Principles for Designing Agroecology-based Local (territorial) Agri-food Systems: A Critical Revision

Alternative food systems and networks, which have emerged around the world, provide a strong basis for ecological transition and the fight against climate emergencies. These experiences are often fragmentary, reduced in size and frequently unfold in parallel, hardly linked to each other. Agroecology...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: López-García, Daniel, González de Molina, Manuel
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión enviada para evaluación y publicación
Fecha de publicación:2021
País:España
Institución:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Repositorio:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
OAI Identifier:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/334884
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/334884
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21683565.2021.1913690#:~:text=10.1080/21683565.2021.1913690
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Agroecology
Local food systems
Alternative food networks
Local governance
Sustainability dimensions
Territory
Descripción
Sumario:Alternative food systems and networks, which have emerged around the world, provide a strong basis for ecological transition and the fight against climate emergencies. These experiences are often fragmentary, reduced in size and frequently unfold in parallel, hardly linked to each other. Agroecology faces the challenge of scaling up these initiatives to gain size and bring about a significant impact on food production and consumption, ultimately establishing an alternative regime. Within the agroecological movement, however, diverse conceptions exist of what a sustainable food system should be. It is thus necessary to reach an extensive consensus, from the perspective of agroecology, on the principles guiding the construction of this system. This paper discusses the principles that would best steer the building of Agroecology-based Local Agri-food Systems (ALAS). To this end, a critical review of the scientific literature on alternative food networks and systems was performed. In so doing, we highlighted the aspects that one could consider as purely agroecological in nature and sought to bring them together to form a coherent proposal. Consequently, the present paper systematizes the main contributions of literature on alternative food networks and systems, taking into account the characteristics of sustainability from an agroecology viewpoint, and identifies the issues requiring further development. Several principles are proposed to define local food systems, based on the four dimensions of sustainability.