Journal
AGROECOLOGY AND SUSTAINABLE FOOD SYSTEMS
Volume 45, Issue 7, Pages 1050-1082Publisher
TAYLOR & FRANCIS INC
DOI: 10.1080/21683565.2021.1913690
Keywords
Agroecology; local food systems; alternative food networks; local governance; sustainability dimensions; territory
Funding
- Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities [RTI2018-093970-B-C31]
- Junta de Andalucia [Andalusian Regional Government] [UPO-1260167]
- Spanish Ministry for the Ecological Transition for the Third Sector Organizations
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The fragmented and small-scale alternative food systems and networks around the world need to be scaled up to have a significant impact on food production and consumption. This study critically reviewed scientific literature on alternative food networks and systems to propose principles for establishing Agroecology-based Local Agri-food Systems (ALAS) from an agroecological perspective.
Alternative food systems and networks, which have emerged around the world, are often fragmentary, reduced in size and frequently unfold in parallel, hardly linked to each other. Agroecology faces the challenge of scaling up these initiatives to gain size and a significant impact on food production and consumption. Within the agroecological movement, however, diverse conceptions exist of what a sustainable food system should be. It is thus necessary to reach an extensive consensus, from the perspective of agroecology, on the principles guiding the construction of such a system. This paper discusses the principles that would best steer the building of Agroecology-based Local Agri-food Systems (ALAS). To this end, a critical review of the scientific literature on alternative food networks and systems was performed. In so doing, we highlighted the aspects that one could consider as purely agroecological in nature and sought to bring them together to form a coherent proposal. Consequently, the present paper systematizes the main contributions of literature on alternative food networks and systems, taking into account the characteristics of sustainability from an agroecology viewpoint, and identifies the issues requiring further development. Several principles are proposed to define local food systems, based on the four dimensions of sustainability: environmental health, economic viability, social equity and the right to decide what, how and for whom food is produced.
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