Competitiveness of Small Farms and Innovative Food Supply Chains: the role of food hubs in creating sustainable regional and local food systems
File(s)sustainability-08-00616-v2.pdf (308.59 KB)
Published version
Author(s)
Berti, G
Mulligan, C
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Over the last decades, the economic, social and environmental sustainability of the conventional agri-food system has and continues to be contested within both academic and public institutions. For small farms, the unsustainability of the food system is even more serious; farms’ declining share of profit and the cost-price squeeze of commodity production has increased barriers to market access with the inevitable effect of agricultural abandonment. One way forward to respond to the existing conventional agri-food systems and to create a competitive or survival strategy for small family farms is the re-construction of regional and local agri-food systems, aligning with Kramer and Porter’s concept of shared value strategy. Through a critical literature review, this paper presents “regional and local food hubs” as innovative organizational arrangements capable of bridging structural holes in the agri-food markets between small producers and the consumers—individuals and families as well as big buyers. Food hubs respond to a supply chain (or supply network) organizational strategy aiming at re-territorialising the agri-food systems through the construction of what in the economic literature are defined as values-based food supply chains.
Date Issued
2016-07-01
Date Acceptance
2016-06-24
Citation
Sustainability, 2016, 8 (7)
ISSN
1937-0709
Publisher
MDPI
Journal / Book Title
Sustainability
Volume
8
Issue
7
Copyright Statement
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
License URL
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
616