ABSTRACT
The major goal of this study is to trace the emergence of SFC-related research across time, using a thematic map and a list of corresponding publications. In addition, this study aims to determine the author who has made the most significant contribution to this particular field. This study provides a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of the historical development and current trends in sustainable food consumption research, examining 2265 articles published between 1990 and 2023. Using the bibliometrics package of R Studio software version 4.2.1 and its Biblioshiny package, articles from the Scopus and Web of Science databases are examined. In the field of sustainable food consumption, we identify five distinct research phases: initial stagnation, infant growth, post-economic crisis, expanding phase and COVID-19 and post-pandemic. While research on broader sustainability topics can be traced back to the early 20th century, a very limited number of articles on sustainable food consumption was published in the 1990s. However, the number of publications increased incrementally over time, with a notable uptick in interest around 2015, and the subject was still being discussed in 2022. The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic marked the beginning of the most recent phase of research, which analyzed the consumption patterns of consumers before and after the pandemic. Our study highlights key authors, documents and sources related to sustainable food consumption. The United States, Italy and the United Kingdom emerged as the most active contributors to the research on sustainable food consumption and were additionally the countries with the largest global market shares for organic products. Major sub-themes including organic food, food waste, sustainable development and food security, together with consumer behavior and organic products appeared as being the most researched sub-themes of recent times. The results of this study suggest that more research is related to sustainable food consumption in countries with a low organic food market share. In addition, the investigation of actual data on food waste, carbon footprints and greenhouse gas emissions resulting from food production and consumption is essential to gain holistic insights.
ABSTRACT
COVID‐19, which is a global problem, affects the all supply chains throughout the world. One of the supply chains most affected by COVID‐19 is food supply chains. Since the sustainable food supply chain processes are complex and vulnerable in terms of product variety, it has been negatively affected by the operational effects of COVID‐19. While the problems experienced in the supply chain processes and raw material constraints caused stops in production, the importance of new business models and production approaches came to the fore. One of the issues of increasing importance is the adoption of reverse logistics activities in sustainable food supply chains and increasing the resilience of food supply chains by integrating blockchain technology into processes. However, adapting blockchain technology to increase the resilience of reverse logistics activities in the food supply chain has advantages as well as risks that need to be considered. Therefore, it is aimed to determine these risks by using fuzzy synthetic evaluation method for eliminating the risks of blockchain adaptation for flexible reverse logistics in food supply chains to increase resiliency. The novelty of this study is that besides discussing about the benefits of BC‐T, it is to identify the risks it can create, to eliminate these risks and to guide the establishment of resilience in reverse logistics activities of SFSCs. According to results, the risks with the highest value among the subrisks are determined as data security risks. Data management risks are calculated as the risk with the highest value.
ABSTRACT
Approximately 70% of the food consumed in Brazil comes from family farming, mainly composed of small farmers. Small farmers are especially active in the fruits and vegetables (FV) chains in Brazil and were severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, contributing to the degradation in the country's food security. This paper explores how social innovation in the FV sector can contribute to social-ecological systems resilience and supply chain resilience, using as the main theoretical background the adaptive cycle framework. The article was based on documentary analysis and semi-structured interviews, exploring the FV sector issues at a macro-level and then focusing on the case study of Sumá, a social enterprise from Southern Brazil. Sumá develops small farmers and connects them to regular food purchasers in small towns, promoting sustainable food systems. This case study stands out as an example of how to identify, evaluate and take advantage of market opportunities and public sector gaps in order to generate economic growth and multidimensional social impact.
ABSTRACT
In light of the increasing global food crisis, this study concentrated on the complex causality of sustainable food security in China. In the context of the agricultural green transformation, a comprehensive evaluation system of agricultural green development is constructed on China Yearbooks' economic data and agricultural greening indices from 2012 to 2020. In addition, the coupling coordination degree model and fuzzy-set quantitative analysis are used to describe the path evolution of sustainable food security development in China. The results revealed that: (1) the comprehensive assessments were increased in recent years, and high score regions changed apparently, from the periphery to midland;(2) China's green development and agricultural economic potential are currently in a transitional phase from basic to moderate synergy, and the higher coordinated degree is allocating to mid and southern areas during this period, and all of them keeps growing as well;and (3) under modern food security framework, the emphasis of China has gradually shifted from grain output and subsidy policies to high resources utilisation and human capital accumulation. Thus, China's agricultural green transformation and sustainable food security are mutually reinforcing.
