IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jlands/v9y2020i9p317-d410526.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Public Food Procurement as a Driving Force for Building Local and Agroecological Food Systems: Farmers’ Skepticism in Vega Baja del Jarama, Madrid (Spain)

Author

Listed:
  • Marian Simón-Rojo

    (GIAU+S Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain)

  • Andrés Couceiro

    (Madrid Agroecológico, Surcos Urbanos, 28027 Madrid, Spain)

  • Julia del Valle

    (Germinando Iniciativas Socioambientales S. Coop, 28012 Madrid, Spain)

  • José Fariña Tojo

    (Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain)

Abstract

In the last decade, efforts to re-localize the food system have been gaining ground in a way that is intended to induce changes in the primary sector, thereby improving its conditions and sustainability. The European Union has identified food as one of the ten key sectors with outstanding potential for an ecological transition, and public procurement of (organic) food as an appropriate policy to foster agricultural development and support small farmers. In this study, we analyze changes in land use and farming dynamics in three municipalities close to the metropolitan area of Madrid (Spain). We also explore how stakeholders and farmers perceive the driving forces of these changes and the potential for public procurement in providing stability for farmers and more specifically, boosting the articulation and consolidation of the emerging agroecological sector in an up-to-date hostile peri-urban environment. Some urban policies and food strategies in nearby cities, such as Madrid, have introduced measures to promote sustainable food in public procurement. The procurement could drive 10% of the total food grown in the Comunidad de Madrid, with large variations in the impact on different food subsectors. However, if public procurement is to be organic, local production has no capacity to meet increases in demand, except for honey and oil. Food procurement would not lead to improved stability and increases in farmers’ incomes if public policies to boost ecological transition are not adopted in parallel. For farmers, economic viability takes precedence over other problems, and although public procurement has been mainstreamed as a valuable tool to support local agriculture, stakeholders do not have high expectations for it. The research shows that farm size and specialization have a strong influence on market orientation, and the agroecological farmers and social movements that support them are primed for innovation adoption and may act as catalysts for the process.

Suggested Citation

  • Marian Simón-Rojo & Andrés Couceiro & Julia del Valle & José Fariña Tojo, 2020. "Public Food Procurement as a Driving Force for Building Local and Agroecological Food Systems: Farmers’ Skepticism in Vega Baja del Jarama, Madrid (Spain)," Land, MDPI, vol. 9(9), pages 1-20, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:9:y:2020:i:9:p:317-:d:410526
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/9/9/317/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/9/9/317/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rositsa T. Ilieva, 2017. "Urban Food Systems Strategies: A Promising Tool for Implementing the SDGs in Practice †," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(10), pages 1-35, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Amanda Souza & Armando Fornazier, 2022. "Case Study of the School Feeding Program in Distrito Federal, Brazil: Building Quality in Short Food Supply Chains," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-16, August.
    2. Yuna Chiffoleau & Tara Dourian, 2020. "Sustainable Food Supply Chains: Is Shortening the Answer? A Literature Review for a Research and Innovation Agenda," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(23), pages 1-21, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sara A. L. Smaal & Joost Dessein & Barend J. Wind & Elke Rogge, 2021. "Social justice-oriented narratives in European urban food strategies: Bringing forward redistribution, recognition and representation," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 38(3), pages 709-727, September.
    2. Alexandra Doernberg & Annette Piorr & Ingo Zasada & Dirk Wascher & Ulrich Schmutz, 2022. "Sustainability assessment of short food supply chains (SFSC): developing and testing a rapid assessment tool in one African and three European city regions," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 39(3), pages 885-904, September.
    3. Ana Moragues-Faus & Alizée Marceau, 2018. "Measuring Progress in Sustainable Food Cities: An Indicators Toolbox for Action," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-17, December.
    4. Olsson E. Gunilla Almered, 2018. "Urban food systems as vehicles for sustainability transitions," Bulletin of Geography. Socio-economic Series, Sciendo, vol. 40(40), pages 133-144, June.
    5. Blesh, Jennifer & Hoey, Lesli & Jones, Andrew D. & Friedmann, Harriet & Perfecto, Ivette, 2019. "Development pathways toward “zero hunger”," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 1-14.
    6. Mohammad Fazle Rabbi & Morshadul Hasan & Sándor Kovács, 2021. "Food Security and Transition towards Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(22), pages 1-21, November.
    7. Christina Gugerell & Marianne Penker, 2020. "Change Agents’ Perspectives on Spatial–Relational Proximities and Urban Food Niches," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(6), pages 1-18, March.
    8. Lilliana Stefanovic, 2022. "SDG Performance in Local Organic Food Systems and the Role of Sustainable Public Procurement," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-29, September.
    9. Hebinck, Aniek & Selomane, Odirilwe & Veen, Esther & de Vrieze, Anke & Hasnain, Saher & Sellberg, My & Sovová, Lucie & Thompson, Kyle & Vervoort, Joost & Wood, Amanda, 2020. "Exploring the transformative potential of urban food: a future research agenda," SocArXiv 4k6dh, Center for Open Science.
    10. Dante Rodríguez-Luna & Nuria Vela & Francisco Javier Alcalá & Francisco Encina-Montoya, 2021. "The Environmental Impact Assessment in Aquaculture Projects in Chile: A Retrospective and Prospective Review Considering Cultural Aspects," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(16), pages 1-19, August.
    11. Galli, Francesca & Prosperi, Paolo & Favilli, Elena & D'Amico, Simona & Bartolini, Fabio & Brunori, Gianluca, 2020. "How can policy processes remove barriers to sustainable food systems in Europe? Contributing to a policy framework for agri-food transitions," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 96(C).
    12. Swati Singh & Shresth Tayal, 2022. "Managing food at urban level through water–energy–food nexus in India: A way towards holistic sustainable development," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 24(3), pages 3640-3658, March.
    13. Cohen, Nevin & Ilieva, Rositsa T., 2021. "Expanding the boundaries of food policy: The turn to equity in New York City," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    14. Rosário Oliveira, 2022. "FoodLink—A Network for Driving Food Transition in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-18, November.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:9:y:2020:i:9:p:317-:d:410526. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.