Sense and Non-Sense of Local–Global Food Chain Comparison, Empirical Evidence from Dutch and Italian Pork Case Studies

Henk Oostindie, Rudolf Van Broekhuizen, Kees De Roest, Giovanni Belletti, Filippo Arfini, Davide Menozzi and Eric Hees
Additional contact information
Henk Oostindie: Rural Sociology Group, Wageningen University, Wageningen 6708 PB, The Netherlands
Rudolf Van Broekhuizen: Rural Sociology Group, Wageningen University, Wageningen 6708 PB, The Netherlands
Kees De Roest: CRPA, Centro Ricerche Produzioni Animali, Reggio Emilia 43100, Italy
Filippo Arfini: Department of Economics, University of Parma, Parma 43100, Italy
Davide Menozzi: Department of Food Science, University of Parma, Parma 43100, Italy
Eric Hees: CLM, Centrum voor Landbouw en Milieu, Culemborg 4100 AB, The Netherlands

Sustainability, 2016, vol. 8, issue 4, 1-18

Abstract: Priority setting between local versus global food chains continues to be subject of debate among food, rural and agricultural scholars with an interest in how to support more sustainable food provision and consumption patterns. Recently the FP7 European GLAMUR project targeted to assess and compare the performances of local versus global food chains in a systematic way covering multiple performance dimensions. Especially drawing on empirical research on the performances of three Italian and three Dutch pork chains, it will be argued that meaningful performance comparison needs to acknowledge the complex, multi-facetted and time and place specific interaction patterns between (more) global and (more) local pork chains. Therefore, as regards these pork chains, local–global performance comparison is thought to have hardly significance in isolation from complementary “horizontal” (place-based) and “circular” (waste or by-product valorization oriented) assessments. As will be concluded, this methodological complexity of food chain performance comparison doesn’t allow for simple statements regarding the pros and cons of (more) global versus (more) local pork chains. Hence, it is recommended to avoid such less fruitful local–global dichotomy and to concentrate on more policy relevant questions as: how to facilitate fundamentally different resource-use-efficiency strategies and how to optimize the place-specific interaction between more “local” versus more “global” food systems?

Keywords: food chains; global; local; performance assessments; life-cycle analysis; sustainability strategies; pork production (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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