ABSTRACT
Food losses and waste (FLW) is considered a critical issue in the ongoing debate on the sustainability of agri-food systems. However, the scholarly literature on FLW is still geographically-biased, with more attention devoted to developed countries, even in Europe. In this context, this article analyses the state of research on FLW in the Western Balkan region (viz. Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia). A search performed in October 2021 on the Web of Science database returned 34 documents, and 21 eligible ones were included in the systematic review. The topical analysis of the literature addressed causes of FLW, stages of the food supply chain, extent and magnitude of FLW, FLW and food security, economic and environmental impacts of FLW, and food waste (FW) management strategies. A central finding was the scarcity of data on FW in the Western Balkans. Moreover, the literature focused on FW at the consumer level, while food loss at other stages of the food chain was generally overlooked. There is a lack of comprehensive analyses of the economic and environmental impacts of FLW as well as its implications in terms of food and nutrition security. The quantification of FLW is generally inaccurate and based on estimates and self-reported data. The literature focuses on FW reuse and recycling (e.g., energy, compost) while other management strategies (e.g., reduction/prevention, redistribution) are rarely addressed. However, the results indicated that consumers in the Western Balkans pay attention to the FW issue, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, which is an encouraging sign that can be exploited in awareness-raising campaigns and education activities. Meanwhile, research on FLW in the Western Balkans is highly needed to fill the identified knowledge gap and provide evidence to policies dealing with the transition to sustainable food systems in the region.
ABSTRACT
Across the country, hospitals are buying more sustainable food and passing internal policies in support of sustainable food procurement. This reflective essay describes the results of the sustainable procurement goals and policy of the University of California's five health systems from 2009 to 2021. Based on my observations as a staff person in the University of California and my participation in internal meetings with foodservice and sustainability staff, I discuss the evolution of the University of California's sustainable food procurement policy goals and its definition of "sustainable." I describe staff and programmatic support for purchasing environmentally sustainable food and beverages and the growth of the University of California's sustainable food purchases as a percentage of its hospitals' food budgets. This essay also explores staff debates about the sustainability of sourcing poultry with the label of "no antibiotics ever" after a 2020 COVID-19 outbreak at a poultry processing facility in California that led to the deaths of several workers. These debates about labor and working conditions in poultry supply chains from the five University of California health systems offer insights into ongoing challenges and opportunities for institutional food procurement and policy to change the food system utilizing existing supply chains and third-party certifications and label claims. The University of California's experiences also illustrate the ongoing need for farm-to-institution and farm-to-hospital efforts to better integrate values around working conditions in supply chains into sustainable procurement goals.
ABSTRACT
Given the importance that current food-related challenges pose to our society, the potential of local food initiatives to address sustainability has gained increased attention. Nevertheless, research has increasingly demonstrated that local food initiatives are limited in fulfilling their sustainability potential. This realisation has led many scholars to argue that the path towards food system transformation needs to be based on interconnected networks of these ‘alternative’ practices—what this paper terms local food systems. Nevertheless, as many local food initiatives rely on funding and volunteer work, their capacity to create infrastructures for integrated approaches is limited. In this context, influential players—those who can provide resources, such as local authorities—become key in the assemblage of local food systems. However, there is limited understanding of how the role of local authorities affects the internal dynamics of local food systems and potential outcomes. This study addresses this research gap by analysing two case studies (Preston, England and Vitoria-Gasteiz, Basque Country). Using urban political ecology (UPE) as a theoretical framework, this study offers original insight into the key governance elements affecting the direction of local food systems and thus the alignment of diverse local food initiatives, limiting their sustainability potential.
ABSTRACT
A sustainable food system is a key target of the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The current global food system operates on market mechanisms that prioritise profit maximisation. This paper examines how small food businesses grow and develop within grassroot economies that operate on different market mechanisms. Focusing on artisan food producers and farmers’ markets, this research highlights the potential of resilient, small-scale, diverse markets as pathways to sustainable food systems. An applied critical realist, mixed-methods study was conducted at a macro (Irish food industry), meso (farmers’ markets in the region of Munster, Ireland) and micro (artisan food producers and their businesses) level. The resulting framework provides a post-growth perspective to sustainability, proposing that farmers’ markets represent an alternative market structure to the dominant industrial market, organised on mechanisms where producers ‘Mind what they make’ and ‘Make peace with enough’. In their resilience, these markets can provide pathways for structural change. This implies a call to action to reorientate policies targeting small food businesses to move beyond the concept of firms as profit-maximizing enterprises and to instead focus on a local food policy framework that reinforces the regional ‘interstices’ within which small food businesses operate to promote diversity, resilience and sustainability in the food system.
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Rice is the staple food for 2.5 billion people worldwide and most farmers depend solely on rice for their livelihood. This study estimates how paddy ecosystem elasticity and external human activity affect paddy ecosystem sustainable food supply. In particular, we analyzed how sustainable food supply is affected by three key domains of external factors—ecological factors, including the proportion of paddy Area (Are), per capita cultivated land area (Lan), and annual wastewater discharge per capita (Was);economic factors, including the agricultural economy level (Inv) and urbanization rate (Urb);and social factors, including the education of farmers (Edu) and rural medical level (Med). We use ANEV, or net paddy ecosystem services value per unit area, to assess the sustainable food supply, which not only represents the food supply quantity and quality, but also the sustainability of the food supply. Results from our panel and threshold regressions suggest that Lan and Urb have a threshold effect on paddy ANEV;Are, Was, Inv, and Edu have a linear negative correlation with ANEV;and Med has a positive linear correlation with ANEV. Based on our findings, we lay out a series of recommendations that may guide future formulation of policies on paddy ecosystem protection and sustainable food supply.
