Sustainable value: the perspective of horticultural producers in Arctic Norway

Abstract

Aiming for sustainable development of food value chains several assessment methods are developed, however it seems challenging to go from assessment to actual change. A solution proposed is increased stakeholder involvement also in the assessment phase. The perspective on sustainability varies depending on several variables, among which the geographical context where the producers are located. The perspective of the latter is of paramount importance as these are the actors on who, ultimately, possible changes towards sustainability depend. In this article, we applied a qualitative approach to investigate the farmers’ perspective on sustainability, in the horticultural production in Arctic Norway. We found that many of the premises for sustainable food production are present. The main challenges are lack of long-term planning, dependency of rented land as well as fluctuating yield and income. Producer’s network is essential for development as well as introduction of technical improvements. The study shows the importance of contextualisation of sustainability, as well as pointing at concerns about trade-offs between sustainability dimensions and themes in the proposed model. The research contributes to method development by demonstrating how a qualitative approach is a fruitful method to unravel the complexities of sustainability in food production.

Learning for Sustainability in Horticultural Production in Arctic Norway

“…The methods were applied successively over the span of 3 months, allowing rounds of reflection in-between (Figure 2). It should be noted that this study is a continuation of a previous study in the region where the focus was on the horticultural farmers' perspectives on sustainability (Halland et al, 2021).…”

“…For the purpose of the study, we recruited five farmers that operate farms that produce berries, vegetables, and/or potatoes (Table 1). These farmers were well-known to the lead author as they were also participants in a prior study in 2019 (Halland et al, 2021). Combined, these farms represent 15% of all the land utilized for producing potatoes in Arctic Norway, 13% of the vegetable producing area, and 14% of the berry producing area.…”

“…Time-scale aspects remain a challenge when working for sustainability, knowing that changes need to be made in the present, while results may only be seen later, often far into the future. This is especially challenging when planning for farm sustainability (Halland et al, 2021). In the workshops it was revealed that working for holistic farm sustainability was perceived to be better for the production and for the economy in the long run, even though in the short run it might be conflicting.…”

“…Restrepo et al (2018) find that collaborative learning processes challenge farmers' assumptions and beliefs, and enable farmers to find relevant solutions for sustainability challenges on their farms (i.e., important in raising awareness as discussed in section Building Awareness as a Main Cause and a Main Outcome of Sustainability Learning). In Halland et al (2021) both participation and networks were key factors for sustainability in Arctic Norway horticulture. In the SMARTfarm assessment the farms also showed a very high score, 92%, on the theme Participation (Figure 3).…”

Sustainability assessment and analysis of Tunisian olive growing systems

“…It is called the triple bottom approach and it simplifies the measurement of company sustainable performance by expressing sustainability in monetary value called "sustainable added value (Hahn et al, 2015;Kassem et al, 2016). This approach is now widely used to asses agricultural sustainability in many regions around the world and it shows relevant and satisfactory results (Van Passel et al, 2009;Gómez-Luciano, 2019;Halland et al, 2020;Thomas et al, 2020;Triyono et al, 2021;Cammarata et al, 2021;Moretti et al, 2021). Hence, and according to data availability, the SV approach was adopted here to assess the sustainability of Tunisian olive farms.…”