More time in the kitchen,less time on the streets: the micropolitics of cultivating an ethic of care in alternative food networks

There is increased attention to alternative food efforts as individuals and groups seek to build stronger local food infrastructures to increase accessibility, transparency, and fairness with how food is grown, produced, and distributed. In considering individuals and families contending with food injustices and insecurities; concerns and questions have surfaced about what it means to privilege the leadership and participation of these communities in alternative food efforts. While there are no linear answers to these questions, this paper explores how one statewide food network in the United States seeks to involve youth contending with the juvenile justice system in a job readiness programme, Youth Kitchen, that interfaces the youth with farmers, chef educators, community organisations, and farmers markets. This paper contends that integrating alternative food and juvenile justice work is a complex terrain that both advances social justice and reproduces existing power asymmetries within alternative food networks. The inclusion of accounts from multiple stakeholders in the local food and juvenile justice system generates a multilayered view that moves away from an either sustainability or social justice rubric to a more process-oriented lens that reveals the strategic dilemmas that alternative food networks encounter. On the one hand, the social landscape of this programme promotes an ethic of care and shared ownership between the staff and participating youth. At the same time, akin to many alternative food networks, neoliberal interests bump against this ethic of care and white privilege seeps into staffing patterns and everyday programmes in ways that reproduce the status quo.     

Tomato journeys from farm to fruit shop

Popular calls to buy products with fewer embodied greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions belie the complexity involved in providing accurate information necessary for such consumer decisions to be effective. This study follows greenhouse-grown tomatoes from Australian farms to fruit shops in Sydney, Australia and investigates practicalities of accounting for GHG emissions in this fresh food chain. Data came from semi-structured interviews with farmers, wholesalers who operate at the (wholesale) Sydney Markets and retailers. GHG emissions were estimated using quantitative methodologies including Australian National Greenhouse Account Factors. A qualitative analysis of stakeholder views and knowledge was also conducted. Conclusions include that, per unit of tomatoes, on-farm GHG emissions appear far greater than those from fuel used for transport to Sydney Markets, and from wholesale or retail activities. Food mile or more comprehensive carbon labelling would probably not be practical for this supply chain. Factors likely to affect potential change among higher emitting participants are costs and availability of lower GHG-emitting practices. Mixed-method studies help identify parts of a chain to target emission reduction efforts.     

Co-creating an alternative: the moral economy of participating in farmers’ markets

Growing dissatisfaction with the globalised food system, articulated on the behalf of both producers and consumers, has caused a variety of public debates surrounding the ethics of food production and consumption to become increasingly visible in society over the last two decades. Simultaneously, farmers’ markets (FMs) and other forms of direct marketing have experienced a noteworthy increase in participants, indicating an emerging demand for an alternative to conventional food networks, alternatives that are often perceived as providing a more just and moral relationship to food production and consumption. This study examines consumer and producer motivations for participation in FMs and opinions towards conventional and alternative agriculture in order to elucidate what (if any) values and morals are shared among producers and consumers. This study draws upon the theoretical framework of moral economy to understand whether these shared values suggest FM participants are working to co-create an alternative economy based on “moral” principles such as fairness, justice, and reciprocity. This mixed-methods study consists of consumer surveys (N?=?377) and semi-structured interviews with producers (N?=?17) from five FMs in the state of Delaware. The results suggest that producer and consumer motivations to participate in FMs, particularly a shared emphasis on social value, are indicative of a sense of moral economy. However, this moral economy is complicated by tension towards consumers and the alternative food movement more generally expressed on behalf of producers.     

The livestock revolution, food safety, and small-scale farmers: why they matter to us all

Global consumption, production, and trade of livestock products have increased rapidly in the last two decades and are expected to continue. At the same time, safety concerns regarding human and animal disease associated with livestock products are increasing. Efforts to increase public health safety standards aimed at legitimately reducing the risks of human and animal disease have focused internationally on standards to regulate the movement of livestock products. There is concern, though, that measures to regulate these standards internationally, such as the WTO SPS measures that in part aim to open international markets, may marginalize small-scale poor producers. The cycle of poverty they are trying to escape through livestock production may, in fact, widen, leading to increased global poverty, malnutrition, and disease. Developing and developed nations alike should be concerned with public and private efforts to address appropriate food safety policies to reduce the likelihood of this effect. Analysis of the impact on small-scale livestock farmers is needed, as well as solutions that consider joint public and private sector initiatives. Costly farm to table tracking systems are not an option, but locally orchestrated vertically integrated systems may have merit in reducing food safety risks and in providing small-scale farmers with increased access to markets, locally and internationally. Increased scientific and technical capacity, and training of WTO officials from developing nations is also needed.     

