Environmental co-operatives reconnect farming, ecology and society

Regional diversity, diversified farming styles and endogenous development are hot issues in the current political debate on European agriculture. This article presents a historical overview of development experiences and elaborates on the emergence of environmental co-operatives in Dutch farming. They are unique ‘field laboratories’ for innovations toward sustainable rural development. The achievements in terms of environmental gains and social cohesion are coupled with cost reduction for the farmers and the stat

Working Together to Build Cooperative Food Systems

The combined challenges of food insecurity, agriculture-related environmental decline, corporate concentration, and the decline of community resilience are being met by growing societal interest in developing more just and sustainable food systems. A recent emphasis on cooperation and innovative forms of collective action within the food movement invokes a community-centered approach to food provisioning where collective problem-solving and democracy take center place in the development agenda (Ikerd, 2012). Cooperative alternative food networks are becoming powerful tools for community development and important vehicles for cultivating democratically controlled food systems at multiple scales. The papers in this special issue provide an important contribution to our understanding of the function, the challenges, and the potential of collective action in enabling more just and resilient food systems. Cooperative alternative food networks represent a break from the competitive productivism of the dominant food economy and create new relational spaces that hold promise for overcoming the pragmatic and political limits of some of the more individualistic approaches in the local/ sustainable food movement. These include cooperative forms of: food hubs, local food networks, farmers' markets, CSAs, box schemes, buying clubs, and value chains, along with a range of agriculture and food cooperatives owned by farmers, consumers, workers, and in emerging multistakeholder cooperative structures. With a renewed emphasis on civic governance, the resulting food-provisioning systems are based on principles of participatory democracy, solidarity, and reciprocity (Renting, Schermer, & Rossi, 2012) and provide spaces to nurture collective subjectivities required for transformative food practice and politics (Levkoe, 2011)

Building Food Democracy: Exploring Civic Food Networks and Newly Emerging Forms of Food Citizenship

In recent years new types of consumer-producer cooperation in food networks have emerged in which consumers play an active role in the operation and thereby clearly go beyond food provisioning as such. Examples include consumer co-ops and solidarity buying groups of local and organic food, communitysupported agriculture and collective urban gardening initiatives. These initiatives raise important new questions that cannot be adequately resolved within existing theoretical perspectives based on concepts such as 'alternative food networks', 'short food supply chains' or 'local food systems'. This article explores possible new analytical frameworks for the study of contemporary dynamics in food networks and develops the concept of 'civic food networks' as an overarching concept to explore contemporary dynamics and sources of innovation within agri-food networks. Building on the empirical diversity of initiatives, this introduction to the Special Issue argues that the role of civil society as a governance mechanism for agri-food networks has increased in significance compared to market and state actors. Moreover, expressions of 'food citizenship' are reshaping the relation between food practices and the market as well as with public institutions in ways that go beyond material and economic exchange and that contribute to a 'moralization' (or even 'civilization') of food economie

The Role of ICTs in Supporting Collaborative Networks in the Agro-Food Sector: Two Case Studies from South West England

Over recent years, in a wide range of countries, grassroots initiatives have emerged aimed at overcoming the limits of the mainstream agro-business system. These initiatives aim at improving farmers’ access to local and regional markets and consumers’ access to fresh local produce. Among these initiatives, Food Hubs have emerged as a promising way to improve local food supply systems. They represent collaborative networks of producers and consumers that aggregate, distribute, and market local food products. ICTs enable these collaborative networks by allowing information exchange among their actors and by providing collaborative tools that allow quick co-ordination between members of the network. The paper aims to analyse how the adoption of ICTs have fostered the development of new, initiatives oriented at establishing local food networks and to reconnect producers and consumers. The study will present results from the analysis of two food-hub initiatives based in South West England, which are adopting informative systems to support their activities and to implement novel business models: Stroudco Food Hub and Dean Forest Food Hub

