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Short food chain activities: some reflections and future directions
for researchDamian Maye
Countryside and Community Research Institute, Gloucester
‘Food from here’ Conference, Coventry University
3rd July 2013
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Short food chains and the rural development dynamic
• The ‘quality turn’ (Ilbery & Kneafsey, 2000)• SFSCs: niche market; retain added value;
more direct connections with consumers• 3 types (Marsden et al., 2000): face-to-face;
spatially proximate; spatially extended• Protect rural places; the ‘rural local’ • CAP reforms; endogenous rural dev.
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Short food chains and the rural development dynamic
• SFSCs = new agrarian model of rural dev.• The IMPACT study (Ploeg et al., 2000;
Marsden et al, 2002; Renting et al., 2003)• “The ability of quality products to secure premium
prices and so generate excess profits is a central plank of (this) market-led, value added model” (Goodman 2004: 8; emphasis added).
• Need to extend SFSC focus beyond the ‘rural local’ arena and the activities covered.
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Recent ‘food system shocks’
• Horsemeat scandal• Food price inflation• Food security = new food policy master
frame (Mooney and Hunt; 2009; Maye and Kirwan, 2013)
• Shocks redefine and revalue SFSCs concept?• Value-added model is too narrow?• Multiple transition pathways
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Landscape Pressures
MainstreamFood System
Bottom Up Innovations
Time
Scales of Transition
Adapted from Geels & Schott, 2007
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UK food security discourse: where are LFNs/SFSCs?
• ‘Official’ UK food security discourse• LFNs/SFSC activities are sidelined (Kirwan
and Maye, 2013)• Support is rhetorical• Sector-level aggregate data are missing• Sustainable fs is not achieved by expanding
LFNs/the SFSC niche
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Alternative transition pathways?
• This dismissive view of LFNs/SFSCs is a missed opportunity?
• Need to focus more on the micro-level and community needs
• Market-orientated SFSC model describes ‘first generation’ food relocalisation (Goodman et al., 2012)
• But mix of community-orientated projects7
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Local Food programme
• £60 million programme.
• Launched in 2007.
• Distributes funds to more than 500 food related projects, ranging from small grants of £2000 up to £500,000.
• Aim: to make locally grown food accessible and affordable to local communities.
• Ongoing evaluation from November 2009-March 2014. 8
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LF activity types funded:
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Community food growing
Education & Learning
Allotments
School grounds
Sharing best practise / networking
Celebrating food cultures
Community supported agriculture
Catering
Community gardens
Food co-ops
City farms
Farmers markets
Redistribution of Food
Box schemes
Community land management
Composting
Social enterprise
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160
155
115
59
56
19
16
15
14
14
11
9
9
6
3
3
2
1
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General observations
• LF supporting community-based projects• Mobilising SFSC concept at community scale• Activities extend beyond ‘rural local’ model• Many LF projects are not about food (i.e.
more than just the veg); pretext & vector for social agency (Kirwan et al., 2013)
• Many LF projects are urban/peri-urban.
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Civic food networks
• Introduced by Renting et al (2012) to examine new sources of c-p innovation.
• The role of civil society as a governance mechanism for agri-food networks has increased in significance.
• Changing relations between agri-food networks and urban-rural relations; often cities are the starting point.
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Short chain activities in urban and peri-urban contexts• SUPURBFOOD (www.supurbfood.eu)• Food policy now viewed as an urban issue• The city-region concept (see Jonas, 2012)• Three activities:
– Closing waste, water & nutrient cycles– Shortening food chains– Multi-functional land use
• Synergies & innovative policy frameworks12
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Conclusions
• LFNs/SFSCs and the ‘rural local’• Official fs policy has sidelined LFNs/SFSCs• Need to reassess/revalue the form these
networks take and where they take place• Social and community values; civic food
networks; peri-urban and urban contexts• Proactive forms of place-based governance
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