Does The World Need U.S. Farmers Even If Americans Don’t?

We consider the implications of trends in the number of U.S. farmers and food imports on the question of what role U.S. farmers have in an increasingly global agrifood system. Our discussion stems from the argument some scholars have made that American consumers can import their food more cheaply from other countries than it can produce it. We consider the distinction between U.S. farmers and agriculture and the effect of the U.S. food footprint on developing nations to argue there might be an important role for U.S. farmers, even if it appears Americans don’t need them. For instance, we may need to protect U.S. farmland and, by implication, U.S. farmers, for future food security needs both domestic and international. We also explore the role of U.S. farmers by considering the question of whether food is a privilege or a right. Although Americans seem to accept that food is a privilege, many scholars and commentators argue that, at least on a global scale, food is a right, particularly for the world’s poor and hungry. If this is the case, then U.S. farmers might have a role in meeting the associated obligation to ensure that the poor of the world have enough food to eat. We look at the consequences of determining that food is a right versus a privilege and the implications of that decision for agricultural subsidies as well as U.S. agriculture and nutrition policies.     

Reconciling food and bioenergy feedstock supply in emerging economies: Evidence from Jiangsu Province in China

This study takes the perspective of emerging economies as an independent group to answer the question of how to reconcile food supply and bioenergy feedstock provision, a critical topic in bioenergy research. While much of the literature has covered this issue, the role of emerging economies has rarely been explored. Due to their transitional status in the world economy, solutions from this group can facilitate the diffusion of modern bioenergy from industrialized countries to least developed ones. This paper uses Jiangsu Province in China as a case study to analyze its local practice on the reconciliation between food and bioenergy. Local experience reveals that the key is the use of cellulosic biomass, whose sources are straws of food crops on arable lands and energy crops on reclaimed mudflats. To ensure a sustainable provision of cellulosic biomass, it is necessary to involve the entire bioenergy supply chain consisting of smallholder farmers, haulers and bioenergy plant operators. For the management of the supply chain, we compare two options, “Multiple to Multiple” and “Multiple to One”, where the second option is more adequate to shape a long-term stable relationship between biomass suppliers and consumers and thus facilitate the introduction of energy crops.     

Exploring the Potential of Dutch Pig Farmers and Urban-Citizens to Learn Through Frame Reflection

The Dutch pig husbandry has become a topic of public debate. One underlying cause is that pig farmers and urban-citizens have different perspectives and underlying norms, values and truths on pig husbandry and animal welfare. One way of dealing with such conflicts involves a learning process in which a shared vision is developed. A prerequisite for this process is that both parties become aware of their own fixed patterns of thoughts, actions, and blind spots. Therefore, we conducted five homogeneous focus groups consisting of either urban-citizens or pig farmers. The first part of the sessions aimed to make the participants aware of their own perspectives and underlying norms and values concerning animal welfare, farm practices or consumer behavior. Then, by the use of role-play and film fragments showing the perspectives of the other party, we aimed to stimulate frame reflection. The farmers maintained their own perspective and defended their practices. They denied the perspective of the urban-citizens by portraying them as ignorant of the “factual” farm practices. They proposed the use of one-way information, but our results indicate that this is likely to fail as a strategy to support or restore public acceptance. Our case shows hardy any consensus regarding the relevance of the facts at stake and a very limited amount of shared values. However, the shared love for animals together with the recognition by the urban-citizens of the inescapable dilemma for farmers to adopt a use-framing towards animals might provide an opening for further learning strategies.     

The causes of food waste in the supplier-retailer interface: Evidences from the UK and Spain

Food and drink waste is a significant problem for economic, environmental and food security reasons. Government efforts have focused on diverting waste away from landfill through regulation, taxation and public awareness. However, efforts to understand why waste occurs have been limited, particularly in the interface between retailers and suppliers. This research aims to address this problem by identifying the main root causes of waste in the supplier-retailer interface.The research is exploratory in nature as there is a paucity of studies focusing on food waste across the supply chain. Data were collected through 43 interviews with managers in food manufacturing, wholesaling and retailing in two countries: the UK (24) and Spain (19). Data from the interviews and supplementary documentation were analyzed using causal maps. This approach helped to identify the main root causes of waste which were categorized into three groups: (1) mega-trends in the marketplace, (2) natural causes related to the products and processes, and (3) management root causes on which practitioners have a direct impact.The paper discusses the root causes of food waste and good practices identified from the interviews. Differences between the UK and Spain are discussed, presenting potential learning opportunities for practitioners in these countries and highlighting opportunities for further research.     

