chapter 3 inventory of local food systems

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Project CP/59 - “Instruments and institutions to develop local food systems” The EFP succeeds in reducing these three processes to one primary cause, which is the human consumption of biologically productive land. For instance, the increase of CO2 in the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels is converted into the ‘area of wood to be planted’ needed to absorb this CO2 (Borgström Hansson and Wackernagel, 1999). The unit of the EFP is the amount of productive land (and water) that must provide enough energy and material sources for consumption and be able to absorb the waste produced. This EFP can be measured at an individual level, but also for a city, a region, a land or the entire planet (Wackernagel and Rees, 1996; Anderson and Lindroth, 2001; www.gdrc.org/uem/footprints/what-is-ef.html). This method allows to make a comparison between the EFP and the available capacity. If the EFP of a population is higher than the biophysical capacity of its territory, then extra capacity should be imported from other territories, or the own ecological capacity will be eroded and the pressure on the remaining bio-productive space will increase (Anderson & Lindroth, 2001; Wackernagel et al. 1999; Borgström Hansson and Wackernagel, 1999). Some also use the term ‘ecological debt’ in this context. Its definition is usually presented as ‘the cumulative responsibility the industrialized countries have, because of human exploitation, robbery of raw materials and minerals, pollution and cultural dominance towards the developing countries’. This ecological debt can be calculated by the average ‘EFP per capita’ of a specific region, to be compared with the ‘capacity of the land per capita’. If this EFP is larger than the capacity, one says there is ecological debt because we have to compensate over-consumption by import from the South and because many countries in the south have an EFP per capita that is below the capacity per capita. (www.vodo.be/documenten/Peccei%20lectures.htm, www.vodo.be/html/themas/index.htm) Even though the EFP is a useful instrument to make a rough estimate of the ecological impact of the life style of a certain population, the EFP has also certain limitations. A number of impacts are left aside, such as the emission of highly toxic waste and the use of non-renewable raw materials, insofar as they do not put a claim on the land for their production or distribution and processing. That implies that the EFP underestimates the ecological impact. However, it does describe the actual use of the biophysical production capacity of the Earth, as well as the measure to which the human beings are “over-consuming” nature (Anderson and Lindroth, 2001). 1.4. Conclusions Based on our literature review we define local food systems as follows: “Local food systems encompass the entire chain of producing, processing, selling and consuming food They are collective systems in which there is direct contact between producer and consumer and/or in which they engage is a long-term contractual relationship. The distance between the different actors should be minimal (both geographically and with respect to the number of intermediates in the chain).” SPSD II - Part I - Sustainable production and consumption patterns - Agro-Food 23
Project CP/59 - “Instruments and institutions to develop local food systems” To measure the economic and ecological impact of local food systems, various indicators exist that allow a quantitative assessment. Balancing advantages and disadvantages we opt to experiment with the LM3 and the impact on employment as economic indicators and the life cycle energy use and CO2 emission as ecological indicators. In addition, we will also look at the absolute price difference at producer and consumer level. To measure the social impact of LFS is far less straightforward given the difficulty of quantifying impacts in the social sphere and the importance of context. We will look at networking, social capital and job satisfaction as social indicator. SPSD II - Part I - Sustainable production and consumption patterns - Agro-Food 24
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