Speaker
Description
The pressures on globalised, tertiarised, and privatised food systems are intensifying within a context of escalating environmental, socio-economic, and political tensions as planetary boundaries are exceeded. These systems face criticism regarding environmental issues (environmental pollution, soil erosion, biodiversity collapse, deforestation), spatial concerns (increased cultivated land area, land grabbing), economic challenges (poverty, dependence on chemical inputs, price volatility, low farmer incomes), social problems (hunger, land conflicts, loss of traditional knowledge), and sanitary risks (animal production sanitary crises, pesticide exposure) (Gasselin et al., 2021). The negative externalities of these systems compromise food security and social justice in the context of climate change, prompting a re-evaluation of food system scales.
In response, initiatives promoting the territorialisation of agri-food systems have emerged, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, which witnessed numerous metropolitan initiatives aimed at reconnecting citizens with their food (Nemes et al., 2021). This research examines how key local actors in Paris – public authorities, private entities, and grassroot movements – implemented alternative food initiatives in response to the pandemic, ranging from short supply chains and combating food insecurity to the greening of practices and development of local supply chains. By contextualising the COVID-19 crisis within broader ongoing disruptions – such as inflation in the French economy, organic farming crisis, and climate-related challenges -this work evaluates the potential for food system re-localisation. Our work explores the reconnection of urban dynamics and food security through territorialised food systems, employing a framework rooted in urban studies (Morgan, 2015; Nemes et al., 2023). More specifically, our findings aim to question the agri-food trajectory of the Paris basin (Bognon et al., 2015) during a time of crisis and its structural and circumstantial changes.
This research draws upon two qualitative surveys. The first, conducted in 2023, originates from an investigation carried out as part of the "Monde d’Avant Monde d’Après" program of the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) (Corne et al., 2023). It comprises approximately fifty semi-structured interviews with stakeholders in the agri-food system, including producers, processors, logistics operators, distributors, local governments, institutional bodies, and associations. The second survey is ongoing and is based on a method of "observant participation" within the departments of the Paris City Council. It includes field observations and interviews with around twenty territorial actors from the Parisian agri-food system, such as businesses, associations, and local governments. Analysing periods of crisis enables us to understand the territorial vulnerabilities of food systems, therefore studying the Parisian agri-food system through the prism of the COVID-19 crisis is particularly heuristic (Fraser, 2007).
In the first place, the research demonstrates how the pandemic intensified initiatives aimed at territorialising the agri-food system, detailing the crisis’ repercussions and the emergence of agri-food counter-models supported by local stakeholders. In the second place, it examines the long-term changes resulting from the COVID-19 crisis. Firstly, we will study the growing role of food planning tools in urban food crisis management. Secondly, we will present some initial findings on the way in which the food aid sector, which was substantially impacted during the pandemic, has worked to relocate its supplies in order to guarantee its beneficiaries a right to healthy and sustainable food. Finally, we will explore the development and strengthening of urban-rural links and the current food governance model in the Seine Basin, through the cooperation between the City of Paris and other local governments, thus contributing to the advent of an agri-food model based on sustainability, territorial resilience, the greening of its practices and the territorialisation of its supply chains.
References
Bognon, Sabine, Barles, Sabine, Billen, Gilles, Garnier, Josette (2015) Food supply streams and their governance in the Paris metropolis, a socioecological trajectory from the 18th to the 21st century, Natures Sciences Sociétés, 26(1), pp. 17-32.
Corne, Simon, Landrieu, Antoine, Lesouef, Emma, Meunier, Lena, Weingart, Léa (2023) La reconfiguration du système alimentaire parisien pendant la crise du Covid-19. Tome 2 : Rapport. [Online] available at : Rapport_Alim-MAMA_VF.pdf
Fraser, Evan (2007) Travelling in antique lands: using past famines to develop an adaptability/resilience framework to identify food systems vulnerable to climate change, Climatic Change, 83, pp. 495-514.
Gasselin, Pierre, et al., (2021). Coexistence et confrontation des modèles agricoles et alimentaires. Versailles : Éditions Quæ.
Morgan, Kevin (2015) Nourishing the city: the rise of the urban food question in Global North, Urban Studies, vol. 52(8), pp. 1279-1394.
Nemes, Gusztáv, Reckinger, Rachel, Lajos, Veronika, Zollet, Simona (2023) Values-based Territorial Food Networks’—Benefits, challenges and controversies. Sociologia Ruralis, 63, pp. 3-19.
Nemes, Gusztáv, Chiffoleau, Yuna, Zollet, Simona, et al., (2021) The impact of COVID-19 on alternative and local food systems and the potential for the sustainability transition: Insights from 13 countries. Sustainable production and consumption, 28, pp. 591–599.
| Keywords | food security ; pandemic ; territorialised agri-food systems ; Paris |
|---|---|
| Best Congress Paper Award | Yes |
