Distributed, Interconnected and Democratic Agri-Food Economies: New Directions in Research

Dear Colleagues,

Agri-food economies are socio-technical systems converting natural resources into food and ecosystem services and distributing them to consumers mainly through supply chains and markets. This book considers agri-food economies as “economies on their own” distinct to economies in general since they deliver food, which is indispensable for the continuity and quality of human life, and they are located at the complex interface between nature and society.

Today, technological global agri-food economies dominated by vertically integrated, large enterprises are failing in meeting the challenge of feeding a growing global population within the limits of “planetary boundaries” and they are characterized by a “triple fracture” between agri-food economies and their three constitutive elements: nature, consumers and producers.

In parallel to this crisis, new eco-ethical driven agri-food economies are built around new farming and food distribution practices. By exploring these new emerging agri-food economies in both developing and developed countries, this book develops a multidisciplinary discussion on the re-construction of local and regional agri-food economies as a solution to existing global agri-food economy crises. At a farm level, in contrast with the specialization and productivism of the modernized farming model, new farming practices grounded in ecological and biocultural principles and multifunctional diversification have emerged. At the supply chain and market level, in the last twenty years, we have witnessed the emergence of alternative food networks (AFNs) and/or short food supply chains (SFSCs,): alternative arrangements to the more standardized or conventional food supply and distribution chains, which relies on the notions of ‘ diversity’ ‘equity’ ‘transparency’, ‘quality’, ‘place’, and ‘sustainability’ and ‘community’. In alterity to the deterritorialization of the global agro-industrial food chain, the reterritorialization processes of AFNs/SFSCs moves towards food re-localization and re-socialization.

Despite the continuing multiplication of AFNs/SFSCs, the share of these new production-distribution arrangements still remains small compared to conventional food systems and, in recent years, there is growing interest in the challenge of how these “innovation niches” can grow to affect broader systemic impacts and eventually became “mainstream”. Avoiding the risk of the “local trap”, “defensive localism”, and overcoming the sharp dichotomy between “alternative” and “conventional”, this book explores nested markets, “values-based food supply chains” (in the US) and “mid-tier supply chains” (in France) as new hybrid organizational forms of supply chains and food markets, which aim at scaling local food without eroding their authenticity or detracting from the overarching objective of contributing to a more sustainable and socially just food system.

With the globalization/deterritorialization of food supply chains, urban–rural linkages have weakened or even disappeared; cities have been disconnected from their rural surroundings and they have become increasingly dependent on the global industrialized food system. From both the perspectives of developing and developed countries, the book investigates these innovative food supply chains and markets emerging in rural and urban areas, focusing on reinforcing the rural-urban linkages.

The localized/regionalized agri-food economies are not the outcome of the “invisible hand” of the market but are a social construction of economic, social, and political actors working together. Indeed, the book also introduces local food government programs and policies that address barriers to growth in local food production and directly support local food purchases serving as a catalyst for further growth of local food markets.

We invite case studies, theoretical, or literature review papers aiming at presenting and analyzing different approaches adopted to conceptualize re-territorialization strategies at micro level (agroecology, multifunctional diversification; ecosystem services; climate smart agriculture) at meso level (Alternative Food Networks; Short Food Supply Chains; Values Based Food Supply Chains; Complex Adaptive Food Systems) and paper presenting and analyzing rural, agricultural and food reterritorialization policies

Dr. Giaime Berti
Prof. Dr. Moya Kneafsey
Prof. Larry Lev
Dr. Irene Monasterolo
Prof. Sergio Schneider
Guest Editors

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• Agri-food economies
• sustainable food systems
• alternative food networks
• local food systems
• value-based food supply chains
• nested markets
• food policy
• multifunctional agriculture
• city-region food systems