Symposium introduction - ethics and sustainable agri-food governance: appraisal and new directions

© Springer Nature B.V. 2019This Symposium contributes to a theoretical and methodological discussion on the role of ethics and responsibility in the governance of agri-food systems, as drivers for transitions towards sustainability. The papers in the Symposium are the outcomes of a collective reflection that was initiated at the European Society for Rural Sociology (ESRS) 2017 congress, within the Working Group on Ethics and sustainable agri-food governance. The session examined how ethics and ethical values drive change in the agri-food system, and how they increasingly evolve and influence food system governance. Building on the outcomes of the ESRS Working Group, the collection of papers in this Symposium fosters and deepens the discussion on the role of ethics in food systems, ranging across different food system actors, activities and contexts and presents new theoretical and methodological frameworks to understand the construction of more ethical agri-food systems.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Niche knowledge systems-challenging or invigorating the AKS? An analysis of the Permaculture community in England

This paper examines how knowledge systems within alternative innovative agricultural groups (niches) develop and interact with the mainstream AKS using the notion of boundaries. It draws on empirical data from a study of the Permaculture community in England, a sub-niche entity. Members of this community question the operations of the mainstream agricultural regime and advocate a radical shift in patterns of thinking and action towards new agri-food systems. Analysis shows that a distinctive knowledge system has emerged to support learning in the community independently of the AKS. This is strongly associated with, and coheres around, the community’s social system. The boundary between this KS and the mainstream AKS can be characterised in terms of differing sets of beliefs and values, epistemologies, ways of facilitating and supporting learning, approaches to research and modes of development. However, despite these epistemic divides, there is evidence of some interaction across the boundary. The paper explores the potential for the Permaculture’s KS to potentially invigorate and transform the AKS

Explaining Regional and Local Differences in Organic Farming in England and Wales: A Comparison of South West Wales and South East England

Explaining regional and local differences in organic farming in England and Wales: a comparison of South West Wales and South East England, Regional Studies, Few studies explain the concentration of organic farming in specific regions of England and Wales. This paper compares the development of organic farming in South West Wales and South East England. While the focus in the former is on the use of mainly national marketing channels and the movement of organic produce more than 60 min from the farm, in the latter greater use is made of local and direct marketing channels to distribute organic food within 30 min of the farm. The overriding importance of demand appears to provide a key explanation for regional differentiation in organic farming. 解释英格兰与威尔斯有机农业的区域及地方差异：西南威尔斯与东南英格兰的比较研究，区域研究。显少有研究解释有机农业在英格兰及威尔斯特定区域中的集中现象。本文比较有机农业在西南威尔斯与东南英格兰的发展。西南威尔斯的发展重点，主要在于利用全国行销通路，以及距离农场超过六十分钟的有机产品运送路程，东南英格兰则较着重运用在地且直接的行销通路，在距离农场三十分钟以内的运送路程中分派有机食品。需求的压倒性重要性，似乎提供了有机农业中的区域差异的关键解释。 Expliquer les disparités régionales dans l'agriculture biologique en Angleterre et au pays de Galles: une comparaison du sud-ouest du pays de Galles et du sud-est de l'Angleterre, Regional Studies. Rares sont les études qui expliquent la concentration de l'agriculture biologique dans des zones spécifiques de l'Angleterre et du pays de Galles. Cet article cherche à comparer le développement de l'agriculture biologique du sud-ouest du pays de Galles à celle du sud-est de l'Angleterre. Tandis que celle-là met l'accent sur l'emploi des circuits commerciaux principalement nationaux et sur la distribution de la production agricole biologique à plus de 60 minutes de la ferme, celle-ci exploite davantage les circuits commerciaux locaux et directs pour distribuer les denrées alimentaires organiques dans un rayon de 30 minutes de la ferme. Il semble que l'importance primordiale de la demande constitue un facteur déterminant de la différenciation régionale de l'agriculture biologique. Erklärung der regionalen und lokalen Unterschiede bei der ökologischen Landwirtschaft in England und Wales: ein Vergleich zwischen Südwestwales und Südostengland, Regional Studies. Die Konzentration der ökologischen Landwirtschaft in bestimmten Regionen von England und Wales wird nur in wenigen Studien erklärt. In diesem Beitrag vergleichen wir die Entwicklung der ökologischen Landwirtschaft in Südwestwales mit der von Südostengland. Während in Südwestwales der Schwerpunkt auf den größtenteils landesweiten Absatzkanälen und dem Transport von ökologischen Lebensmitteln an mehr als 60 Minuten vom landwirtschaftlichen Betrieb entfernte Orte liegt, werden in Südostengland öfter lokale und direkte Absatzkanäle genutzt und die ökologischen Lebensmittel an bis zu 30 Minuten vom landwirtschaftlichen Betrieb entfernte Orte transportiert. Die wichtigste Erklärung für die regionalen Unterschiede bei der ökologischen Landwirtschaft scheinen in der vorrangigen Bedeutung der Nachfrage zu liegen. Explicación de las diferencias regionales y locales en la agricultura biológica de Inglaterra y Gales: comparación entre el suroeste de Gales y el sureste de Inglaterra, Regional Studies. En pocos estudios se explica la concentración de la agricultura biológica en regiones específicas de Inglaterra y Gales. En este artículo comparamos el desarrollo de la agricultura biológica en el suroeste de Gales y el sureste de Inglaterra. Mientras que en el suroeste de Gales se hace hincapié en el uso de canales mercantiles principalmente nacionales y el movimiento de productos biológicos a una distancia de más de 60 minutos de la explotación agrícola, en el sureste de Inglaterra se utilizan más los canales mercantiles locales y directos para distribuir alimentos biológicos a no más de 30 minutos de la explotación agrícola. Parece ser que la demanda es el motivo más importante para explicar las diferencias regionales en la agricultura biológica

