Exploring the contribution of alternative food networks to food security. A comparative analysis

Pedro Cerrada-Serra (), Ana Moragues-Faus (), Tjitske Anna Zwart, Barbora Adlerova, Dionisio Ortiz-Miranda () and Tessa Avermaete
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Pedro Cerrada-Serra: Universitat Politècnica de València
Ana Moragues-Faus: Sustainable Places Institute, Cardiff University
Tjitske Anna Zwart: KU Leuven
Barbora Adlerova: Sustainable Places Institute, Cardiff University
Dionisio Ortiz-Miranda: Universitat Politècnica de València
Tessa Avermaete: KU Leuven

Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, 2018, vol. 10, issue 6, No 7, 1388 pages

Abstract: Abstract Food (in)security has become a challenge not only for developing economies but also for High Income Countries. In parallel, food scholars have actively investigated the contribution of alternative food networks (AFNs) to the development of more sustainable and just food systems, paying attention to drivers, initiatives and policies supporting the development of alternatives to the dominant industrialised food system and its detrimental environmental and socio-economic impacts. However, few studies have directly addressed the contribution of AFNs to food security in the Global North. This paper aims to establish new linkages between food security debates and critical AFNs literature. For that purpose, we conduct a place-based approach to food security in a comparative analysis of initiatives of three different European contexts: Cardiff city-region (UK), the Flemish Region (Belgium) and the peri-urban area of the city of Valencia (Spain). The results unfold: i) how AFNs weave a more localised socio-economic fabric that creates new relationships between food security outcomes and specific territories, ii) hybridization processes within alternative but also conventional systems and iii) the role of advocacy and collective action at different levels. The analysis allows identification of key elements on which food security debates hinge and provides new insights to ground conceptual discussions on territorial and place-based food security approaches.

Keywords: Alternative food networks (AFN); Food security; Place-based approach; Local food systems (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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DOI: 10.1007/s12571-018-0860-x

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