LOFAR Sparse Image Reconstruction

Context. The LOw Frequency ARray (LOFAR) radio telescope is a giant digital phased array interferometer with multiple antennas distributed in Europe. It provides discrete sets of Fourier components of the sky brightness. Recovering the original brightness distribution with aperture synthesis forms an inverse problem that can be solved by various deconvolution and minimization methods Aims. Recent papers have established a clear link between the discrete nature of radio interferometry measurement and the "compressed sensing" (CS) theory, which supports sparse reconstruction methods to form an image from the measured visibilities. Empowered by proximal theory, CS offers a sound framework for efficient global minimization and sparse data representation using fast algorithms. Combined with instrumental direction-dependent effects (DDE) in the scope of a real instrument, we developed and validated a new method based on this framework Methods. We implemented a sparse reconstruction method in the standard LOFAR imaging tool and compared the photometric and resolution performance of this new imager with that of CLEAN-based methods (CLEAN and MS-CLEAN) with simulated and real LOFAR data Results. We show that i) sparse reconstruction performs as well as CLEAN in recovering the flux of point sources; ii) performs much better on extended objects (the root mean square error is reduced by a factor of up to 10); and iii) provides a solution with an effective angular resolution 2-3 times better than the CLEAN images. Conclusions. Sparse recovery gives a correct photometry on high dynamic and wide-field images and improved realistic structures of extended sources (of simulated and real LOFAR datasets). This sparse reconstruction method is compatible with modern interferometric imagers that handle DDE corrections (A- and W-projections) required for current and future instruments such as LOFAR and SKAComment: Published in A&A, 19 pages, 9 figure

Optimized Trigger for Ultra-High-Energy Cosmic-Ray and Neutrino Observations with the Low Frequency Radio Array

When an ultra-high energy neutrino or cosmic ray strikes the Lunar surface a radio-frequency pulse is emitted. We plan to use the LOFAR radio telescope to detect these pulses. In this work we propose an efficient trigger implementation for LOFAR optimized for the observation of short radio pulses.Comment: Submitted to Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section

Exploring the contribution of alternative food networks to food security. A comparative analysis

