Locked-in or ready for climate change mitigation? Agri-food networks as structures for dairy-beef farming

Farstad, Maja; Vinge, Heidi; Stræte, Egil Petter

doi:10.1007/s10460-020-10134-5

Cited by 17 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“….increased regulation: (1) is unnecessary, (2) is not backed up by sufficient evidence, (3) will lead to unintended negative consequences, and (4) faces legal barriers to implementation; all underpinned by the message that (5) the industry consists of socially responsible companies working toward reducing harmful consumption (Hilton et al, 2019) The first three of these were all expressed in anti-meat tax arguments, and a parallel to the fifth was seen in livestock industry representatives highlighting their work to reduce GHG emissions via alternative means. Meanwhile, the argument that national meat production is uniquely sustainable has also been expressed in other high-income Northern European countries (Farstad et al, 2020;Mosca, 2020).…”

Section: Values and Conflict In The Uk Meat Tax Debatementioning

confidence: 99%

“It's not as simple as something like sugar”: values and conflict in the UK meat tax debate

Simmonds

Vallgårda

2021

IJHG

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PurposeThis paper qualitatively explores arguments in the UK meat tax debate, including how they align with values from specific political ideologies and perspectives on sustainable food security.Design/methodology/approachThe authors conducted a scoping media analysis of articles published over 1 year in six leading UK newspapers, followed by semi-structured interviews with ten key stakeholders in late 2019. The authors identified categories of arguments, distilled the core conflicts and analysed how arguments reflected different ideas about human nature, the role of the state and solutions to food system challenges.FindingsArguments were categorised into five major topics: climate change and environment; human health; effects on animals; fairness; and acceptability of government intervention. Pro-meat tax arguments often aligned with modern liberal ideology, and sometimes echoed demand restraint or food system transformation perspectives on sustainable food security. Arguments against meat taxes were more likely to align with the efficiency perspective or classical liberal ideology.Originality/valueTo the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the first interpretive analyses of this controversial suggested policy. Despite having similarities with other debates around taxation – particularly taxes on sugar sweetened beverages – the meat tax debate contains unique complexities due to the prominence of environmental arguments, and differing values pertaining to animal welfare and rights. This study highlights the need for policy research exploring values, in addition to quantitative evidence.

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Section: Values and Conflict In The Uk Meat Tax Debatementioning

confidence: 99%

“It's not as simple as something like sugar”: values and conflict in the UK meat tax debate

Simmonds

Vallgårda

2021

IJHG

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“…In the recent literature on transitions in the dairy sector, attention has been devoted to the role of dairy cooperatives, and more broadly of dairy industries, in transition processes. The authors focused on their interactions with other stakeholders and the institutional changes needed to address issues of the environmental impact of farming systems (Farstad et al, 2020;Runhaar et al, 2020;Turner et al, 2020;Vermunt et al, 2020). The authors also approached how medium-sized dairy cooperatives may support a regional farming model through specialization in added value productions (Heidkamp and Morrissey, 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Coexistence of Cooperative Models as Structural Answer to Lock-Ins in Diversification Pathways: The Case of the Walloon Dairy Sector

Herde

Baret

Maréchal

2020

Front. Sustain. Food Syst.

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Drawing on an analysis of the Walloon dairy sector, this paper aims at bringing novel insights on the coexistence issue in agrifood transition studies. Whereas most studies explore the coexistence of farm models, our study focuses on value chains, in particular on cooperatives. In the Walloon Region, new dairy cooperatives emerged, as substitute or as complement to the incumbent vertically integrated dairy cooperatives. This paper focuses on the coexistence of dairy cooperative models as enabler of transition toward product diversification. Dairy cooperatives are hybrid actors: economic agents on the market on the one hand, structure of collective agency on the other hand. Williamson's framework of New Institutional Economics acknowledges that the allocation of resources by cooperatives depends on governance processes and on the wider institutional context in which the cooperatives evolve. Within the broader frame of the Multi-Level Perspective, this approach allows to consider the socio-technical coherence in which the cooperatives evolve, the effects of this coherence on their pathways of development, and the complementarity of the cooperative models. This qualitative analysis builds on semi-directed interviews with actors of the Walloon dairy sector. The results outline distinctions between the new cooperative models and mainstream dairy cooperatives in market approach, definition of milk quality, distribution of added value, governance, and interactions with partners. Both models evolve within a distinct socio-technical coherence, holding, in the case of the mainstream dairy cooperatives, lock-ins to diversification related to the relationship with the farmer-members and the milk they produce in the industrial vertically integrated model. The new cooperative models circumvent these lock-ins through de-integration and externalization of initiatives, remuneration, and risk. They allow specific groups of actors—still related or unrelated to the mainstream dairy cooperative—to explore new market pathways in accordance with their potential, and to mutually agree on criteria qualifying milk. This research draws the picture of a possible reconfiguration of the dairy landscape toward a more diversified ecosystem of actors and invites to consider structures of governance in collective action as a cornerstone issue, because of their significant role in terms of enablement, coexistence, and complementarity throughout the transition process.

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“…Study 1 involved qualitative interviews with 29 farmers to explore social and structural aspects of lock-in within the farming sector, particularly focusing on how social and cultural factors led farmers and farming families towards particular ways of production (Burton & Farstad 2020). Study 2 focused on the agri-food network -the value chain -at the national level and involved semi-structured interviews with 13 key stakeholders from supply and processing industries, the grocery retail sector, agricultural advisory services, and farmer organisations (Farstad et al 2020). Lastly, Study 3 looked at a broader group of key stakeholders in the agricultural sector to explore wider lock-ins across the industry, again within the framework of lock-in to development pathways for the dairy and beef system.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Path dependencies in Norwegian dairy and beef farming communities: Implications for climate mitigation

Rønningen

Fuglestad

Burton

2021

Norsk Geografisk Tidsskrift - Norwegian Journal of Geography

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Within Norwegian agriculture, combined dairy and beef production has been identified as a major source of greenhouse gas emissions and thus targeted for significant reductions. The article examines the path dependency of the dairy and beef production system in Norway and focuses on identifying lock-ins. The authors used qualitative methods to gather information from stakeholder meetings in Trøndelag and Rogaland counties. They explored the stakeholders' responses to two different visions of agriculture in the future: the improved utilisation of outfields using Norwegian Red cattle and increasing production per animal by using feed concentrates. Six key areas of lock-in were identified: technology investment, culture, feeding strategy, policy, access to new farmland through moorland conversion, and ownership of the climate issue. The findings suggest that the current pathway in agriculture is strongly locked into production orientation through these lock-ins, making a production reduction option difficult to implement. There was also widespread belief among the stakeholders that the system of combined dairy and beef production was climate-friendly option, suggesting that farmers are not convinced that a change in this direction is required.The authors conclude that the option of reducing production would be difficult to implement without addressing the multiple lock-in effects.

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Locked-in or ready for climate change mitigation? Agri-food networks as structures for dairy-beef farming

Cited by 17 publications

References 29 publications

“It's not as simple as something like sugar”: values and conflict in the UK meat tax debate

“It's not as simple as something like sugar”: values and conflict in the UK meat tax debate

Coexistence of Cooperative Models as Structural Answer to Lock-Ins in Diversification Pathways: The Case of the Walloon Dairy Sector

Path dependencies in Norwegian dairy and beef farming communities: Implications for climate mitigation

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