ABSTRACT
The transition to sustainable food systems is one of the main challenges facing national and international action plans. It is estimated that food services and lodging accommodation activities are under pressure in terms of resource consumption and waste generation, and several tools are required to monitor their ecological transition. The present research adopts a semi-systematic and critical review of the current trends in the food service and lodging accommodation industries on a global scale and investigates the real current environmental indicators adopted internationally that can help to assess ecological transition. This research tries to answer the subsequent questions: (i) how has the ecological transition in the food service industry been monitored? and (ii) how has the ecological transition in the lodging accommodation industry been monitored? Our study reviews 66 peer-reviewed articles and conference proceedings included in Web of Science between 2015 and 2021. The results were analyzed according to content analysis and co-word analysis. Additionally, we provide a multidimensional measurement dashboard of empirical and theoretical indicators and distinguish between air, water, energy, waste, health, and economic scopes. In light of the co-word analysis, five research clusters were identified in the literature: “food cluster”, “water cluster”, “consumers cluster”, “corporate cluster”, and “energy cluster”. Overall, it emerges that food, water, and energy are the most impacted natural resources in tourism, and users and managers are the stakeholders who must be involved in active monitoring.
ABSTRACT
A key characteristic of public food procurement is that it offers the opportunity to determine the way food is procured in addition to what type of food is purchased (local, diverse, nutritious, healthy, culturally appropriate, etc.), from whom (smallholder farmers, small and medium food enterprises, women, youth, and/or other vulnerable groups), and from which type of production (from agroecology or organic or other modes of agricultural production that ensure environmental sustainability as well as biodiversity). The outcomes framework highlighted multilevel governance, a sustainable food supply system, and healthy and sustainable food services as the main action areas for a sustainable food procurement strategy, along with six transversal features: long-term commitment, investment, evaluation, communication, gender, and a holistic approach. Elena Pagliarino, Elena Santanera, and Greta Falavigna of the Italian Research Institute on Sustainable Economic Growth discuss a case study of an Italian school where researchers examined the extent to which parents were willing to participate in food procurement decisions, as well as their ability to predict what foods children would pick at school lunch and their willingness to support sustainable food choices made by the school.
ABSTRACT
No “one size fits all” approach exists for local sustainability and food systems planning. Such planning must balance needs for being both comprehensive and place-based. The current study explores this tension by examining Integrated Community Sustainability Plans (ICSP) developed by municipalities in British Columbia (BC), Canada. The research examines items and actions related to food systems (focusing on agriculture and food production) in the ICSPs of municipalities in different regions across BC to (1) identify how municipalities “integrate” food systems with other sustainability objectives, (2) elucidate how place and geography influence integrated planning, and (3) reveal gaps in integrated approaches to developing local food systems. The study employs document analysis and thematic coding methodology. The results indicate that common areas of food systems integration in ICSPs include local economy and education. Many plans outline goals for bolstering local food economies and building local food capacity through community participation and engagement. Findings also show how foci and approaches for developing sustainable food systems vary by region. The study elucidates how food systems are integrated within place-based sustainability plans as well as reveals gaps that local governments can address when adopting and implementing integrated sustainability plans for improving food systems.
