Innovation for sustainability

Small farmers facing new challenges in the evolving food systems

Gianluca Brunori, Stefano Grando

• Publisher: Emerald Publishing Limited
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781839821585
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Agricultural Public Policy
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Small farms represent important components of food systems and rural areas, as sources of occupation and livelihood, factors of socio-economic diversity, cradles of grass-roots innovation and experimentation. Their capacity to adapt and to contribute positively to societal challenges depends on the strategies they can develop and their ability to innovate. The book provides an in-depth exploration of the determinants, dynamics and outcomes of rural and agricultural change processes, with a special focus on the role of small and family farming. Covering both the system and the farm level of analysis, the authors offer a comprehensive view of approaches and models capable to grasp different complementary aspects of the development trajectories followed by farms, food systems and territories facing multi-dimensional drivers of change and exposed to a range of vulnerability factors. The emerging characters and roles of innovation networks and social learning, as well as the decision-making processes at the farm level are explored in particular depth, with attention to the multi-dimensional societal expectations vis-à-vis agriculture, small farms and rural areas, with specific attention to food and nutrition security concerns.

PART I
CHANGING FOOD SYSTEMS

Small Farming and the Food System

Stefano Grando, Gianluca Brunori,

Teresa Pinto-Correia and Lee-Ann Sutherland

Abstract

This chapter provides a first systemic analysis of the environment in which small farms operate, hinging on the concept of ‘food system’. Food systems are not detached from the territory: an effective conceptualization must take into account the geographical dimension in which actors operate, originating material and immaterial flows. Thus food systems can be represented according to their functional elements, but also conceptualized and represented in their spatial dimension. This chapter provides a conceptualization of territorialized food systems, seen as a set of relations between actors located in a regional geographic space and coordinated by territorial governance (Rastoin, 2015). In the analysis of a food system in the context of a specific territory, geographical elements like distances, spatial distribution and physical and administrative borders become key factors that influence the systems’ capability to provide sustainable food and nutrition security and to achieve the other socially expected outcomes. Having explored the conceptualization of food systems as systems of actors ad flows in a given space, the chapter ends with a representation of small farms' interaction with the system (taken from a report by the High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition of the Committee on World Food Security – HLPE), where the specific types of flows they activate are highlighted (HLPE, 2013).

Keywords: Small farms; food system; functional representation; spatial representation; farms' connections

Introduction

The role of small farming, its contribution to a range of outcomes including, but not limited to, food and nutrition security (FNS), cannot be understood without an understanding of the food system of which the farm is part. The definition itself of a ‘small farm’, or in other words the identification of a farm as ‘small’, is not detached by the context in which the farm operates.

The largest part of this initial chapter is thus dedicated to the conceptualization of the food system, starting from an a-spatial description, with an articulation in activities and outcomes, then developed into a territorial one. It is recognized that food systems differ greatly from one region to another, and that the consideration of the geographic space and spatial attributes are crucial for an effective comprehension, and mapping, of the system. It is also argued that the distinction, within a given system, between food production and food consumption sub-systems is useful to better describe flows and patterns. This is particularly true in relation to food consumption patterns that can be used as a conceptual starting point for a field research aimed at mapping a real territorialized food system. The functioning of small farms within the food system is then discussed through a scheme highlighting the main income and labour flows centred on the farm/household.

What Is a Food System?

What argued leads us to consider that defining the concept of food system is crucial to analyze small farms's activity and outcomes, including their contributions to FNS. The definition suggested by the High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition of the Committee on World Food Security (HLPE) is a detailed and comprehensive starting point:

A food systems gathers all the elements (environment, people, inputs, processes, infrastructures, institutions, etc.) and activities that relate to the production, processing, distribution, preparation and consumption of food, and the outputs of these activities, including socio-economic and environmental outcomes. (HLPE, 2014, p. 12)

A similar definition is in a report of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), which defines a food system as encompassing

the interdependent sets of enterprises, institutions, activities and relationships that collectively develop and deliver material inputs to the farming sector, produce primary commodities, and subsequently handle, process, transport, market and distribute food and other agrobased products to consumers. (UNEP, 2016, p. 30)

These definitions highlight the need to move beyond the mere focus on the production side. There are various reasons for this choice. Food system approaches consider opportunities within food system activities other than production to attain more resource efficiency; they can directly address both undernutrition and overconsumption; they enable to consider changes along the supply chain such as ‘supermarketization’ and their effects on food access and consumption patterns, leading to a more balanced consideration of food supply and demand within the context of actors, institutions and governance (UNEP, 2016, p. 24).

The link between food system and FNS, but also the broader socio-economic and environmental outcomes mentioned in the HLPE definition, is accounted for in Ericksen's (2008) model, which shows that food system activities produce outcomes in the fields of social welfare, environmental security and FNS. Fig. 1 presents an adaptation.