Contemporary and traditional localism: a conceptualisation of rural local food

The increasingly popular local food movement in the US has experienced wide-scale buy-in on behalf of the general public as well as in academic arenas. However, there have been recent efforts to critique this movement, typically for being inequitable and unfairly geared towards those with above-average financial means. In this article, I examine local food efforts and present a new conceptualisation of food localism. While geographically localised food consumption activities are taking place, some have ideological labels attached to them, whereas others do not. What I have termed contemporary and traditional localisms exist in the same physical but different social space. The contemporary local is represented by current local food initiatives and corresponding aspirations to support local farmers and to promote sustainability through local purchasing behaviour. The traditional local, on the other hand, is similar in that it represents food growing activities that are in close geographical proximity to consumption, but lacks the motivation associated with the contemporary local's programmatic literature; instead, it is guided by a motivation to obtain fresh and affordable food. I substantiate the contemporary/traditional localism framework with qualitative fieldwork findings from Grafton County, New Hampshire, USA, and describe the practical as well as conceptual implications of this framework.     

Role of behavioural factors in green supply chain management implementation in Indian mining industries

Green supply chain management (GSCM) integrates ecological concepts with those of supply chain management in order to minimize energy and material usage and to reduce adverse impacts of supply chain activities on the environment. GSCM implementation in mining industries depends largely upon certain factors which are influenced by human behaviours. Human behaviour is dynamic in nature and the relationships between them continuously evolve and change. In this ever-changing context, therefore, identifying and ranking the behavioural factors that affect GSCM implementation becomes essential. This can be taken as a reference by the decision makers while deciding the hierarchy of action necessary for effective implementation of green practices in mining supply chains. The present research attempts to explore various behavioural factors affecting GCSM practices and their interactions which help to attain green-enabled needs. Interpretive structural modelling (ISM) is employed in this research to extract the interrelationships among the identified behavioural factors.     

A Conceptual Approach for a Quantitative Economic Analysis of Farmers’ Decision-Making Regarding Animal Welfare

Decisions related to animal welfare (AW) standards depend on farmer’s multiple goals and values and are constrained by a wide range of external and internal forces. The aim of this paper is twofold, i.e., (1) to develop a theoretical framework for farmers’ AW decisions that incorporates farmers’ goals, use and non-use values and (2) to present an approach to empirically implement the theoretical framework. The farmer as a head of the farm household makes choices regarding production to maximize the utility of the household. The overall utility of the farmer is determined by his multiple objectives. For the analysis of multi-objective problems, the multiple criteria decision-making paradigm provides an appropriate theoretical framework. However, theories from the field of social-psychology are needed to facilitate the identification of all relevant aspects in the decision making (i.e., factors that explain behavior). The practical use of the conceptual framework is demonstrated using a simple numerical application of a multi-objective programming model. Two workshops were devoted to examining the scientific consistency and the practical usefulness of the approach. Implementing this approach will increase knowledge of the main factors and barriers that determine farmers’ decisions with regard to AW standards. This knowledge is relevant during the development of new AW concepts that aims to supply products that comply with above-legal AW standards for middle-market segments.     

Sustainability: A Study of the Level of Ecological Behavior of Postgraduate Students in Brazil

The decline in the supply of natural resources is a cause for concern, especially given continued worldwide population growth. New habits and attitudes toward resource use are slowly being introduced into the everyday lives of persons residing in a number of countries. The term “ecological behavior” refers to acting in favor of the environment, whether these actions are voluntarily or not, or learned or not (Pato & Tamayo, 2006 ). The general objective of this study is to identify the environmental behavior—one of several terms used interchangeably with ecological behavior—of graduate students from a Brazilian federal institution of higher education. We chose this particular group because many of them already act, or will act, as professors. Thus, by virtue of their positions, they will function as opinion leaders who will influence the education of future professionals, establishing a chain through which shared values can gradually change the environmental behavior of society.     

