennifer Sumner ◽  
Hayley Lapalme
Keyword(s):  
Food Systems ◽  
Food System ◽  
Local Food ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Public Institutions ◽  
Local Food Systems ◽  
Global Trade ◽  
Sustainable Food ◽  
Local Food System ◽  
Playing Field

Local food systems are crucial to sustainability, and one of the most effective ways to develop them is to harness the buying power of large public institutions, such as hospitals and universities.  Steering public funds toward local food systems, however, is not as easy as it might appear.  Institutions must navigate a maze of regulations that can become significant barriers to effecting change.  In Ontario, for example, public institutions are squeezed between two contradictory policies: the Broader Public Sector Directive, which mandates a level playing field and prohibits preferential buying based on geography, and the Local Food Act, which aims to increase the consumption of local food (with a specific focus on procurement in Ontario public institutions) and to foster successful and resilient local food economies and systems.  Adding to this tension, global trade treaties are drilling down to the local level, proscribing preferential procurement of local food as “protectionist” and a barrier to trade.    Public institutions are caught in the middle, wanting to purchase more local products but unwilling to risk reprisals.  This paper investigates these tensions by reporting on a recent study of institutional buyers and government officials in the Toronto area to understand more thoroughly these barriers to operationalizing a local food system, while recognizing that sustainable food systems require a judicious combination of ‘local and green’ and ‘global and fair’ (Morgan 2008).

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