[EN] Food (in)security has become a challenge not only for developing economies but also for High Income Countries. In parallel, food scholars have actively investigated the contribution of alternative food networks (AFNs) to the development of more sustainable and just food systems, paying attention to drivers, initiatives and policies supporting the development of alternatives to the dominant industrialised food system and its detrimental environmental and socio-economic impacts. However, few studies have directly addressed the contribution of AFNs to food security in the Global North. This paper aims to establish new linkages between food security debates and critical AFNs literature. For that purpose, we conduct a place-based approach to food security in a comparative analysis of initiatives of three different European contexts: Cardiff city-region (UK), the Flemish Region (Belgium) and the peri-urban area of the city of Valencia (Spain). The results unfold: i) how AFNs weave a more localised socio-economic fabric that creates new relationships between food security outcomes and specific territories, ii) hybridization processes within alternative but also conventional systems and iii) the role of advocacy and collective action at different levels. The analysis allows identification of key elements on which food security debates hinge and provides new insights to ground conceptual discussions on territorial and place-based food security approaches.This research is part of the project "Assessment of the impact of global drivers of change on Europe's food security" (TRANSMANGO), granted by the EU under 7th Framework Programme; theme KBBE.2013.2.5-01; Grant agreement no: 613532. Dr. Ana Moragues-Faus also acknowledges the funding of the European Commission and the Welsh Government that currently supports her Ser Cymru fellowship. These results reflect only the authors' view; the funders are not liable for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.Cerrada-Serra, P.; Moragues-Faus, A.; Zwart, TA.; Adlerova, B.; Ortiz-Miranda, D.; Avermaete, T. (2018). Exploring the contribution of alternative food networks to food security. A comparative analysis. Food Security. 10(6):1371-1388. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12571-018-0860-xS13711388106Arcuri, S., Brunori, G., & Galli, F. (2017). Insights on the role of private and public actors in food assistance provision: A literature review for high income countries. Economia agro-alimentare. https://doi.org/10.3280/ECAG2017-001006 .Barca, F., McCann, P., & Rodríguez-Pose, A. (2012). The case for regional development intervetion: Place-based versus place-neutral approaches. Journal of Regional Science, 52, 134–152. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9787.2011.00756.x .Bauler, T., Mutombo, E., van Gameren, V., Crivits, M., Paredis, E., Boulanger, P., . . . Ruwet, C., (2011). Construction of scenarios and exploration of transition pathways for sustainable consumption patterns. Brussels: Belgian Science Policy.Brown, J. C., & Purcell, M. (2005). There’s nothing inherent about scale: Political ecology, the local trap, and the politics of development in the Brazilian Amazon. Geoforum, 36, 607–624. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2004.09.001 .Bourne, N. (2012) Fruit and vegetable community co-ops rise to 350 in Wales, BBC Wales News, Available at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-17938418 . Accessed Sept 2017.Brunori, G., Malandrin, V., & Rossi, A. (2013). Trade-off or convergence? The role of food security in the evolution of food discourse in Italy. Journal of Rural Studies, 29, 19–29. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2012.01.013 .Cistulli, V., Rodríguez-Pose, A., Escobar, G., Marta, S., & Schejtman, A. (2014). Addressing food security and nutrition by means of a territorial approach. Food Security, 6, 879–894. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12571-014-0395-8 .Clay, E. (2002). Food security; concept and measurement. Paper for FAO expert consultation on trade and food security: Conceptualising the linkages. Rome http://www.fao.org/docrep/005/y4671e/y4671e06.htm . Accessed Sept 2017.Cox, I. (2015). Interim report: Adding value and demonstrating sustainable development in the community food co-ops in Wales, EcoStudio.Crivits, M., & Paredis, E. (2013). Designing an explanatory practice framework: Local food systems as a case. Journal of Consumer Culture, 13, 306–336. https://doi.org/10.1177/1469540513484321joc.sagepub.com .CSM (2016). Connecting small-holders to farmers: an analytical guide.Dedeurwaedere, T., de Schutter, O., Hudon, M., Mathijs, E., Annaert, B., Avermaete, T., et al. (2015). Working paper: Social enterprise based transition movements between transformation and reform. The case of transition initiatives in local food networks. BRAIN-be. Food4Sustainability annual report 2. Deliverable 2.2.Dixon, J., & Richards, C. (2016). On food security and alternative food networks: Understanding and performing food security in the context of urban bias. Agriculture and Human Values, 33, 191–202. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-015-9630-y .Ekers, M., Levkoe, C. Z., Walker, S., & Dale, B. (2015). Will work for food: Agricultural interns, apprentices, volunteers, and the agrarian question. Agriculture and Human Values, 33, 705–720. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-015-9660-5 .Elliott, E., Parry, O., Ashdown-Lambert, J. (2004). Evaluation of community food co-ops, Working Paper 85, Cardiff School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University.FAO (1998). Report: Sustaining agricultural biodiversity and agro-ecosystem functions. http://www.fao.org/sd/EPdirect/EPre0080.htm . Accessed Nov 2017.FAO (2001). Report: The state of food insecurity in the world. http://www.fao.org/docrep/003/y1500e/y1500e00.htm . Accessed Nov 2017.Gibson-Graham, J. K. (2006). A postcapitalist politics. Minessota: University of Minnesota Press.Goodman, M. K. (2004). Reading fair trade: Political ecological imaginary and the moral economy of fair trade foods. Political Geography, 23, 891–915. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2004.05.013 .Goodman, D., DuPuis, E.M., Goodman, M.K. (2012). Alternative food networks: Knowledge, place and politics. Routledge, Oxon, New York. ISBN: 9780203804520.Goodman, D., DuPuis, E. M., & Goodman, M. K. (2013). Engaging alternative food networks: Commentaries and research agendas. International Journal of Sociology of Agriculture and Food, 20, 425–431.Guinot, E. (2008) El paisaje de la Huerta de Valencia. Elementos de interpretación de su morfología espacial de origen medieval. Historia de la Ciudad V. Tradición y progreso, 98–111. Valencia: Icaro-Colegio Territorial de Arquitectos de Valencia-Universidad Politécnica de Valencia.Guthman, J. (2004). Agrarian dreams: The paradox of organic farming in California. University of California Press, Berkeley. ISBN-10: 0520240952.Hubeau, M., Coteur, I., Mondelaers, K., & Marchand, F. (2015). Systeembeschrijving van het Vlaamse Landbouw- en Voedingssysteem: een nulmeting. Merelbeke, Belgie: ILVO.Ilbery, B., & Maye, D. (2005). Alternative (shorter) food supply chains and specialist livestock products in the Scottish - English borders. Environment and Planning, 37, 823–844. https://doi.org/10.1068/a3717 .IPCC (2012). Glossary of terms. In C. B. Field, V. Barros, T. F. Stocker, D. Qin, D. J. Dokken, K. L. Ebi et al. (Eds.), Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation. A Special Report of Working Groups I and II of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), (pp. 555–564). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Jarosz, L. (2007). The city in the country: Growing alternative food networks in metropolitan areas. Journal of Rural Studies, 24, 231–244. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2007.10.002 .Jones, I. (2012). Evaluation of the community food co-operative programme in Wales, BMG research, Welsh Government social research, 22/2012.Kirwan, J., & Maye, D. (2013). Food security framings within the UK and the integration of local food systems. Journal of Rural Studies, 29, 91–100. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2012.03.002 .Lamine, C. (2015). Sustainability and resilience in Agrifood systems: Reconnecting agriculture, food and the environment. Sociologia Ruralis, 55, 41–61. https://doi.org/10.1111/soru.12061 .Loopstra, R., Reeves, A., McKee, M., & Stuckler, D. (2016). Food insecurity and social protection in Europe: Quasi-natural experiment of Europe’s great recessions 2004–2012. Preventive Medicine, 89, 44–50. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2016.05.010 .MacMillan, T., & Dowler, E. (2012). Just and sustainable? Examining the rhetoric and potential realities of UK food security. Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics, 25, 181–204. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10806-011-9304-8 .Marsden, T., Banks, J., Bristow, G. (2000). Food supply chain approaches: exploring their role in rural development. Sociologia Ruralis, https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9523.00158Maxwell, S. (1996). Food security: A post-modern perspective. Food Policy, 21, 155–170. https://doi.org/10.1016/0306-9192(95)00074-7 .Mooney, P.H., Hunt, S.A. (2009). Food security: The elaboration of contested claims to a consensus frame. Sociologia Ruralis. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1549-0831.2009.tb00701.x .Moragues-Faus, A. (2016). Participative action research: Transforming Cardiff’s food system through students’ live projects. Report available at http://foodcardiff.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Report-live-projects-2016-cut-.pdf. . Accessed Sept 2017.Moragues-Faus, A. (2017a). Emancipatory or neoliberal food politics? Exploring the “politics of collectivity” of buying groups in the search for egalitarian food democracies. Antipode, 49, 455–476. https://doi.org/10.1111/anti.12274 .Moragues-Faus, A. (2017b). Problematising justice definitions in public food security debates: Towards global and participative food justices. Geoforum, 84, 95–106. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2017.06.007 .Moragues-Faus, A., & Marsden, T. (2017). The political ecology of food: Carving “spaces of possibility” in a new research agenda. Journal of Rural Studies, 55, 275–288. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2017.08.016 .Moragues-Faus, A., Sonnino, R., 2012. Embedding quality in the agro-food system: The dynamics and implications of place-making strategies in the olive oil sector of alto Palancia, Spain. Sociologia Ruralis, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9523.2011.00558.x .Morgan, K., & Sonnino, R. (2010). The urban foodscape: World cities and the new food equation. Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, 3, 209–224. https://doi.org/10.1093/cjres/rsq007 .Murdoch, J., & Miele, M. (1999). “Back to nature”: Changing “worlds of production” in the food sector. Sociologia Ruralis, 39, 465–483. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9523.00119 .Murdoch, J., Marsden, T., & Banks, J. (2000). Quality, nature, and embeddedness: Some theoretical considerations in the context of the food sector. Economic Geography, 76, 107–125. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1944-8287.2000.tb00136.x .OECD, FAO, UNCDF (2016). Adopting a territorial approach to food security and nutrition policy. Paris. https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264257108-en .Ortiz-Miranda, D., Moragues-Faus, A.M., 2014. Governing fair trade coffee supply: dynamics and challenges in small farmers’ organizations. Sustainable Development, https://doi.org/10.1002/sd.1570 .Oxfam and Church Action. (2013). Walking the breadline: The scandal of food poverty in 21st-century Britain. http://policy-practice.oxfam.org.uk/publications/walking-the-breadline-the-scandal-of-food-poverty-in-21st-century-britain-292978 . Accessed 19 August 2014.Padel, S., & Foster, C. (2005). Exploring the gap between attitudes and behaviour: Understandingwhy consumers buy or do not buy organic food. British Food Journal, 107, 606–625. https://doi.org/10.1108/00070700510611002 .Radhika Ch., Hemantha U., 2017. Research study on nutrition security and equity in its access in watershed development programmes. Research reports series 107. National Institute of Rural Development & Panchayati Raj. ISBN 978-93-84503-81-9.Renting, H., Marsden, T. K., & Banks, J. (2003). Understanding alternative food networks: Exploring the role of short food supply chains in rural development. Environment and Planning, 35, 393–411. https://doi.org/10.1068/a3510 .Renting, H., Schermer, M., & Rossi, A. (2012). Building food democracy: Exploring civic food networks and newly emerging forms of food citizenship. International Journal of Sociology of Agriculture and Food, 19, 289–307.Romero, J., & Francés, M. (Eds.). (2012). La Huerta de Valencia. Un paisaje cultural con futuro incierto. Valencia: Publicaciones de la Universitat de València.Sage, C. (2003). Social embeddedness and relations of regard: Alternative “good food” networks in south-West Ireland. Journal of Rural Studies, 19, 47–60. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0743-0167(02)00044-X .Sonnino, R., & Marsden, T. (2006). Beyond the divide: Rethinking relationships between alternative and conventional food networks in Europe. Journal of Economic Geography, 6, 181–199. https://doi.org/10.1093/jeg/lbi006 .Sonnino, R., Marsden, T., & Moragues-Faus, A. (2016). Relationalities and convergences in food security narratives: Towards a place-based approach. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 41, 477–489. https://doi.org/10.1111/tran.12137 .Soriano i Piqueras, V. (2015). La huerta de Valencia un paisaje menguante. Amazon. ISBN-13: 978-1512009231.Stanners, D., & Bourdeau, P. (1995). Europe’s environment: The Dobris assessment. Copenhagen: European Environmental Agency.Tregear, A. (2011). Progressing knowledge in alternative and local food networks: Critical reflections and a research agenda. Journal of Rural Studies, 27, 419–430. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2011.06.003 .Valencia City Council. (2016). Department of Agricultura and Huerta (ongoing review). Pla d’Acció Integral per a la promoció de l’activitat i el territori agrícola municipal. https://hortaipoblesvalencia.org/es/agricultura-y-huerta/ . Accessed Jan 2018.Van Gameren, V., Ruwet, C., & Bauler, T. (2015). Towards a governance of sustainable consumption transitions: How institutional factors influence emerging local food systems in Belgium. Local Environment: The international journal of justice and sustainability, https://doi.org/10.1080/13549839.2013.872090 .Venn, L., Kneafsey, M., Holloway, L., Cox, R., Dowler, E., & Tuomainen, H. (2006). Researching European “alternative” food networks: Some methodological considerations. Area, 38, 248–258. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-4762.2006.00694.x .Vervoort, J., Thornton, P. K., Kristjanson, P., et al. (2014). Challenges to scenario-guided adaptive action on food security under climate change. Global Environmental Change, 28, 383–394. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2014.03.001 .Weingartner L. (2005). Paper I. The concept of food and nutrition security. In: Klennert K, editor. Achieving food and nutrition security: Actions to meet the global challenge: A training course reader. Feldafing: German Society for International Cooperation; p. 3–28. ISBN 3-937235 -71-X.Whatmore, S., Stassart, P., & Renting, H. (2003). What’s alternative about alternative food networks? Environment and Planning, 35, 389–391. https://doi.org/10.1068/a3621 .Zwart, T. A., Mathijs, E., Avermaete, T. (2016). Can alternative food networks contribute to a transition towards sustainability in Flanders: Assessing the marketing functions of Voedselteams. Report available at http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/245069/files/BioeconWP_2016_04_submitted.pdf . Accessed Sept 2017