Farmers’ markets – linking food consumption and the ecology of food production?

Urban and industrialised societies usually involve little connection between consumers and the resource base upon which the production of goods depends. Changing this situation could potentially enhance social and ecological sustainability. This study explored ecological aspects of the educational role of local food supply, with the aim of identifying signs of enhanced consumer understanding or awareness of the ecology of food production resulting from producer–consumer interaction. A series of qualitative interviews were carried out with customers at a farmers’ market in Stockholm. The results showed that the interviewees were mainly concerned with quality, price and taste, and not production conditions. In addition, a number of interviewees experienced a sense of trust when shopping at the market. We found few examples of contributions to ecological knowledge among customers at the market, but there were some examples of learning opportunities. The local food supplied by the market reminded customers of the seasonality of production. Stallholders also provided information on how to store, prepare and cook vegetables, which may encourage a change in diet that is preferable from an environmental standpoint.     

The Organic Food Philosophy: A Qualitative Exploration of the Practices, Values, and Beliefs of Dutch Organic Consumers Within a Cultural–Historical Frame

Food consumption has been identified as a realm of key importance for progressing the world towards more sustainable consumption overall. Consumers have the option to choose organic food as a visible product of more ecologically integrated farming methods and, in general, more carefully produced food. This study aims to investigate the choice for organic from a cultural–historical perspective and aims to reveal the food philosophy of current organic consumers in The Netherlands. A concise history of the organic food movement is provided going back to the German Lebensreform and the American Natural Foods Movement. We discuss themes such as the wish to return to a more natural lifestyle, distancing from materialistic lifestyles, and reverting to a more meaningful moral life. Based on a number of in-depth interviews, the study illustrates that these themes are still of influence among current organic consumers who additionally raised the importance of connectedness to nature, awareness, and purity. We argue that their values are shared by a much larger part of Dutch society than those currently shopping for organic food. Strengthening these cultural values in the context of more sustainable food choices may help to expand the amount of organic consumers and hereby aid a transition towards more sustainable consumption.     

Incentives to improve farm management: EMS, supply-chains and civil society

This paper focuses on impediments to environmentally sound management practices and how these might be overcome, with an emphasis on the role of environmental management systems, supply chains and civil society. It argues that: Farmers are under increased pressure to cut costs and improve production but with little opportunity to increase prices. Commonly short-term economic interest has damaging environmental implications. Current government policy, in Australia and in many other jurisdictions, relies heavily on voluntary arrangements, education and information, as the main policy instruments through which to persuade farmers to adopt better environmental farm management - e.g. the recent push to encourage the use of voluntary environmental management systems. However, there is good evidence to suggest that these can only make a valuable contribution when combined with a range of other policy instruments, including positive and negative incentives, intervention by third parties and in some cases, an underpinning of regulation. Arguably, what is needed is a strategy that builds on the strengths of voluntary environmental management arrangements while compensating for their weaknesses by combining them with other, complementary policy instruments. If so, we must engage with a range of questions that have not so far figured substantially in the policy debate. Although the principal focus has been on the role of government in bringing about on-farm change in management practices, supply chain pressure (at least in respect of agricultural chemicals and practices which threaten food safety) and civil society action are also potentially powerful mechanisms for bringing about change. Government can and should play a role in harnessing such forces in the interests of improved environmental on-farm practices.     

On Governance, Embedding and Marketing: Reflections on the Construction of Alternative Sustainable Food Networks

Based on the reconstruction of the development of 14 food supply chain initiatives in 7 European countries, we developed a conceptual framework that demonstrates that the process of increasing the sustainability of food supply chains is rooted in strategic choices regarding governance, embedding, and marketing and in the coordination of these three dimensions that are inextricably interrelated. The framework also shows that when seeking to further develop an initiative (e.g., through scaling up or product diversification) these interrelations need continuous rebalancing. We argue that the framework can serve different purposes: it can be used as an analytical tool by researchers studying food supply chain dynamics, as a policy tool by policymakers that want to support the development of sustainable food supply chains, and as a reflexive tool by practitioners and their advisors to help them to position themselves, develop a clear strategy, find the right allies, develop their skills, and build the capacities that they need. In this paper, we elaborate upon the latter function of the framework and illustrate this briefly with empirical evidence from three of the initiatives that we studied.     

