From Short Food Supply Chains to Sustainable Agriculture in Urban Food Systems: Food Democracy as a Vector of Transition

Yuna Chiffoleau, Sarah Millet-Amrani and Arielle Canard
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Yuna Chiffoleau: Joint Research Unit “Innovation and Development in Agriculture and Food”, French National Institute for Agricultural Research, Montpellier 34060, France
Sarah Millet-Amrani: Joint Research Unit “Innovation and Development in Agriculture and Food”, French National Institute for Agricultural Research, Montpellier 34060, France
Arielle Canard: Freelance consultant, Montpellier 34000, France

Agriculture, 2016, vol. 6, issue 4, 1-18

Abstract: In industrialized nations, local food networks have generally been analyzed through alternative food systems, in spite of the fact that they are much more diverse than this would imply. In France, ‘short food chains’ are both a continuation of a long tradition and a recent trend which now extends beyond activists, to consumers and producers as well. This paper will explore the conditions under which these chains can change the practices and knowledge of ordinary actors in urban food systems, from producers to urban consumers and policy-makers, in the area of agriculture and sustainability. It will consider the case study of the creation and development of an urban open-air market which has been analyzed using intervention research with input from economic sociology. We will highlight how personal relations, which are encouraged by a participatory context, support the evolution of practices and knowledge. We will also illustrate how a system of produce labelling has emerged as a mediation resource, and has increased changes as well as participation within the re-territorialization of the urban food system. By describing a concrete expression of food democracy which is spreading in France via a free collective trademark, and by showing its role in the transition of ‘ordinary’ actors towards a more sustainable agriculture, this paper will shine new light onto local food chains as well as traditional short food chains, and will call for more research on the subject.

Keywords: short food chains; urban food systems; food democracy; re-territorialization; food labelling; sustainability; transition; non-activists; economic sociology; intervention research (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: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (37)

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