Book of Abstract (incl. addendum) - IFSA symposium 2012

Workshop 4.1 ‘Civic food networks’ as driver for sustainable food and farming systems
Convenors:
Chris Kjeldsen, Markus Schermer and Henk Renting
‘Alternative’ food networks have emerged as promising approach for transitions towards sustainable
food systems (in terms of environment, social equity and regional development). Many of these
embody innovative forms of organization that help bridging the gap between producers and consumers.
This workshop focuses on such new forms of collective engagement of consumers, producers and other
actors as ‘food citizens’ within food networks. The aim is to better understand the associational
mechanisms underlying ‘civic food networks’ and their impact on food and farming systems at
different scales.
Austrian consumer-initiated alternative food networks – the case study
speiselokal!
Juliana Lutz, Judith Schachinger and Sabine Rosenberger
Alpen Adria University, Austria
Julia.Lutz@aau.at
During the last years, several consumer-initiated Alternative Food Networks (AFNs) emerged within
Eastern Austria. Besides providing affordable local organic food of high quality, these initiatives aim to
set up a closer relationship between consumers and producers. Furthermore, they support small scale,
local, organic farming (worldwide) as well as new forms of civil engagement.
This paper provides a brief overview of Eastern Austrian consumer-initiated AFNs, mainly
focusing on an initiative called ‘SpeiseLokal!’ that emerged recently in Lower Austria. SpeiseLokal is
driven by the idea that local, organic food supply can only be sustainable and affordable by being
embedded in new alternative ways of social and economic cooperation. Thus, apart from selling local
organic food, SpeiseLokal! is engaged in alternative socio-economic network building, the relocalization
and empowerment of people on a broader level. This paper reviews the practical
experiences of Speiselokal! and reflects upon SpeiseLokal’s relationship to, and its effects on the
socio-ecological system it is part of (farmers, consumers, communities, nature, …):
SpeiseLokal! serves as a plattform were people who are interested in (local) food share their
ideas and activities related to growing/eating/sourcing/distributing local food. Some of the consumers
involved simply change their diet or start to exchange recipies, seeds and plants. There emerged
initiatives that focus on community/guerilla gardening. Most recently - inspired and supported by
SpeiseLokal! - farmers as well as consumers are working on setting up a network of community
supported farms.
Quality beef in Denmark: What is quality? How does this definition of
quality affect farming systems?
Florence Bedoin, Troels Kristensen and Egon Noe
Aarhus University, Denmark
Florence.Bedoin@agrsci.dk
Danes are some of the highest consumers of meat in Europe, yet the market is characterized by highly
homogenous and standardized meat sold pre-packed in supermarkets.
Differentiated meat products and channels have been emerging (and disappearing) in the last
decade. They are driven by different groups of actors relating to various value sets: citizens (animal
welfare, landscape and biodiversity conservation), farmers (farm economy and animal welfare), artisan
butchers (good handicraft), public authorities (biodiversity conservation).
In this paper we will look at 6 “alternative” beef meat food networks. The focus will be on their
organization and negotiation around their values and how this impact on the communication from
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