scholarly journals Can Organic Farming Reduce Vulnerabilities and Enhance the Resilience of the European Food System? A Critical Assessment Using System Dynamics Structural Thinking Tools

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (10) ◽  
pp. 971 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalia Brzezina ◽  
Birgit Kopainsky ◽  
Erik Mathijs
Keyword(s):  
System Dynamics ◽  
Organic Farming ◽  
Food System ◽  
Critical Assessment ◽  
System A ◽  
Thinking Tools

scholarly journals Building Bio-Districts or Eco-Regions: Participative Processes Supported by Focal Groups

Agriculture ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 511
Author(s):  
Raquel S. Dias ◽  
Daniela V.T.A. Costa ◽  
Helena E. Correia ◽  
Cristina A. Costa
Keyword(s):  
Focus Groups ◽  
Organic Farming ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Food System ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
Agricultural Activities ◽  
Family Farmers ◽  
Governance Model ◽  
Environmental Component

Over the years, rural areas have faced a number of problems and difficulties, such as an increase in the average age of the population, desertification, loss of employment and the abandonment of rural and agricultural activities, which have led to the emergence of new initiatives aimed at revitalizing these territories from a social, economic and environmental perspective, such as the successful Bio-districts or Eco-regions (e.g., Bio-district of Cilento). Understanding and establishing a proper framework for each territory based on agroecology and participatory methodologies is still a challenge. In this sense, based on the analysis of two European examples—Cilento, Italy and São Pedro do Sul, Portugal—we described each of the building processes and defined a set of drivers that might constitute guiding principles to serve as a basis for the creation of Bio-districts or Eco-regions. The drivers’ matrix identified was discussed in three focus groups carried out in Portugal in 2020. Such drivers included a technical and environmental component (the quality of the environment and landscape, the food system and the implementation of organic farming and agroecological practices), a social and economic component (valorization of the farmers, products and territories and a set of different stakeholders—farmers, consumers, schools, tourism entities and restaurants, local authorities) and a political component (the governance model). Most participants agreed that the recognition of a Bio-district or Eco-region should be informal, bottom-up, with farmers as the main pillar, with a fair and representative participation, namely family farmers.

scholarly journals Modeling the impact of climate change on mussel aquaculture in a coastal upwelling system: A critical assessment

2021 ◽  
Vol 775 ◽  
pp. 145020
Author(s):  
Isabel Fuentes-Santos ◽  
Uxío Labarta ◽  
María José Fernández-Reiriz ◽  
Susan Kay ◽  
Solfrid Sætre Hjøllo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Coastal Upwelling ◽  
Critical Assessment ◽  
Impact Of Climate Change ◽  
Upwelling System ◽  
System A ◽  
The Impact

Food system sustainability investigation using system dynamics approach

2020 ◽  
Vol 277 ◽  
pp. 124040 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alireza Amiri ◽  
Yahia Zare Mehrjerdi ◽  
Ammar Jalalimanesh ◽  
Ahmad Sadegheih
Keyword(s):  
System Dynamics ◽  
Food System ◽  
System Sustainability

Energy Allocation in the Food System: A Microscale View

1976 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 0758-0761 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Jean Brown ◽  
J. Clair Batty
Keyword(s):  
Food System ◽  
Energy Allocation ◽  
System A

Food supply system dynamics in the Galapagos Islands: agriculture, livestock and imports

2018 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 234-248 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carolina Sampedro ◽  
Francesco Pizzitutti ◽  
Diego Quiroga ◽  
Stephen J. Walsh ◽  
Carlos F. Mena
Keyword(s):  
System Dynamics ◽  
Development Strategy ◽  
Food Supply ◽  
Food System ◽  
Food Policy ◽  
Driving Forces ◽  
Local Population ◽  
Oceanic Islands ◽  
Supply System ◽  
Tourism Industry

AbstractLike many other oceanic islands around the globe, environmental conditions, social circumstances and forces of globalization combine to challenge the sustainability of the Galapagos Archipelago of Ecuador. This paper describes a food-supply system in Galapagos that is mainly controlled by population growth, weak local agriculture, imports from mainland Ecuador and the influence of a growing tourism industry. We use system dynamics (SD) as a modeling technique in this paper to identify the main driving forces operating on the Galapagos food system to create a series of future scenarios and to examine the subsequent implications across the supply system structures. We model the supply side of the food system using secondary data collected from governmental and non-governmental sources. We find that the consumption profile of the local inhabitants of the Galapagos is on average higher than consumption in the Ecuadorian mainland. This fact, plus rapid growth of the local population fueled by the tourism industry, has created a decrease in per capita local food production and an increase on food import dependence that now, challenges the sustainability of the archipelago. Imports are the largest source of food in the archipelago. Approximately 75% of the agricultural food supply was transported from the mainland in 2017. Our model projects that this fraction will increase to 95% by 2037 with no changes in food policy. Moreover, any plan to increase tourism arrivals must be accompanied by a plan to address the subsistence needs of the new population that the tourism industry attracts. Policies to promote local agricultural growth should be central to the development strategy implemented in the Galapagos.

scholarly journals The Curated Food System: A Limiting Aspirational Vision of What Constitutes “Good” Food

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (17) ◽  
pp. 6157
Author(s):  
Lauri Andress ◽  
Carmen Byker Shanks ◽  
Annie Hardison-Moody ◽  
T. Elaine Prewitt ◽  
Paul Kinder ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Rural Communities ◽  
Food Insecurity ◽  
Food System ◽  
Grey Literature ◽  
Rural Populations ◽  
System A ◽  
Production Distribution ◽  
Policies And Programs ◽  
Good Food ◽  
Distribution Of Income

In an effort to elucidate an aspirational vision for the food system and explore whether the characteristics of such a system inadvertently set unattainable standards for low-wealth rural communities, we applied discourse analysis to the following qualitative datasets: (1) interviews with food experts and advocates, (2) scholarly and grey literature, (3) industry websites, and (4) email exchanges between food advocates. The analysis revealed eight aspirational food system discourses: production, distribution, and infrastructure; healthy, organic, local food; behavioral health and education; sustainability; finance and investment; hunger relief; demand-side preferences; romanticized, community led transformations. Study findings reveal that of eight discourses, only three encompass the experiences of low-wealth rural residents. This aspirational food system may aggravate the lack of autonomy and powerlessness already experienced by low-wealth rural groups, perpetuate a sense of failure by groups who will be unable to reach the aspirational food vision, silence discourses that might question those that play a role in the inequitable distribution of income while sanctioning discourses that focus on personal or community solutions, and leave out other policy-based solutions that address issues located within the food system. Further research might explore how to draw attention to silenced discourses on the needs and preferences of low-wealth rural populations to ensure that the policies and programs promoted by food system experts mitigate poor diets caused by food insecurity. Further research is needed to inform policies and programs to mitigate food insecurity in low-wealth rural populations.

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