Agroecology and Alternative Agrifood Movements in the United States: Towards a Sustainable Agrifood System

Fernandez, Margarita; Goodall, Katherine; Olson, Meryl; Méndez, V. Ernesto

doi:10.1080/10440046.2012.735633

Cited by 45 publications

(49 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…In an urban food system, food production includes aspects like quantity of food ( Grewal 2012;Ackerman et al 2014), quality of food (Caputo 2012;Fernandez et al 2013;Ackerman et al 2014), the range of products (Armar-Klemesu 2001) and pest and contamination risks (Ackerman 2011;Lang and Barling 2012).…”

Section: Food Productionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Contributing to food security in urban areas: differences between urban agriculture and peri-urban agriculture in the Global North

et al. 2015

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Food security is becoming an increasingly relevant topic in the Global North, especially in urban areas. Because such areas do not always have good access to nutritionally adequate food, the question of how to supply them is an urgent priority in order to maintain a healthy population. Urban and peri-urban agriculture, as sources of local fresh food, could play an important role. Whereas some scholars do not differentiate between peri-urban and urban agriculture, seeing them as a single entity, our hypothesis is that they are distinct, and that this has important consequences for food security and other issues. This has knock-on effects for food system planning and has not yet been appropriately analysed. The objectives of this study are to provide a systematic understanding of urban and peri-urban agriculture in the Global North, showing their similarities and differences, and to analyse their impact on urban food security. To this end, an extensive literature review was conducted, resulting in the identification and comparison of their spatial, ecological and socio-economic characteristics. The findings are discussed in terms of their impact on food security in relation to the four levels of the food system: food production, processing, distribution and consumption. The results show that urban and peri-urban agriculture in the Global North indeed differ in most of their characteristics and consequently also in their ability to meet the food needs of urban inhabitants. While urban agriculture still meets food needs mainly at the household level, peri-urban agriculture can provide larger quantities and has broader distribution pathways, giving it a separate status in terms of food security. Nevertheless, both possess (unused) potential, making them valuable for urban food planning, and both face similar threats regarding urbanisation pressures, necessitating adequate planning measures.

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Section: Food Productionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In an urban food system, food distribution includes aspects of food access (Macias 2008;Block et al 2012;Meenar and Hoover 2012;Fernandez et al 2013) and food miles (Brown and Carter 2003).…”

Section: Food Distributionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contributing to food security in urban areas: differences between urban agriculture and peri-urban agriculture in the Global North

et al. 2015

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“…Yet, it is clear that tourist regions need terroir products, everywhere you go, such products are part of the local economy." There is thus a societal demand for cultural services, and to furnish these services, a transition in livestock farming is required towards the emergence of alternative agri-food systems (Fernandez et al 2012). These systems aim to bring producers and consumers closer together by opposing, in a more or less radical manner, the dominant food system .…”

Section: 3mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The difficulties encountered in Pays de Rennes can be explained by numerous lock-ins: political lock-ins through the allocation of public aid, technical lock-ins involving farmers' practices… As explained by (Fernandez et al 2012), "ecological change cannot happen without social, economic, and political change." In Pays de Rennes, the socio-economic lock-in stemming from uncertainty about the future of jobs directly and indirectly linked to livestock farming appears critical for the agroecological transition.…”

Section: 3mentioning

confidence: 99%

Cultural and territorial vitality services play a key role in livestock agroecological transition in France

Beudou

Martin

Ryschawy

2017

Agron. Sustain. Dev.

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In France, researchers and public policy makers are calling for the agroecological transition of livestock. This transition is facing technical, economic, social, and cultural obstacles. Whereas technical obstacles are extensively studied, other categories remain little studied despite their potential role in agroecological transition of livestock. This article aims to analyze the livestock cultural and territorial vitality (dis)services perceived by local actors on two distinct French territories and to understand how these services could act as levers for the agroecological transition of livestock. To do so, we interviewed 45 local actors from the livestock sector and local rural development in two French territories: Aubrac (24) and Pays de Rennes (21). We conducted inductive content analyses to draw on interviewees' perceptions and link the cultural and territorial vitality services identified to the agroecological transition of livestock. Our work revealed 20 cultural and territorial vitality services that can be organized into 11 categories (7 categories of cultural services and 4 categories of territorial vitality services). Among the 11 cultural services, cultural landscapes linked to livestock and gastronomy heritage were the most cited. Among the nine territorial vitality services, the contribution to social bonds on the territories was the most cited. Here, we showed for the first time that the prioritization of cultural and territorial vitality services were different between the territories studied. Emblematic cow breed, food know-how, and quality products were more important in Aubrac, whereas territorial vitality services such as on-farm jobs and social bonds linked to livestock were more cited in the Pays de Rennes. Such methodological approach allowed us to highlight and prioritize the different cultural and vitality services, which need to be supported by public policy and translated into action.

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“…Universities with departments or programs in agroecology; journals dedicated to agroecology research; and conferences such as the Latin American Scientific Society of Agroecology (SOCLA) gatherings attest to the growing recognition of agroecology as a rigorous arena of scientific investigation (e.g., Fernandez et al, 2013). In addition, the explanatory power and empirical aspects of agroecology science have drawn the attention of peasant organizations (e.g., La Via Campesina), policy NGOs (e.g., the Union of Concerned Scientists, Center for Food Safety, Institute for Agricultural Trade and Policy, Pesticide Action Network North America), and, most recently, international food and hunger agencies such as the FAO and the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food.…”

Section: Path 1: Extending the Master's Toolsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Toward thick legitimacy: Creating a web of legitimacy for agroecology

Wit

Iles

2016

Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene

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Legitimacy is at the heart of knowledge politics surrounding agriculture and food. When people accept industrial food practices as credible and authoritative, they are consenting to their use and existence. With their thick legitimacy, industrial food systems paralyze the growth of alternative agricultures, including agroecology. Questions of how alternative agricultures can attain their own thick legitimacy in order to compete with, and displace, that of industrial food have not yet attracted much scrutiny. We show that both agroecological and scientific legitimacy grow out of a web of legitimation processes in the scientific, policy, political, legal, practice, and civic arenas. Crucially, legitimation often comes through meeting what we call 'credibility tests'. Agroecologists can learn to navigate these co-constituted, multiple bases of legitimacy by paying attention to how credibility tests are currently being set in each arena, and beginning to recalibrate these tests to open more room for agroecology. Using a schematic of three non-exclusive pathways, we explore some possible practical interventions that agroecologists and other advocates of alternative agricultures could take. These pathways include: leveraging, while also reshaping, the existing standards and practices of science; extending influence into policy, legal, practical, and civic arenas; and centering attention on the ethical legitimacy of food systems. We conclude that agroecologists can benefit from considering how to build legitimacy for their work.

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Agroecology and Alternative Agrifood Movements in the United States: Towards a Sustainable Agrifood System

Cited by 45 publications

References 18 publications

Contributing to food security in urban areas: differences between urban agriculture and peri-urban agriculture in the Global North

Contributing to food security in urban areas: differences between urban agriculture and peri-urban agriculture in the Global North

Cultural and territorial vitality services play a key role in livestock agroecological transition in France

Toward thick legitimacy: Creating a web of legitimacy for agroecology

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