scholarly journals Food First: COVID-19 Outbreak and Cities Lockdown a Booster for a Wider Vision on Urban Agriculture

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (12) ◽  
pp. 5012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giuseppe Pulighe ◽  
Flavio Lupia

The COVID-19 emergency has revealed the extreme fragility of large cities to unexpected complex global risks and crises. City lockdown has led to increasing awareness of the vital importance of food availability for citizens. The combined effect of border closure and movement restrictions increased food losses and export costs, especially for vegetables and perishable goods exposing non-self-sufficient countries. We claim the idea that urban agriculture in developed countries should be fostered with emerging growing practices and edible green infrastructures, such as vertical farming, hydroponics, aeroponic, aquaponic, and rooftop greenhouses. Notwithstanding the limitations of traditional urban farming activities, innovative and disruptive solutions and short food supply chains of fresh agricultural products might play a positive role in lessening uncertainties from global systemic risks.

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 2443
Author(s):  
Thi Nga Bui ◽  
An Ha Nguyen ◽  
Thi Thu Huong Le ◽  
Van Phuong Nguyen ◽  
Thi Thanh Hao Le ◽  
...  

A number of studies have indicated that short food supply chains could create economic, social, and environmental benefits, but most of those chains were implemented in developed countries. This research aims to find out the characteristics of short food supply chains and their benefits to small farmers in Vietnam, which is a developing country, based on the survey results from 338 small farmers in the third quarter of 2020, with the support of Stata 14 software. The results showed that the short food supply chains in the survey sample in Vietnam were characterized by two main actors: small farmers and distributors. Farmers could sell products flexibly at the local market. There was some initial evidence to prove that these chains helped to stabilize the input, output price, and revenue; formulated sustainable income; and increased the satisfaction and confidence of farmers. They eliminated gender discrimination in rural areas and improved livelihood for ethnic minorities. These chains also enhanced the mindset on green, organic, and clean production of farmers, which in turn created environmental benefits. COVID-19 has posed a negative impact on the income of farmers and made them change their production and sales method. Therefore, the research could suggest some policies to sustainably develop the short food supply chains in Vietnam in the future.


2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Meng Wang ◽  
Vikas Kumar ◽  
Ximing Ruan ◽  
Daiane Mulling Neutzling

As the industrialized agro-food supply systems have been commonly criticized for their adverse environmental and social impact, Short food supply chains have emerged as a promising sustainable alternative. Given that the history of SFSCs is relatively short, the majority of empirical evidences is from developed countries, and existing studies on SFSCs in developing country context are rather limited. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the farmers’ attitudes towards participating in SFSCs by conducting a field research in China. Semi-structured interviews were implemented with eight participants selected from a local farmer market as a pilot study. The social and economic reasons are found to be the main motivations of Chinese farmers participating in SFSCs. However, none of these interviewed participants are aware of the environmental effects of SFSCs. Moreover, the findings were cross-compared with existing studies conducted in developed countries. It was found that Chinese farmers participating in SFSCs are mainly passive choice, as they lack of relevant knowledge and governmental support.


Smart Cities ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Milad Kolagar

Today, the uncontrolled urban expansion and ever-increasing rise of construction have caused the need for food, urban greenery, and a healthy environment to be felt more than any other time. On the other hand, population growth and the reduced production of agricultural products and food have jeopardized food security in urban areas, which will endanger the sustainable development of cities. However, the main problem, in which many societies are involved, is how to respond to these needs in a sustainable way. One of the ways of responding to these dilemmas in large cities is the purposeful implementation of urban agriculture. Urban agriculture development, as an important issue, requires the adoption of fundamental and logical policies. In this regard, this research was conducted to evaluate the extent of adherence to urban agriculture in Iran’s eight densely populated cities using a new combined approach of the best–worst method (BWM) and weighted aggregated sum product assessment (WASPAS). The results indicated that urban agriculture still has a long way to go and should be considered more seriously. Moreover, vertical farming has been suggested as one of the ways of promoting urban agriculture in the country and smoothing the way to sustainable development.


