Scaling agroecology for food system transformation in metropolitan areas: Agroecological characterization and role of knowledge in community-supported agriculture farms connected to a food hub in Berlin, Germany

Vicente-Vicente, José Luis; Borderieux, Julius; Martens, Katrin; González-Rosado, Manuel; Walthall, Beatrice

doi:10.1080/21683565.2023.2187003

Cited by 9 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 93 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…No CSA farms can be considered as non-agroecological (CAET < 50). These findings are in line with the agroecological characterization of CSA farms in Germany performed by Vicente-Vicente et al (2023), who found them too to be strongly aligned with agroecology. These findings further elucidate the strong linkages between agroecology and CSA and confirm that CSA farms can be considered as highly agroecological systems which can serve as exemplary systems that integrate the environmental, social and economic principles and practices of agroecology.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

Assessing the agroecological performance and sustainability of Community Supported Agriculture farms in Flanders, Belgium

Savels,

Dessein,

Lucantoni

et al. 2024

Front. Sustain. Food Syst.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Agroecology is receiving increasing attention and recognition as a concept for transitions to more sustainable agricultural and food systems. There is however a lack of characterization of agroecology in agricultural and food systems, while integrated and holistic measurements of their sustainability are scarce. Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is considered to be a system explicitly based on agroecological principles and practices which shows potential in the face of the sustainability challenges in agriculture and food systems, but its link with agroecology and its holistic sustainability performance have remained understudied. Therefore, we applied the Tool for Agroecology Performance Evaluation (TAPE) to 24 Community Supported Agriculture farms in the Flanders region of Belgium in order to characterize agroecology and to assess their multidimensional sustainability performance. Our results show that Community Supported Agriculture farms can be characterized as advanced agroecological systems, highlighted by their high to very high performance on many of the elements of agroecology. Moreover, our results show positive outcomes on several sustainability criteria across environmental, social and economic dimensions such as soil health, presence of natural vegetation and pollinators and ecological management of pests and diseases, as well as dietary diversity and profitability criteria like gross value, added value and net revenue. The integration and role of animals in these agroecosystems and the importance of - and dependence on - labor are however identified as two critical aspects regarding the agroecological transitions and sustainability of Community Supported Agriculture. Our findings emphasize the exemplary role Community Supported Agriculture could play in broader agroecological transitions, which, coupled with their high performance on several sustainability criteria, highlight the potential contribution of Community Supported Agriculture, and by extension of agroecology itself, to more sustainable agricultural and food systems in Flanders and beyond.

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

Assessing the agroecological performance and sustainability of Community Supported Agriculture farms in Flanders, Belgium

Savels,

Dessein,

Lucantoni

et al. 2024

Front. Sustain. Food Syst.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Sustainable transformation requires disrupting these rigid institutions to develop new practices (Olsson et al, 2014;Ziervogel et al, 2016). Researchers and policymakers are exploring various transformative pathways for the agri-food system, such as the adoption of bioeconomy (Friedrich et al, 2021), organic farming (Darnhofer, 2014), digitalization Zscheischler et al, 2022) and agroecology (Vicente-Vicente et al, 2023) to address these challenges. These approaches emphasize the need for innovation and particularly the emergence of new sustainable practices and organizational models to promote change.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Examining proximity factors in public-private collaboration models for sustainable agri-food system transformation: a comparative study of two rural communities

Martens,

Rogga,

Hardner

et al. 2023

Front. Sustain. Food Syst.

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Collaboration among local actors is considered an important precondition for a sustainable transformation of the regional agri-food system. To date, however, little is known about the social innovation capacity of local farmers when it comes to the establishment of alternative food networks. This is especially true for farmers’ collaborations with local government officials, which are becoming increasingly important in establishing sustainability-oriented markets for local products and services, especially in the agricultural sector that is often rooted in rigid logics, supply chains and institutions. Therefore, this paper aims to explore the concept of proximity as an analytical lens to understand private-public collaboration models that aim at facilitating sustainable transformation in rural areas. Drawing on concepts from innovation geography, this paper considers the influence of geographic, cognitive, institutional, organizational and social determinants of collaboration, enabling an evaluation of the social innovation capacity of local private and public actors. This theoretical approach helps to disassemble and differentiate social innovation processes to determine success strategies. The paper studies two rural communities where mayors aim to establish local food stores with regional products and, therefore, seek collaboration with local farmers. While the empirical aspect of the study is limited, the two cases provide an opportunity to test the theoretical framework. The proximity approach can be significant for regional agri-food system transformation and steering social innovation processes by considering the distinct capacities of actors. Our conclusion is that the examination of the absence and degree of proximity facilitates a better understanding of practical recommendations to promote agri-food system transformation.

show abstract

Regional agroecological stewardship: a framework to analyze the (re)territorialization of sustainable food systems

Ying,

Egermann

2024

Sustain Sci

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The negative effects of climate change as well as the COVID-19 pandemic have underscored the fragility of the current global food system. To respond to such crises, the European Union’s (EU) “Farm to Fork” strategy strives to reshape the region’s food system to be more resilient and calls for new approaches to do so. The practices connected to the concepts of both agroecology and environmental stewardship are referenced for their potential to foster a transformation toward a more sustainable food system. However, these practices have been conducted on a small scale and independent from each other. A combined and holistic view of food systems based on the practices of both concepts remains missing. To close this gap, we developed a regional agroecological stewardship framework using the current literature to explore how these concepts can be combined to generate new insights for (re)territorialization by expanding agroecological practices beyond individual initiatives. To validate and refine the key components of the framework, we used an illustrative case study (Free State of Saxony, Germany) and interviewed relevant stakeholders including an agroecology expert, farm workers, network actors, and public officials from different governance levels. We identified actors and their motivations and capacity, a stewardship network, the outcomes of agroecological activities and the amplification of (re)territorialization as key components for regional agroecological stewardship. The framework can be used as an evaluation tool to assess the status of agroecological stewardship in a region and to determine regional challenges that need to be addressed.

show abstract

Scaling agroecology for food system transformation in metropolitan areas: Agroecological characterization and role of knowledge in community-supported agriculture farms connected to a food hub in Berlin, Germany

Cited by 9 publications

References 93 publications

Assessing the agroecological performance and sustainability of Community Supported Agriculture farms in Flanders, Belgium

Assessing the agroecological performance and sustainability of Community Supported Agriculture farms in Flanders, Belgium

Examining proximity factors in public-private collaboration models for sustainable agri-food system transformation: a comparative study of two rural communities

Regional agroecological stewardship: a framework to analyze the (re)territorialization of sustainable food systems

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About