chapter 3 inventory of local food systems

Project CP/59 - “Instruments and institutions to develop local food systems”
Since only limited information was available for the MFS and only a rough idea on
employment on farm level due to marketing activities within the LFS was formed and no
numerical comparison of the effect on employment was concluded upon. In this regard,
there is a noticeable request on producer-level to provide a uniform, simple and clear
tool to keep track of time and job-investment related to different activities on place.
In the mainstream supply chain, those activities are not conducted on farm level, but are
taken up by processing and distribution bodies. In the latter case, employment tends to
be centralised in limited regions, withdrawing employment from the locality. Only
limited information was available for the MFS. Combined with the rough idea on
employment on farm level due to marketing activities within the LFS, no numerical
comparison of the effect on employment was concluded upon.
One could use statistical data (as opposed to our case study approach) in order to
quantify the comparison. However, statistics do not exist for LFS, in part because of the
former mentioned lack of a uniform system for data gathering. However, also when
these data are available, a descriptive analysis of employment, especially for the
comparison on farm level remains valuable, both to stress differences and similarities,
and to underline the meaning of different aspects of farm employment.
For further research on the impact of employment of food systems (and other economic
activities) we want to suggest always to integrate a descriptive analysis of the
employment effect in combination with numerical data. The basic underlying reason is
the different involved aspects: social employment, flexible employment, education
tasks: they can be described in a structured way to provide a basis for comparison of
different systems.
2.3.3. Economic indicator III: Absolute price differences on producer and consumer
level
A third economic indicator is the absolute differences in actual prices received by the
producer at the one hand and paid by the consumer at the other hand compared for
different food systems. The price a producer receives optimally covers production costs
while allowing the producer to earn a living with it. The underlying hypothesis when we
compare the prices to producers in both LFS and MFS is that there is a possible
difference in this prices between the studied systems. Prices to the consumer optimally
cover the production costs, complemented with processing and marketing costs, which
include a profit share of each involved party. Also here the hypthesis is that those prices
differ between LFS and MFS.
The comparisons in our study are based on data provided by the producers (in both
chains) at one hand, and both producers (in the LFS) and own observation of
supermarket prices in June 2005 and September 2005 (due to a lack of data availability
in the MFS). The observed supermarket prices are combined with statistical (GfK) data
on product prices. Figure 1 and 2 show the absolute differences for LFS and MFS in
price to producer at one hand and price to consumer at the other hand, per selected
food item.
SPSD II - Part I - Sustainable production and consumption patterns - Agro-Food 31