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Conclusions: Promises and Challenges for Sustainable Agri-Food Systems

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Socio-Metabolic Perspectives on the Sustainability of Local Food Systems

Part of the book series: Human-Environment Interactions ((HUEN,volume 7))

Abstract

This chapter summarizes the main sustainability challenges (in terms of science and policy) of the current dominant agri-food system and presents insights derived from the cases in the volume. We return to the two main questions asked in the introductory chapter of the book. How useful is the socio-metabolic approach in studying the sustainability of local food systems (LFS)? To this, we identify three main methodological contributions: (1) That classic indicators (of material and energy flows) derived from the sociometabolic approach offers greater insights as well as lend power and rigour when combined with social, ecological, political and other dimensions; (2) Multi-dimensional and multi-scalar analyses can contribute not only to sustainability assessment of a particular LFS but also to broader theoretical and conceptual debates regarding sustainability and potential localisation of LFS; (3) Socio-metabolic studies on the local level provide detailed understanding of the particular LFS while revealing potential leverage points for intervention for improved system performance with respect to sustainability. Besides methodological insights, the chapter derives key lessons from the cases in the book, in particular the promising characteristics of both the historical and current local food system . We identify the following points as important: (1) A close proximity between the producers and consumers holds a very strong potential for systemic change of the current dominant agri-food system, but also the other way round, the growing distance obscures the sustainability challenges; (2) LFS proves better in closing nutrient cycles on local and regional levels. This issue is also related to the importance of the multifunctionality of land use, and livestock use, in both the historical and the current LFS. As seen in our case studies, LFS cannot be seen as a panacea to address all sustainability challenges of the current dominant agri-food system, however, they hold great potential and therefore deserve further exploration.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), known also as chronic diseases, include for example cancer, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, poor mental health and respiratory diseases. For nine global targets to reduce NCDs see https://ncdalliance.org/global-ncd-targets (2017-07-16).

  2. 2.

    In their own words (Born and Purcell 2006: 195): “scale is socially produced: scales (and their interrelations) are not independent entities with inherent qualities but strategies pursued by social actors with a particular agenda. It is the content of that agenda, not the scales themselves, that produces outcomes such as sustainability or justice.”

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Associate Professor in the School of Environment, Enterprise and Development (SEED), University of Waterloo, Environment 3 Building, 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, ON, N2L 3G1, Canada

    Simron Jit Singh

  2. Associate Dean of the Faculty of Environment, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Canada

    Simron Jit Singh

  3. Institute of Social Ecology, Faculty for Interdisciplinary Studies, Alpen-Adria University, Schottenfeldgasse 29, 1070, Vienna, Austria

    Willi Haas

  4. Department of Environmental Studies, Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University, Joštova 10, 602 00, Brno, Czech Republic

    Eva Fraňková

Authors
  1. Simron Jit Singh
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  2. Willi Haas
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  3. Eva Fraňková
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Correspondence to Simron Jit Singh .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Studies, Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic

    Eva Fraňková

  2. Institute of Social Ecology, Faculty for Interdisciplinary Studies, Klagenfurt University, Vienna, Austria

    Willi Haas

  3. School of Environment Enterprise and Development (SEED), University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

    Simron J. Singh

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Singh, S.J., Haas, W., Fraňková, E. (2017). Conclusions: Promises and Challenges for Sustainable Agri-Food Systems. In: Fraňková, E., Haas, W., Singh, S. (eds) Socio-Metabolic Perspectives on the Sustainability of Local Food Systems. Human-Environment Interactions, vol 7. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69236-4_12

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