Testing the assertion that ‘local food is best’: the challenges of an evidence-based approach

Edwards‐Jones, Gareth; Canals, Llorenç Milà i; Hounsome, Natalia; Trüninger, Mónica; Koerber, Georgia R.; Hounsome, Barry; Cross, Paul; York, Elizabeth H.; Hospido, Almudena; Plassmann, Katharina; Harris, Ian M.; Edwards, Rhiannon Tudor; Day, Graham; Tomos, A. D.; Cowell, Sarah; Jones, Davey L.

doi:10.1016/j.tifs.2008.01.008

Cited by 315 publications

(227 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…The common assumption that decreasing food miles will usually result in lower GHGE in a particular region has been increasingly challenged in favor of a more holistic assessment of food systems (Edwards-Jones et al 2008), and empirical studies have shown that food miles and GHGE can in some cases be inversely correlated (Coley et al 2009(Coley et al , p. 154, 2011Saunders and Barber 2008). These LCA studies do not negate other social and environmental benefits of spatial localization, but demonstrate that no single indicator can stand in for the complex factors and practices that determine the environmental impacts of a particular food system or specific components within it (Weber and Matthews 2009).…”

Section: Food Miles and Environmental And Social Impactmentioning

confidence: 99%

Operationalizing local food: goals, actions, and indicators for alternative food systems

Cleveland

Carruth

Mazaroli³

2014

Agric Hum Values

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Section: Food Miles and Environmental And Social Impactmentioning

confidence: 99%

Operationalizing local food: goals, actions, and indicators for alternative food systems

Cleveland

Carruth

Mazaroli³

2014

Agric Hum Values

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“…In consequence, problems may be open to radically different framings. An important justification for interdisciplinarity then is to bring together different disciplinary framings of a problem (Edwards-Jones et al, 2008;Wilkinson et al, 2011). Collaboration with the social sciences can bring different perspectives and methodologies to help reframe problems, or indeed reveal multiple or disputed understandings and thus expose diverse possibilities and ambivalent tendencies (Fischer, 2003;Jasanoff, 2005).…”

Section: Problem Framingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Why social scientists should engage with natural scientists

Lowe

Phillipson

Wilkinson

2013

Contemporary Social Science

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It has become part of the mantra of contemporary science policy that the resolution of besetting problems calls for the active engagement of a wide range of sciences. The paper reviews some of the key challenges for those striving for a more impactful social science by engaging strategically with natural scientists. It argues that effective engagement depends upon overcoming basic assumptions that have structured past interactions: particularly, the casting of social science in an end-of-pipe role in relation to scientific and technological developments. These structurings arise from epistemological assumptions about the underlying permanence of the natural world and the role of science in uncovering its fundamental order and properties. While the impermanence of the social world has always put the social sciences on shakier foundations, twenty-first century concerns about the instability of the natural world pose different epistemological assumptions that summon a more equal, immediate and intense interaction between field and intervention oriented social and natural scientists. The paper examines a major research programme that has exemplified these alternative epistemological assumptions. Drawing on a survey of researchers and other sources it seeks to draw out the lessons for social/natural science cross-disciplinary engagement.

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“…There is also an emphasis on establishing food supply systems that are sustainable in environmental terms, which localisation is seen to enable (in part at least) through a reduction in the distance food travels (or 'food miles'). However, there is a need to avoid the 'local food trap' (Born and Purcell, 2006), and there now is a powerful critique of 'simplistic' assumptions about the environmental benefits of local food, especially in relation to the notion of 'food miles' (see Coley et al, 2009;Edward-Jones et al, 2008;Weber and Matthews, 2008). This and other critiques are strongly equivocal about the benefits and role of local food systems.…”

Section: Commission On the Future Of Farming And Food's Report Farminmentioning

confidence: 99%

Food security framings within the UK and the integration of local food systems

Kirwan

Maye

2013

Journal of Rural Studies

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DisclaimerThe University of Gloucestershire has obtained warranties from all depositors as to their title in the material deposited and as to their right to deposit such material.The University of Gloucestershire makes no representation or warranties of commercial utility, title, or fitness for a particular purpose or any other warranty, express or implied in respect of any material deposited.The University of Gloucestershire makes no representation that the use of the materials will not infringe any patent, copyright, trademark or other property or proprietary rights.The University of Gloucestershire accepts no liability for any infringement of intellectual property rights in any material deposited but will remove such material from public view pending investigation in the event of an allegation of any such infringement. PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR TEXT.This is a peer-reviewed, pre-print version of the following published document: DisclaimerThe University of Gloucestershire has obtained warranties from all depositors as to their title in the material deposited and as to their right to deposit such material.The University of Gloucestershire makes no representation or warranties of commercial utility, title, or fitness for a particular purpose or any other warranty, express or implied in respect of any material deposited.The University of Gloucestershire makes no representation that the use of the materials will not infringe any patent, copyright, trademark or other property or proprietary rights.The University of Gloucestershire accepts no liability for any infringement of intellectual property rights in any material deposited but will remove such material from public view pending investigation in the event of an allegation of any such infringement.PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR TEXT. Note: This is a pre-publication copy of the paper which was submitted and published in Journal of Rural Studies (2013, Vol 29, pp. 91-100) 2 Food security framings within the UK and the integration of local food systems AbstractThis paper provides a critical interpretation of food security politics in the UK. It applies the notion of food security collective action frames to assess how specific action frames are maintained and contested. The interdependency between scale and framing in food security discourse is also scrutinised. It does this through an examination of 'official' UK food security approaches and the place of local food systems within these debates. The paper shows how the UK government's approach to food production and food security has been underpinned by the notion of resilience, which it considers is best achieved through sustainable intensification, market liberalisation and risk management, with local food systems largely sidelined within these 'official' framings. Nevertheless, collective action frames are socio-political constructs which are open to contestation; they are not static entities and are part of a mobile multiorganizational political field. The notion of incompleteness and fragility is highly pertinent to ...

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Testing the assertion that ‘local food is best’: the challenges of an evidence-based approach

Cited by 315 publications

References 49 publications

Operationalizing local food: goals, actions, and indicators for alternative food systems

Operationalizing local food: goals, actions, and indicators for alternative food systems

Why social scientists should engage with natural scientists

Food security framings within the UK and the integration of local food systems

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