Publication details
Introduction : Key Concepts, Debates and Approaches in Analysing the Sustainability of Agri-Food Systems
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| Year of publication | 2017 |
| Type | Chapter of a book |
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| Description | The Introduction sets the tone for the book by outlining the main concepts, debates and applications illustrated by the various contributions in this volume. The theme of Local Food Systems (LFS) is a complex one, and therefore a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary effort, drawing on a myriad of research concepts and frameworks. The chapter begins by embedding the food debate within the broader sustainability discussion. It highlights issues around future demand and supply scenarios, current production and consumption patterns, and the challenges of addressing some of these issues in the context of climate change. The chapter also provides a review of some of the responses so far to counter the current global agri-food system. Initiatives and concepts such as local food systems, localisation, food security and sovereignty are discussed, drawing on examples from both the Global North and South. Since the volume is about socio-metabolic approaches to agri-food systems, the chapter also introduces the conceptual and methodological underpinnings of this approach, and how this relates to political ecology, social conflicts and environmental justice. The chapter ends with an introduction to the various contributions in this volume that discuss the following cross-cutting issues: the necessity to consider local cases as nested in regional, national and global scales, including the debate on what might be an optimal scale for food regionalisation or sovereignty; etc. [...] The contributors to this volume all ask the following two questions: Which local food systems or their particular characteristics can serve as the best practice examples for maintaining and designing more sustainable agri-food systems in the future? Which scientific and policy relevant insights can the socio-metabolic approach offer with respect to studying the sustainability of local food systems? |
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