Food Supply Chains
The Benefits and Challenges of Purchasing Local Foods among Bed and Breakfast Industry in British Columbia, Canada
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Hiran Roy, Mohamed Mohsen
The purpose of this study is to explore operators’ perceptions of British Columbia’s Bed and Breakfast (B&B) sector with regards to local food products in terms of significance and major challenges. The theory of planned behaviour (TpB) as the theoretical framework will be used to investigate activities that influence B&B sectors’ decision to purchase local foods. The study uses a mixed method approach for data collection. Outcomes of this study help provide local food producers with insights into the needs of the B&B industry and addressing those needs will open a new market avenue for local food producers.
Weak and Strong Locality : Analyzing National Self-sufficiency and Food Security
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Inbar Shtutman, Tal Svoray, Meidad Kissinger
After decades of growing reliance on international trade, recent changes has led countries to be also concerned with their capability to support national food security based on their domestic resources. National food self-sufficiency literature and assessment methods are roughly divided into the widely adopted "made-in" approach, which ascribes local produce to its last reported production point; and the "local potential" approach, which relies on yields to evaluate hypothetical local food availability. However, both paradigms disregard trade of supplementary inputs and products (e.g., animal feed, oil crops etc.) required for local production. Following the "weak and strong sustainability" paradigm, our research introduces the "weak and strong locality" perspectives. It compares between the "made-in" ('weak locality'- WL) to 'the strong locality' (SL) perspectives, which explores the local production capacity without supplementary inputs. The framework and its relevance to national food security are demonstrated using an empirical study of the Israeli food system along five decades. Results highlights that the local food supply based on the WL perspective is 1.4 times higher than the amount available based on the SL perspective. Restricting supplementary traded inputs affects mostly the local cereal, oil crops and livestock sectors. Beef, dairy, poultry and eggs production would reduce significantly, compared to WL quantities, which limits the local food system capacity to support only 22% of the Israeli population. These findings are relevant not only to other resource-limited (i.e. land and water) and trade-depended countries similar to Israel, but also to large and accelerating food markets.
How Do Social Networks Shape Landscapes?: Fifty Years of Chez Panisse
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Sasha Pesci
Alternatives to the globalized food system have been gaining momentum in the U.S. since the 1970s. While scholarship has widely covered the potential and faults of direct agricultural markets, focusing on farms, farmers markets, and CSAs, few studies explore the impact of restaurants in alternative food networks. This research traces the impact of 50 years of intentionally local sourcing to uncover the magnitude of farm-to-restaurant enterprises. With the leadership of acclaimed chef Alice Waters, Chez Panisse, established in Berkeley, CA in 1971, is thought to have driven a “food revolution” in California and pioneered the California Cuisine movement. Their open kitchen approach encourages close ties between chefs and customers, and between chefs and farmers. Since its establishment, the restaurant’s menus have been based on regional, seasonal ingredients. By analyzing historical data on the network of farms that have been supplying to the restaurant, we map the expansion of social ties and related acreages impacted by this value-based enterprise over time. Through qualitative analysis with semi-structured interviews, we explore the magnitude and the impact that the network has had on where, what, and how food has been produced over time. This research informs the sociology of economic markets and social movements more broadly. With this research, we extend the theory of social embeddedness to unearth the role of social networks in alternative food markets, and show how Chez Panisse has cultivated a movement with a palate for agroecological, and caring forms of food production and consumption that shape landscapes of production.
A Food Systems Strengthening Conceptual Framework: Analysis from a Nutrition-sensitive Agricultural Project in Ethiopia
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Heidi Busse, Wellington Jogo
Agricultural advances have strengthened many national economies, but have failed to achieve broader benefits from food systems: improved food security and nutrition, ecological sustainability, economic viability of small- and medium-sized farms, social justice and equity. With many determinants influencing diets and food security, systems strengthening approaches are needed to design coherent, multi-sectoral initiatives to achieve multiple benefits from agriculture. Our three study objectives were to: Characterize the sweet potato value chain in Ethiopia; Analyze factors influencing the value chain; and Design a systems-strengthening plan to scale out project activities. Participants were recruited from six districts in two regions of Ethiopia. Qualitative data were collected from 12 focus group discussions (FGDs) in June-July 2015, with a total of 98 participants. Trained facilitators conducted FGDs in the local language. Data were coded into the following six core systems strengthening areas and analyzed for frequency: human resources, finance, governance, information, technology, and service delivery. Analyses revealed three bottlenecks that limited systems strengthening activities. These included the lack of: governance systems to integrate community-level mobilization with regional-level policy-making platforms (vertical integration); technology systems to facilitate sharing across agencies and a workforce with capacity to implement multi-sectoral projects (horizontal integration); and information from applied research to assess whether projects succeed in improving nutrition and broader community development outcomes (local data for decision-making). Findings from this study informed design of a conceptual model to integrate agricultural value chains and knowledge management strategies, tools, and processes that may yield greater benefits from food systems.
