Short food chain activities: some reflections and future directions

for researchDamian Maye

Countryside and Community Research Institute, Gloucester

‘Food from here’ Conference, Coventry University

3rd July 2013

Short food chains and the rural development dynamic

• The ‘quality turn’ (Ilbery & Kneafsey, 2000)• SFSCs: niche market; retain added value;

more direct connections with consumers• 3 types (Marsden et al., 2000): face-to-face;

spatially proximate; spatially extended• Protect rural places; the ‘rural local’ • CAP reforms; endogenous rural dev.

Short food chains and the rural development dynamic

• SFSCs = new agrarian model of rural dev.• The IMPACT study (Ploeg et al., 2000;

Marsden et al, 2002; Renting et al., 2003)• “The ability of quality products to secure premium

prices and so generate excess profits is a central plank of (this) market-led, value added model” (Goodman 2004: 8; emphasis added).

• Need to extend SFSC focus beyond the ‘rural local’ arena and the activities covered.

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Recent ‘food system shocks’

• Horsemeat scandal• Food price inflation• Food security = new food policy master

frame (Mooney and Hunt; 2009; Maye and Kirwan, 2013)

• Shocks redefine and revalue SFSCs concept?• Value-added model is too narrow?• Multiple transition pathways

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5

Landscape Pressures

MainstreamFood System

Bottom Up Innovations

Time

Scales of Transition

Adapted from Geels & Schott, 2007

UK food security discourse: where are LFNs/SFSCs?

• ‘Official’ UK food security discourse• LFNs/SFSC activities are sidelined (Kirwan

and Maye, 2013)• Support is rhetorical• Sector-level aggregate data are missing• Sustainable fs is not achieved by expanding

LFNs/the SFSC niche

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Alternative transition pathways?

• This dismissive view of LFNs/SFSCs is a missed opportunity?

• Need to focus more on the micro-level and community needs

• Market-orientated SFSC model describes ‘first generation’ food relocalisation (Goodman et al., 2012)

• But mix of community-orientated projects7

Local Food programme

• £60 million programme.

• Launched in 2007.

• Distributes funds to more than 500 food related projects, ranging from small grants of £2000 up to £500,000.

• Aim: to make locally grown food accessible and affordable to local communities.

• Ongoing evaluation from November 2009-March 2014. 8

LF activity types funded:

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Community food growing

Education & Learning

Allotments

School grounds

Sharing best practise / networking

Celebrating food cultures

Community supported agriculture

Catering

Community gardens

Food co-ops

City farms

Farmers markets

Redistribution of Food

Box schemes

Community land management

Composting

Social enterprise

0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160

155

115

59

56

19

16

15

14

14

11

9

9

6

3

3

2

1

General observations

• LF supporting community-based projects• Mobilising SFSC concept at community scale• Activities extend beyond ‘rural local’ model• Many LF projects are not about food (i.e.

more than just the veg); pretext & vector for social agency (Kirwan et al., 2013)

• Many LF projects are urban/peri-urban.

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Civic food networks

• Introduced by Renting et al (2012) to examine new sources of c-p innovation.

• The role of civil society as a governance mechanism for agri-food networks has increased in significance.

• Changing relations between agri-food networks and urban-rural relations; often cities are the starting point.

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Short chain activities in urban and peri-urban contexts• SUPURBFOOD (www.supurbfood.eu)• Food policy now viewed as an urban issue• The city-region concept (see Jonas, 2012)• Three activities:

– Closing waste, water & nutrient cycles– Shortening food chains– Multi-functional land use

• Synergies & innovative policy frameworks12

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Conclusions

• LFNs/SFSCs and the ‘rural local’• Official fs policy has sidelined LFNs/SFSCs• Need to reassess/revalue the form these

networks take and where they take place• Social and community values; civic food

networks; peri-urban and urban contexts• Proactive forms of place-based governance

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