Socially embedding the food system: the role of alternative food initiatives to build sustainable food models

ABSTRACT

The current industrial food system is failing in all aspects of sustainability. Alternative Food Initiatives (AFIs) and the industrial green food market (iGFM) both claim that they are building sustainable food models. This study looks into common strengths and challenges of AFIs in relation to iGFM. The research conducted a comparative case study of AFIs in the city of Sant Cugat del Vallès in the metropolitan area of Barcelona (Spain) through a combination of qualitative methods. The results show that strengths reside in their socially embedding characteristics with decommodification and commoning aspects, whereas the biggest challenge for AFIs is to manage being competitive while keeping their principles. The paper concludes that AFIs contribute more to building sustainable food models than the iGFM, as the latter only partially green the system for profit. For AFI models to prevail, public sector support to shift the power imbalance of the market is significant.

Key Policy Highlights:

• Alternative food initiatives (AFIs) are socially embedding sustainable food models.

• AFIs need help to compete within the current industrial green food market.

• The city government can play a counterbalancing role in favour of AFIs.

• Examples of city government measures include the cession of public space or providing farmland to AFIs.

KEYWORDS:

• Agroecology
• commons
• decommodification
• game-changing forces
• industrial green food market
• social embeddedness

Acknowledgements

Our big thanks go to all the people who generously spared their time to participate in the interviews and to show us around their field of activities.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 AFIs and AFNs: Alternative Food Initiatives (AFIs) and Alternative Food Networks (AFNs) are both used to address alternative food movements which tackle food related problems caused by conventional industrial food system. They are in some cases used interchangeably as in the case of Michel-Villarreal et al. (2019). They state “Such emerging food initiatives are most commonly known as ‘Alternative Food Networks’ (AFNs)” (1). Some describes AFIs as part of AFNs as in the case of Venn et al. (2006). Allen et al. (2003b) describe AFIs as initiatives which challenge the existing food system for the issues of health, the environmental consequences of agrochemicals, and impacts of a concentrated and globalized food system. Initiatives include community supported agriculture, producer cooperatives, consumer cooperatives, farmers’ markets, and community gardens (Allen et al. 2003a). Renting, Marsden, and Banks (2003) defines AFNs as “a broad embracing term to cover newly emerging networks of producers, consumers, and other actors that embody alternatives to the more standardised industrial mode of food supply” (394).

2 Agroecology: Rosset and Altieri (2017) describe agroecology as the science on the functioning of agroecosystems which focuses on “biological, biophysical, ecological, social, cultural, economic and political mechanisms, functions, relationships and design” and also as practices of sustainable farming without the use of harmful chemicals, and as “a movement that seeks to make farming more ecologically sustainable and more socially just” (1).

Additional information

Funding

We also want to thank the financial support from the Càtedra de Política Econòmica Local (UPF/Ajuntament de Barcelona), reference number: AZ616927/48032101 and the Ramon y Cajal Fellowship of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, reference number: RyC-2017-22782. This research contributes to the “María de Maeztu” Programme for Units of Excellence of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (CEX2019-000940-M).