Human urine as a source of alternative natural fertilizer in agriculture: A flight of fancy or an achievable reality

Organically agricultural products are gaining popularities through out the world as it gives the consumer satisfaction with a basket of safer and better trusted foods. It is also well established that intensive conventional agricultural practices can introduce contaminants into the food chain with adverse affect on environment. However, organic agricultural practices give an alternative environmental friendly sustainable agriculture among the farmers. Beside this fact, organic crops contain fewer nitrates, nitrites, pesticide residues and trace elements than conventional crops. Even though, in organic systems generally have 20% lower yields than conventionally produced crops. One of the major constrains of organic farming is decrease of raw organic matters to prepare compost. Therefore, scientists are looking forward for different organic sources which are plenty in nature and available at little-to-no cost. Human urine is one of them, and has been gaining popularities as a raw material for organic cultivation. However, several important merits and demerits of application of human urine are needed to be addressed in agriculture.     

Supplier codes of conduct: Company authorization of subcontractors

Companies continue to build greater sustainability and transparency in their supply chains to increase their business value and to respond to greater stakeholder pressures and expectations to increase sustainability and transparency. As company supply chains have grown and expanded, which presents increased challenges for building greater transparency, it is possible that the use of subcontractors in supply chains has also increased. The amount and impact of subcontracting conducted in supply chains may be of greater concern to certain companies and/or sectors than others, and it may have an important impact on their sustainability efforts. This article assesses the extent to which supplier codes of conduct apply to the use of subcontractors and include a requirement for suppliers to obtain prior company approval or authorization before subcontractors conduct work. Based on a review of more than 50 supplier codes of conduct, the companies that are highlighted in this article for including this requirement are primarily in the apparel/footwear, food, pharmaceuticals, and/or retail sectors. The article asserts that supplier codes of conduct that include requirements for suppliers to protect and safeguard confidential business information could be strengthened to further protect the company's products, integrity, and reputation/brand and increase its competitiveness and resilience by also including a requirement of prior approval or authorization of a supplier's use of subcontractors.     

An environmental assessment of food supply chains: a case study on dessert apples

The contemporary food system provides consumers with convenience, extensive choice, and the year-round availability of fresh produce. In this paper these achievements are recognized within the context of the associated environmental impacts. While many analyses have considered the energy and material efficiency of various options for food production and packaging, very few studies have investigated the environmental impacts of the transport components of food supply chains. This is surprising, given that the global sourcing of food produce, centralized distribution systems, and shopping by car have become prevalent in recent decades and have contributed to an increase in the distance between producer and consumer or “food miles.” In a case study the transport energy consumption is calculated for all possible ways in which dessert apples can be supplied to the UK consumer. The aim is to assess the environmental performance of the predominant fresh produce supply chains and to investigate claims that localized systems are more environmentally efficient. The main criteria used to compare the environmental efficiency in alternative food supply chains are the transport-related fossil-fuel energy consumption and associated carbon dioxide emissions. Analysis of the empirical data shows that transportation is now responsible for a considerable fraction of the total energy consumption in the life cycle of fresh apples, and in most cases exceeds the energy consumed in commercial apple cultivation. By developing local production and marketing systems for fresh products, transport demand can be reduced and many of the environmental impacts associated with existing supply chains can be avoided. The results of the study are then discussed in relation to the wider issues of transport policy, international trade, food security, and product-related environmental information for consumers.     

Farming and Landscape Management: How French Farmers are Coping with the Ecologization of Their Activities

In Europe, an increasing share of public subsidies for food production is being transferred towards the production of goods and environmental services. Today, farmers hesitate between the quest for technical and economic performance, which has been the paradigm of their professional activities since the 1960s, on one hand, and taking account of the environmental concerns that have been imposed since the middle of the 80s, on the other. Is it possible for farmers to continue to work according to the paradigm of the producer of agri-food goods, and how do they react to the ecologization of their activities? In this paper, we will see the difficulties and sources of tension induced by landscape maintenance in the daily professional practice of the farmers. We will see that the professional identity of the farmers is profoundly brought into question by these changes (substitution of strictly “agricultural issues” by more general concerns such as “rural issues,” substitution of the farmer by the “ecologized” peasant...). The topic of landscape reveals social strains between farmers. It also raises the question of the legitimacy of farmers to define the sense of their activities by themselves. Finally we will see that environmental orientations do not systematically open up new prospects for all farmers; they sometimes contribute to increase the inequalities between farmers (financial support proportional to land property, marginalization of farmers who are less socially integrated...).