Pathways to scaling agroecology in the city region: scaling out, scaling up and scaling deep through community-Led trade

Scaling agroecology has the potential to support more sustainable and just food futures. This article investigates a case of community-led trade operating in the city region of London. Drawing upon interviews with stakeholders and practice-based ethnographic fieldwork, challenges and opportunities for agroecology are examined. Three dimensions of scaling agroecology are identified as pathways to sustainable and just food futures in the city region: scaling out, scaling up and scaling deep. Findings suggest scaling out agroecology requires access to secure, affordable land and infrastructure for agroecological communities of practice, alongside investment in capacity building for agroecological communities of practice via learning platforms (such as training programmes) and knowledge exchange (such as farmer-to-farmer and trader-to-trader learning). Second, scaling up agroecology requires transformations in policy, planning and legislation that value and invest in agroecological practices and divest in unsustainable and unjust food systems, supported via translocal networks for exchange of good practice. Third, scaling deep agroecology requires investment both in transformative learning opportunities and networks that support agroecological communities of practices, including those with lived experience of food injustice. Findings have implications for the question regarding scaling agroecology in the city region. View Full-Text Keywords: agroecology; city region; scaling up; scaling out; scaling deep; sustainable food systems; practice-base

Working co-operatively for sustainable and just food system transformation

Co-operative ways of working can be understood as people-centred approaches. This article considers how co-operative ways of working have the potential to support the scaling-out of sustainable and just food systems in the context of Wales through people-centred change. Drawing upon a series of interviews with stakeholders involved in the sustainable and the co-operative food sector within Wales and international case studies, opportunities and challenges facing the scaling-out of sustainable and just food systems are considered. Findings demonstrate the potential of co-operative and community-based approaches to sustainable production, processing, distribution, and trading of healthy food that is affordable, culturally appropriate, and based upon an ethic of justice and care for land, workers, and animals. Community supported agriculture, incubator farms, food hubs, and platform co-operatives are identified as key mechanisms for sustainable and just food systems. Capacity building through education, information, and training are further critical foundations for co-operative and people-centred ways of working. In order to accelerate sustainable and just food futures, community-based participation, networks for training, access to resources and land, and transformative forms of governance, including legislative change, are key. We conclude by highlighting implications for future research into policy transfer and food system transformation

Curating with Communities for Well-being: Exploring an Amgueddfa Cymru–National Museum Wales Biocultural Collection through Community Workshops

Biocultural collections include specimens of plant and animal origin, artefacts and documentation. They are important resources for the conservation of biological and cultural diversity, as well as for education and research. Curation of biocultural collections at Amgueddfa Cymru–National Museum Wales is underpinned by the unique legislative framework, the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act (2015). This article presents the findings of a series of six workshops with a range of community groups invited to discuss how the Amgueddfa Cymru Economic Botany Collection can build public understanding of biodiversity and fulfil its well-being duty. Findings indicate participant interest in the collection as a resource that can support learning about the multiple values of plants, the diverse cultural heritage linked to plants and the community connections the collection can support, including within and across cultures, practices and places

Urban political ecologies of the apple: practices of corporate-led and community-led trade in the London city region

This article investigates the urban political ecologies of the apple in London city region. As one of the largest cities in Europe, London is a pertinent site to explore the challenges and possibilities of future food systems. The apple is used as a lens to explore the diverging urban political ecologies of corporate-led and community-led food systems. A mixed method qualitative research approach combines a series of semi-structured interviews with stakeholders involved in producing, distributing and trading apples with practice-based ethnographic fieldwork, responding to calls within urban political ecology for more situated and grounded approaches that build new understandings of socio-environmental practices. Research shows diverging practices and biophysical properties of the apple amongst producers supplying multiple retailers and those operating via a community-led trading mechanism, which includes a farmers’ market and fruit and veg box scheme. Fieldwork suggests apple production for multiple retailers is retail-led, placing increasing pressures upon producers. Biophysical properties of the corporate-led apple are becoming increasingly standardised; narrow in terms of varietal range, and; privatised, via the rise of club brand apples. In contrast, fieldwork suggests community-led trade is based upon producer-led, agroecological approaches to production, distribution and trade. Biophysical properties of the community-led apple are context-dependent and diverse in terms of varietal range, quality and size. Community-led trading is identified as a mechanism for scaling agroecology through cultivating community social and ecological relations and producer-led approaches. To become more than marginal, agroecology and community-led trade require enabling policy, planning and legislative frameworks

Placing the apple: exploring the urban applescape

There is a growing global urban appetite for fresh fruit and vegetables, particularly fruit. There is a further recognised need for agri-food systems that support human health, ecological integrity and social justice (Morgan and Sonnino 2010). This thesis explores the current possibilities and challenges of regenerative agri-food systems through the case of the urban apple. With the lens of political ecology, the thesis presents a relational interpretation of the spaces, natures and relations of the urban apple through considering the practices and the guiding logic of the corporate and agro-ecological urban apple in Hackney, London. The methodological framework, informed by relational geographies, supports a situated and place-based understanding of the corporate and agro-ecological logics through attending to practices in place. The thesis draws upon a number of semi-structured interviews and participant-observation with representatives involved in the production, distribution and trading of the urban apple. As the case of Growing Communities demonstrates, citizens can be supported in practicing more healthy, ecological and just ways of growing, trading and consuming food through agro-ecological communities of practice. Currently, such communities remain politically marginalised, particularly at national government levels. A political framework that fosters physical, economic and political space for regenerative agri-food practices and systems is considered key. The city-region is recognised as a ‘space of possibility’ and ‘space of action’ (Gibson-Graham and Roelvink 2011) in the scaling-out regenerative agri-food practices and systems. This needs to be supported by multi-scalar, cross-sectoral, participatory and co-productive processes (Jennings et al. 2015; Moragues-Faus and Morgan 2015; Jégou and Bonneau 2014), prioritising space for community-led, place-based practice

Placing the apple: exploring the urban applescape

There is a growing global urban appetite for fresh fruit and vegetables, particularly fruit. There is a further recognised need for agri-food systems that support human health, ecological integrity and social justice (Morgan and Sonnino 2010). This thesis explores the current possibilities and challenges of regenerative agri-food systems through the case of the urban apple. With the lens of political ecology, the thesis presents a relational interpretation of the spaces, natures and relations of the urban apple through considering the practices and the guiding logic of the corporate and agro-ecological urban apple in Hackney, London. The methodological framework, informed by relational geographies, supports a situated and place-based understanding of the corporate and agro-ecological logics through attending to practices in place. The thesis draws upon a number of semi-structured interviews and participant-observation with representatives involved in the production, distribution and trading of the urban apple. As the case of Growing Communities demonstrates, citizens can be supported in practicing more healthy, ecological and just ways of growing, trading and consuming food through agro-ecological communities of practice. Currently, such communities remain politically marginalised, particularly at national government levels. A political framework that fosters physical, economic and political space for regenerative agri-food practices and systems is considered key. The city-region is recognised as a ‘space of possibility’ and ‘space of action’ (Gibson-Graham and Roelvink 2011) in the scaling-out regenerative agri-food practices and systems. This needs to be supported by multi-scalar, cross-sectoral, participatory and co-productive processes (Jennings et al. 2015; Moragues-Faus and Morgan 2015; Jégou and Bonneau 2014), prioritising space for community-led, place-based practice