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Despite the recurring discourse on food systems and their sustainability in the Mediterranean region, compre-hensive studies are hard to find. Therefore, this article provides an overview on the challenges and perspectives of food systems in the Mediterranean. In particular, the paper addresses the main challenges (environmental, economic, socio-cultural and nutrition-health) facing Mediterranean food systems;analyses the multifaceted relations between sustainable food systems (SFS) and sustainable diets by exploring the example of the Mediterranean diet;and briefly presents the relevance of the innovation for Mediterranean food systems. The paper highlights the urgency of action to move towards sustainable and resilient food systems in the Mediterranean area. This is particularly relevant in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. For that, there is a need for shared policy, governance, practice and research agenda. In this respect, the contribution of CIHEAM results fundamental. The paper concludes by highlighting the disruptive potential of the SFS-Med Platform – under co-development by CIHEAM, FAO and the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) – to foster food systems transformation towards sustainability and accelerate the achievement of SDGs in the region. © 2021, Bononia University Press. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
The problem of food insecurity has become increasingly critical across the world since 2015, which threatens the lives and livelihoods of people around the world and has historically been a challenge confined primarily to developing countries, to which the countries of Central Asia, as typical transition countries, cannot be immune either. Under this context, many countries including Central Asian countries have recognized the importance of trade openness to ensure adequate levels of food security and are increasingly reliant on international trade for food security. Using the 2001-2018 panel data of Central Asian countries, based on food security's four pillars (including availability, access, stability, and utilization), this study empirically estimates the impact of trade openness and other factors on food security and traces a U-shaped (or inverted U-shaped) relationship between trade openness and food security by adopting a panel data fixed effect model as the baseline model, and then conducts the robustness test by using the least-squares (LS) procedure for the pooled data and a dynamic panel data (DPD) analysis with the generalized method of moments (GMM) approach, simultaneously. The results show that: (1) a U-shaped relationship between trade openness and the four pillars of food security was found, which means that beyond a certain threshold of trade openness, food security status tends to improve in Central Asian countries; (2) gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, GDP growth, and agricultural productivity have contributed to the improvement of food security. Employment in agriculture, arable land, freshwater withdrawals in agriculture, population growth, natural disasters, and inflation rate have negative impacts on food security; and (3) this study confirms that trade policy reforms can finally be conducive to improving food security in Central Asian countries. However, considering the effects of other factors, potential negative effects of trade openness, and vulnerability of global food trade network, ensuring reasonable levels of food self-sufficiency is still very important for Central Asian countries to achieve food security. Our research findings can provide scientific support for sustainable food system strategies in Central Asian countries.
ABSTRACT
Le secteur agricole constitue une activité importante au Maroc, représentant 14 % du produit national brut et employant 40 % de la population active. Avec l’émergence de la pandémie de la Covid-19, il a été ébranlé par des incertitudes économiques et par la distanciation physique qui a accentué les contraintes du travail. Toutefois, l’agriculture s’est imposée comme une activité cruciale, puisqu’elle a continué à assurer l’approvisionnement alimentaire à des prix abordables. La pandémie, qui s’est déclarée en une année très sèche, a offert une opportunité pour réviser les principales contraintes auxquelles fait face le secteur agricole : manque d’eau et faible rémunération du travail. Elle a aussi attiré l’attention de l’opinion publique sur les quantités importantes de denrées vivrières importées. La balance des paiements des produits alimentaires demeure négative, malgré des exportations de produits agricoles mises en relief par le discours officiel. En outre, des études récentes ont montré que ces dernières dépendent avant tout d’usages accrus et souvent déraisonnables d’eau souterraine, malgré les subventions à la conversion des systèmes d’irrigation gravitaire vers le goutte-à-goutte. Des suivis d’exploitations ont démontré que ces subventions ont généré une expansion de la surface irriguée avec des cultures à besoins hydriques élevés. Cette situation doit être considérée comme l’opposé de l’objectif recherché : une amélioration de la valorisation de l’eau. Il faut donc reconnaître que l’agriculture de l’ère post Covid-19 devra être différente. Un changement de paradigme doit s’opérer où la valorisation de l’eau pluviale figurera dans les priorités, de concert avec la souveraineté alimentaire. Il doit englober différentes dimensions, comme la préservation de l’environnement, le développement du monde rural et de systèmes alimentaires durables, mais aussi garantir l’inclusion sociale et de meilleures rémunérations du travail agricole, afin d’assurer son attractivité et réduire l’exode rural.Alternate : The agricultural sector is strategic for the Moroccan economy, still accounting for around 14% of the Gross Domestic Product and employing 40% of the active population. With the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic, it has been literally shaken up, with growing uncertainties with regard to market opportunities and physical distancing which has amplified work constraints. However, citizens have rapidly acknowledged the importance of agriculture, as it ensured a regular supply of food during the lockdown at relatively affordable prices. The pandemic, which has emerged in a particularly dry year, has provided an opportunity to revise the constraints facing the agricultural sector, particularly water scarcity and limited work remuneration. It has also shown to consumers the significant share of imported staple food. In fact, the food trade balance remains in deficit despite the exports of high value commodities, which are emphasized by the public authorities. Moreover, recent studies have shown that these exports rely on increasing amounts of groundwater uptakes. This has happened despite the significant subsidies awarded to farmers to convert gravity irrigation to drip irrigation systems. On-farm investigations have demonstrated that subsidies mainly resulted in an expansion of the area with cash crops needing significant amounts of water. This situation is the opposite of the goal sought by the agricultural policy, i.e. a higher economic water productivity. It is therefore crucial to recognize that the post Covid-19 agriculture should be different. Indeed, there is a need for a paradigm shift where rain-fed agriculture has to get at the top of the political agenda, with more attention to food sovereignty. This has to encompass wide topics, such as environment preservation, rural development and sustainable food systems, to ensure social inclusiveness, and guarantee better wag s that can increase the attractiveness of work within farming activities and reduce rural exodus.