Niche knowledge systems-challenging or invigorating the AKS? An analysis of the Permaculture community in England

This paper examines how knowledge systems within alternative innovative agricultural groups (niches) develop and interact with the mainstream AKS using the notion of boundaries. It draws on empirical data from a study of the Permaculture community in England, a sub-niche entity. Members of this community question the operations of the mainstream agricultural regime and advocate a radical shift in patterns of thinking and action towards new agri-food systems. Analysis shows that a distinctive knowledge system has emerged to support learning in the community independently of the AKS. This is strongly associated with, and coheres around, the community’s social system. The boundary between this KS and the mainstream AKS can be characterised in terms of differing sets of beliefs and values, epistemologies, ways of facilitating and supporting learning, approaches to research and modes of development. However, despite these epistemic divides, there is evidence of some interaction across the boundary. The paper explores the potential for the Permaculture’s KS to potentially invigorate and transform the AKS

Geography Matters: Farmer perceptions of a voluntary TB risk-based trading system

A paper summarised on p 148 of this issue of Veterinary Record by Little and others (2017) is to be warmly welcomed. It examines the potential of voluntary risk-based trading as an initiative to improve bovine tuberculosis (bTB) information exchange between cattle sellers and buyers. The mixed method analysis used was based on a representative survey of cattle farmers in high and low bTB-risk areas in England, combined with focus groups and secondary data. The paper provides useful insights into farmer perceptions of market-based bTB governance, and raises wider questions about the logic of using market-based instruments to deal with a complex animal disease such as bTB. A key finding that appeared to be particularly useful and significant was geographical differences in the data. When these differences are linked to wider research in the social science biosecurity literature regarding risk perception and geography, they suggest that there is incompatibility between farmers and bTB policy. This incompatibility is due to place-sensitive farmer beliefs about bTB and nature and neoliberal models of animal health

The New Food Insecurity

This chapter focuses on the ‘new food insecurity’, which relates to the re-emergence of the term in global geopolitics since the 2007-08 price spikes and related debates about the role of financial markets in determining food prices. Understanding finance and food economy relations is important, particularly in relation to landscape space and land use because it is necessary to break the link between financialisation and food systems in order to enable a greater diversity of agricultural land uses. Capturing discursive framings related to food security discourse is also critical because they produce social realities and determine agri-food governance responses. Techno-scientific approaches view sustainable intensification as one important solution to the global food crisis. Political economy perspectives frame structural conditions of the food system as needing to be challenged. Place-based approaches to food security, including new forms of multi-level reflexive governance, are identified as the most progressive to enable sustainable and resilient foodscapes

Ethics and responsibilisation in agri-food governance: the single-use plastics debate and strategies to introduce reusable coffee cups in UK retail chains

This paper extends arguments about the potential for reflexive governance in agri-food sustainability by linking food ethics to the notion of ‘unintended consequences’ and ‘responsibilisation’. Analysis of sustainable consumption governance shows the way authorities and intermediaries use food waste reduction projects to ‘responsibilise’ the consumer, including recent examples of shared responsibility. This paper takes this argument further by developing a ‘strategies of responsibilisation’ framework that connects relations between food system outcomes, problematisation in public discourse and strategies of responsibilisation in agri-food governance. A food and drink waste case study of strategies to introduce reusable coffee cups in UK coffee shops and food retail chains is examined to exemplify relations between problematisation and responsibilisation. We examine problematisation and responsibilisation discourses that have emerged in relation to the issue, particularly in relation to single-use plastics, together with emerging governance arrangements and their underlying rationalities. The case study shows two key things: firstly, how ethical questions about food in public discourses connect to wider environmental planetary concerns (in this case packaging in relation to the environment); and secondly, how responsibility has emergent and dynamic properties, which we term ‘cycles of responsibilisation’. The paper concludes by assessing the wider value of applying a responsibility framework to examine governance responses to increasingly complex agri-food system sustainability challenges

Reflexive Governance, Incorporating Ethics and Changing Understandings of Food Chain Performance

This article argues that ethics is a key driver of change in food chain performance. Critically, multiple stakeholder perspectives need to be understood as being legitimate when developing shared norms of what is understood by food supply chain (FSC) performance. To develop this perspective, the article examines the discourses surrounding the performance of FSCs in 12 different national contexts. It develops a multi-criteria performance matrix (MCPM) composed of 24 attributes that reflect national FSC sustainability discourses. Specifically, it considers the potential role of reflexive governance in encouraging change to the frames by which actors and institutions judge the performance of FSCs. In assessing the links between ethics and reflexive governance, two types of ethical attribute are identified: ‘commonly identified’ attributes, which signify ethical dilemmas routinely discussed yet open to debate and subject to refinement and change; and ‘procedural’ attributes, which describe actions that encourage actors in the FSC to organise and structure themselves so as to more explicitly embody ethical considerations in their activities. The MCPM can be understood as a form of sustainability appraisal, but also as a cognitive tool with which to instigate further deliberation and action, helping to better manage transitions to sustainability within FSCs