A sustainable approach for urban farming based on city logistics concepts for local production and consumption of vegetables

Renata Lúcia Magalhães de Oliveira, Igor Vieira Santos, Guilherme Fonseca Graciano, André Augusto Cunha Libânio, Leise Kelli de Oliveira and Lílian dos Santos Fontes Pereira Bracarense

Research in Transportation Economics, 2021, vol. 87, issue C

Abstract: By 2050, there will be at least nine billion people in the world to be fed, and two-thirds of them will live in cities. A before-after assessment of an urban horticulture scenario is presented to address the negative impacts of goods distribution within cities. A baseline scenario for the current food system is compared with the proposed one, adapted to local production and consumption through a case study for Belo Horizonte (Brazil). A Life Cycle Assessment was considered to estimate the potential environmental impact reduction by implementing a local production and consumption model. The Ecoinvent dataset 3.5, exiobase2, and the CML impacts methods were used. The potential of global warming, acidification, photochemical oxidation, and human toxicity was determined for both scenarios. Moreover, fuel, infrastructure, and vehicle consumption concerning the changes among the settings were compared. All categories of environmental impact presented significant reductions regarding the changes among scenarios for the distribution of vegetables. This paper brings a phenomenological contribution to Belo Horizonte's city, which can be considered to subsidize public policy decision-making to support urban agriculture.

Keywords: Urban agriculture; Life cycle assessment; Supply chain; Urban logistics; Last food mile (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q18 R12 R14 R40 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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DOI: 10.1016/j.retrec.2021.101038

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