Towards Sustainable Food: A Contested Transition

Gerardo Marletto, Simone Franceschini, Chiara Ortolani and Cécile Sillig
Additional contact information
Simone Franceschini: University of Sassari
Chiara Ortolani: University of Rome “La Sapienza”
Cécile Sillig: University of Genova

Chapter Chapter 3 in Mapping Sustainability Transitions, 2016, pp 23-38 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract The aim of this chapter is to show that the socio-technical map (ST-map) can be useful even to analyze the current and future dynamics of feeding: a societal function that feature complex techno-economic dynamics and contrasting political visions. First of all, the ST systems that are relevant for the today provision of food are considered: the global agribusiness system; the traditional and new local systems; the organic system; the fairtrade system. For each of them a supporting network of innovators is identified; all relevant policies—at the global, national and local scale—are also considered. Then, all food ST systems are positioned into a ST-map based on two dimensions. The first dimension is built on five alternative discourses on sustainable food: ‘Food for all’, ‘Healthy food’, ‘Environment-friendly food’, ‘Food as local culture and local development’, and ‘Food that is produced in a fair way’. The other dimension ranks supply chains from simple to complex: complexity of supply chains depends on both the distance covered and the number of steps. The chapter ends with a future analysis of sustainable food. Starting from ongoing changes and from alternative dynamics of ST-systems and networks of innovators, three scenarios are proposed. The ‘Biotech’ scenario results from a two-fold transition involving the global agribusiness system: suppliers of biotechnological inputs respond to the pressure for sustainable agriculture and food security; large-scale retailers integrate the commercial activity of the organic, fairtrade and local systems. The ‘Elite Versus Mass’ scenario features a new network led by elitist large-scale retailers that clusters the commercial activities of the organic and fair trade systems in order to serve the increasing demand for healthy and environment-friendly food. In the ‘Organic’ scenario a new dominant system integrates all the productive and commercial actors who are interested in converting to organic practices and to organic food products; also some large-scale retailers coming from the global agribusiness system join the organic network. In all scenarios the cumulative process between the empowerment of networks and the emergence of supporting policies is stressed.

Keywords: Food; Agribusiness; Network of innovators; Sustainability transition; Socio-technical map; Scenario analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

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:spr:spbrcp:978-3-319-42274-9_3

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/9783319422749

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-42274-9_3

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in SpringerBriefs in Business from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().