Fig. 1. Food System Conceptualization. Source: Adapted from Ericksen (2008).

The scheme highlights that food system activities and outcomes do contribute to food security, but at the same time do not determine it, as other drivers also influence the four food security dimensions. ¹

Food Systems in the Space

HLPE definition of food system and Ericksen model account for relevant characters of food systems; however they do not make any reference to the specific territory in which those food systems can be identified. They are a-spatial descriptions in which distances and geography do not seem to play an explicit role. However, following what argued by UNEP (2016, p. 30), we can underline how food systems differ regionally in terms of actors involved and characteristics of their relationships with communities, institutions and natural environments, as well as in terms of the activities expected and carried out. This gives value to the idea of a geographical-based conceptualization and visualization of food systems, which is developed in this section.

In general terms we can look at territorialized food systems as those food systems identified in a specific region (in the SALSA project a set of reference regions – RRs – were chosen for in-depth analysis) as a set of dynamic interactions between human (households, enterprises, institutions, etc.), natural (ecological, spatial and bio-physical) and technological elements which results in a range of activities and outcomes, as highlighted in the HLPE definition given above.

Reflecting on the relation between food system and its more direct outcome, FNS helps on identifying reasons and forms of a spatial representation of the system.

According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) the regional and context-specific nature of FNS has been often overlooked (OECD, 2016). There is a need for a paradigm shift in addressing FNS policy that embraces multisectoral, bottom-up and place-based interventions. This can be achieved through a territorial approach to FNS. In this framework, aligning objectives and actions across levels of government is critical. Doing so improves the vertical and horizontal co-ordination of FNS policies and interventions. Similarly, a territorial approach allows the diversity of different territories to be taken into account, and leads to a better understanding of differences in development opportunities that are so often missed with one-dimensional or one-size-fits-all policies. A territorial approach also recognizes and capitalizes on the benefits of urban–rural linkages, instead of addressing urban and rural areas through different, often disconnected, policies.

Moving from these considerations, we can list a range of reasons for which the regional approach and the spatial representation of the food system are adequate to analyze small farms' connections with the system and their contribution to the food system outcomes, including FNS. The regional approach is useful in various regards:

• it represents a manageable scale at which to do empirical research, ensuring some standardization in terms of scale of analysis between countries;
• there are many conditions and processes of the food systems that depend on bio-physical characteristics and social characteristics which have a territorial variation pattern;
• it identifies administrative levels where statistics are available and policies are set;
• it sets boundaries within which food consumption can be considered;
• small-scale farmers and food business are more likely to be closely embedded in the regional food systems;
• it can include rural as well as urban areas) with their interrelations.

Looking specifically at FNS the importance of a spatially based understanding of food systems is also strengthened by the consideration that food insecurity is in most cases based in food system failures at local/regional levels.

In addition, the governance of food systems has a strong spatial and regional dimension, as noted by Rastoin (2015) who defines ‘territorialized agro-food systems’ as a ‘set of agri-food sectors located in a regional geographic space and coordinated by territorial governance’. The spatial dimension is particularly required to describe the complex interactions between the very different socially shaped spaces across European and African countries.

It is important to underline that interactions within any food system identified at a regional level are not limited to the region itself. Consumers can rely either on food produced locally, or on imported (from outside the region) food. They also may choose fresh or processed products, and products whose supply chains are complex and geographically extended. They can also rely on alternative sources of food, including self-production. On the other side, the food produced in a given region is delivered to internal consumers as well as to external ones. Producers can also import raw material to be processed, distributed locally and re-exported. This means that not all food produced within a territory (however defined) is consumed within those borders and, conversely, not all food consumed within a region comes (entirely) from within the same region.

Since cross-border flows connect regional with external actors, the identification of a food system within a given region highlights the intersection between a multiplicity of relational configurations with influences extending beyond borders. Some of external actors (for example, retailers or processors) may have a strong influence on local actors' behaviour, influencing the shape and the performance of the territorialized food system. Still, territory matters, as local regulation, consumers' demand, civil society and governance patterns influence power relations and structures of the food system within the region. Territorialized production systems may range from a close relationship with local consumption to a total disconnection (e.g. in very specialized export-oriented territorial production systems).

This interplay of production and consumption activities can be read in the light of a distinction proposed by UNEP (2016) between food ‘production systems’ and food ‘consumption systems’. ‘The “food production system” generally does not geographically coincide with the “food consumption system” (…). Part of the regional production is usually exported to other regions, and part of the consumed food is imported’ (UNEP, 2016, p. 129).

Fig. 2 presents the two sub-systems represented through the visualization of the food produced/processed and consumed within the region. The flows of food and inputs between the ‘regional’ system identified at the...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Series Title Page
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Figures and Tables
• List of Acronyms
• Foreword
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• PART I CHANGING FOOD SYSTEMS
• PART II FARMING IN THE CHANGING FOOD SYSTEMS
• About the Contributors
• Index