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 102-106
Author(s):  
Áron Török ◽  
Irma Agárdi

In the recent years the alternative food networks gained a significant importance, mainly due to the need of consumers to get closer to the farmers both in terms of physical distance and in number of intermediaries. The concept of building a reliable food system tries to balance the mistrust in the industrialized food production that is dominating in the developed countries. Social enterprises are enterprises pursuing primarily social objectives in business environment. In 2015, in Hungary more than 13.000 social enterprises were registered according to the statistics with many different social missions. However, the number of social enterprises in the catering sector is quite limited. The Hungarian para-gastro movement consists of 7 different organisations, operating in the catering sector and employing handicapped and/or disabled workforce. Against this background, in our paper we would like to investigate the business models of Hungarian social enterprises in the catering sector, somehow connected and related to short food supply chains. To the best of our knowledge, currently only 3 companies fulfil all these criteria: Ízlelő Restaurant from Szekszárd, Hatpöttyös Restaurant from Székesfehérvár and the Batyu-Téka from Miskolc. In order to understand the business models of these three companies, we applied an expert interview based, qualitative approach. We also analysed the publicly available financial statements of them and calculate the most important (financial) ratios. Altogether we tried to analyse the role of direct sourcing, the niche market of local foods and obviously the advantages and the disadvantages of the social entrepreneurship.  Results show that currently the social enterprises requires (state) subsidy to survive, the average share of subsidies was 19-49% of the total income among the investigated companies. However, all have their unique way to pursue the survival and the level of commitment to short food supply chains is very different. Altogether we could identify possible synergies where social gastro enterprises can benefit from direct sourcing.    


Standort ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gesine Tuitjer

ZusammenfassungShort Food Supply Chains (SFSC), also kurze Wertschöpfungsketten im Lebensmittelbereich, sind ein verbreiteter Ansatz in der Regionalentwicklung – im ländlichen wie auch im städtischen Kontext. Aufgrund der Breite des Konzeptes sind empirische Belege für die regionalen Auswirkungen von kurzen Ketten jedoch uneindeutig und ihrem konkreten Aufbau stehen teilweise große Herausforderungen gegenüber. Im vorliegenden Text werden Direktvermarktung, Regionalvermarktungsinitiativen und regionalisierte vertikale Wertschöpfungsketten behandelt. Der Text fasst Ergebnisse einzelner Fallstudien zusammen, die zwischen 2015 und 2019 in 6 ländlichen Kreisen durchgeführt wurden. Im Text werden Herausforderungen für die Entwicklung dieser kurzen Ketten skizziert und mögliche Chancen aufgezeigt. Der Ausbau von alternativen Vermarktungswegen kann beispielsweise durch Infrastruktur im Bereich der Lagerung und Logistik unterstützt werden. Ein weiteres zentrales Ergebnis stellt die Notwendigkeit von Netzwerkvermittlern dar, die Kooperationen zwischen Produzenten innerhalb einer Region entlang vertikaler Wertschöpfungsketten begleiten bzw. initiieren.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 3072 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ioan Sebastian Brumă ◽  
Codrin Dinu Vasiliu ◽  
Steliana Rodino ◽  
Marian Butu ◽  
Lucian Tanasă ◽  
...  

In Romania, there is an emerging market of dairy products delivered through short food supply chains. Although this distribution system has existed since the communist period, and even though more than three decades have passed since then, the market fails to be mature, subject to taxation, or achieve a high diversity in terms of dairy categories, with a consolidated marketing culture that has significant effects on the regional socio-economic environment. The aim of this study was to observe whether the Corona Virus Disease of 2019 (COVID-19) crisis has influenced consumer behavior regarding dairy products delivered directly from producers in Suceava County, Romania. The research is based on a survey conducted between April and May, 2020, and the analysis relies on both quantitative and qualitative methods (namely, anthropological and ethnographic). From the provided responses, it a change was observed in the future buying behavior on short food supply chains, in a positive sense. One of the key findings was that family represents the main environment for passing on the values that influence the buying behavior. Another key finding was that the behavioral changes on the short food supply chains exert pressure on their digital transformations.


2020 ◽  
Vol 122 (7) ◽  
pp. 2089-2103
Author(s):  
Rosario Michel-Villarreal ◽  
Eliseo Luis Vilalta-Perdomo ◽  
Martin Hingley

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to explore food producers' motivations and challenges whilst participating in short food supply chains (SFSCs). This paper compares findings with previous literature and investigates the topic in the context of producers' motivations.Design/methodology/approachThe paper includes a literature review concerning producers' motivations to engage in SFSCs. A case study was designed to investigate motivations underlying producers' engagement in SFSCs, as well as the challenges that they face. Semi-structured interviews were conducted in a farmers' market located in Mexico. Thematic analysis is used to identify the principal issues for producers'. Propositions based on findings are presented.FindingsFindings suggest that small, large, part-time and full-time producers are willing to engage with farmers' markets for diverse primary economic and non-economic motivations. Individual and collective challenges were also identified.Originality/valueThis research helps to explain producers' motivations and challenges within SFSCs in an under-researched context, namely a focus on producers' and in the Global South.


ua ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefano Grando ◽  
Joy Carey ◽  
Els Hegger ◽  
Ingrid Jahrl ◽  
Livia Ortolani

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