Self-Sufficiency Assessment: Defining the Foodshed Spatial Signature of Supply Chains for Beef in Avignon, France

Michel Mouléry, Esther Sanz Sanz, Marta Debolini, Claude Napoléone, Didier Josselin, Luc Mabire and José Luis Vicente-Vicente
Additional contact information
Michel Mouléry: French National Institute for Research on Agriculture, Food and Environment (INRAE), UR-Ecodéveloppement, 228 route de l’aérodrome CS 40509, CEDEX 9, 84914 Avignon, France
Esther Sanz Sanz: French National Institute for Research on Agriculture, Food and Environment (INRAE), UR-Ecodéveloppement, 228 route de l’aérodrome CS 40509, CEDEX 9, 84914 Avignon, France
Marta Debolini: French National Institute for Research on Agriculture, Food and Environment (INRAE), UR-Ecodéveloppement, 228 route de l’aérodrome CS 40509, CEDEX 9, 84914 Avignon, France
Claude Napoléone: French National Institute for Research on Agriculture, Food and Environment (INRAE), UR-Ecodéveloppement, 228 route de l’aérodrome CS 40509, CEDEX 9, 84914 Avignon, France
Didier Josselin: UMR ESPACE 7300, French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), Campus Hannah Arendt, Avignon University, 74 Rue Louis Pasteur, 84029 Avignon, France
Luc Mabire: UMR ESPACE 7300, French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), Campus Hannah Arendt, Avignon University, 74 Rue Louis Pasteur, 84029 Avignon, France
José Luis Vicente-Vicente: Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF), Eberswalder Str. 84, 15374 Müncheberg, Germany

Agriculture, 2022, vol. 12, issue 3, 1-14

Abstract: Foodshed approaches allow for the assessment of the theoretical food self-sufficiency capacity of a specific region based on biophysical conditions. Recent analyses show that the focus needs to be shifted from foodshed size portrayed as an isotropic circle to a commodity–group-specific spatial configuration of the foodshed that takes into account the socio-economic and biophysical conditions essential to the development of local food supply chains. We focused on a specific animal product (beef) and used an innovative modeling approach based on spatial analysis to detect the areas of the foodshed dedicated to beef feeding (forage, pasture, and grassland), considering the foodshed as a complex of complementary areas called an archipelago. We used available statistical data including a census to address the city-region of Avignon, France covering a 100 km radius. Our results showed that the factors driving the use of short supply chains for beef feeding areas are the foodshed archipelago’s number of patches, the connectivity between them, and the rugosity of the boundaries. In addition, our beef self-sufficiency assessment results differ depending on geographical context. For instance, being located within the perimeters of a nature park seems to help orient beef production toward short supply chains. We discuss possible leverage for public action to reconnect beef production areas to consumption areas (the city) via short supply chains (e.g., green, home-grown school food programs) to increase local food security through increased local food self-sufficiency.

Keywords: foodshed archipelago; proximity food supply chains; spatial signature; city-region; food self-sufficiency; regional food security; agricultural diversification; food planning; regional food system; food policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/12/3/419/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/12/3/419/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jagris:v:12:y:2022:i:3:p:419-:d:772373

Access Statistics for this article

Agriculture is currently edited by Ms. Leda Xuan

More articles in Agriculture from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().