Does Food Public Procurement boost Food Democracy? Theories and evidences from some case studies

Journal title ECONOMIA AGRO-ALIMENTARE
Author/s Giampiero Mazzocchi, Davide Marino
Publishing Year 2019 Issue 2019/2
Language English Pages 26 P. 379-404 File size 222 KB
DOI 10.3280/ECAG2019-002011
DOI is like a bar code for intellectual property: to have more infomation click here

Below, you can see the article first page

If you want to buy this article in PDF format, you can do it, following the instructions to buy download credits

Article preview

FrancoAngeli is member of Publishers International Linking Association, Inc (PILA), a not-for-profit association which run the CrossRef service enabling links to and from online scholarly content.

The paper analyses some Italian virtuous experiences of Food Public Procurement, connecting them with the issue of food democracy. In particular, the first paragraphs provide an outline of the main challenges and distortions afflicting today’s food systems, pointing out how and to what extent they are strictly tied to the problems of access to food and participation to food governance. In diets and food consumption behaviours, being them the main driver of the trajectories of food systems, rely the most part of the future of sustainability of agricultural productions and distribution. Food Public Procurement, defining features and quality of an impressive number of meals (18.5 billion per year in 15-member Europe), has the chance to drive and orient a large amount of the food productions towards more sustainable patterns. The results deriving from the critical examination of the four practices of Food Public Procurement in Italy, put into evidence the impacts in terms of parents participation, healthy of meals, agricultural sustainability, local development, distribution of food value chain and workers’ rights. Finally, it is stressed the importance of local food policies and urban Food councils in boosting and favouring the spreading of sustainable Food Public Procurement practices.

Keywords: Food Policies; Sustainability; Diets; Food Public Procurement.

Jel codes: Q13, Q18, L14

  1. Anderson, M.D. (2008). Rights-based food systems and the goals of food systems reform. Agriculture and Human Values, 25(4), 593-608. doi 10.1007/s10460-008-9151-z.
  2. Barbera, G. (2017). Prefazione a Sottile, F., Peano, C. (2017). Agricoltura Slow. Bra: Slow Food Editore.
  3. Bassarab K., Santo, R., & Plamer, A. (2018). Food Policy Council Report 2018. Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future.
  4. Blasi, G., Caruso, A., & Vigano, E. (2016). Progettazione partecipata di una mensa scolastica sostenibile mediante lo sviluppo di un Business Model Canvas. Economia agro-alimentare, 18(3), 319-344. DOI: 10.3280/ECAG2016-003005
  5. Born, B., & Purcell, M. (2006). Avoiding the Local Trap. Scale and Food Systems in Planning Research. Journal of Planning Education and Research, 26(2), 195-207.
  6. Bricas, N. (2015). What are the stakes for city food systems? In Urban Food Policies. Proceedings of the international meeting, 16th-18th of November, Montpellier, France.
  7. Brown, C., & Miller, S. (2008). The impacts of local markets: a review of research on farmers’ markets and community supported agriculture (csa). American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 90(5), 1296-1302.
  8. Bruil, J., Anderson, C., Bernhart, A., & Pimbert, M. (2019). Strengthening fao’s commitment to agroecology, Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience (CAWR), Coventry University.
  9. Cavallo, A., Marrucci, V. Corradi, C.A.R., & Santini, L. (2010). How to project healing landscape? Acta horticulturae, 881(881),799-805.
  10. Cavallo, A., Di Donato, B., Guadagno, R., & Marino, D. (2015). Cities, Agriculture and Changing Landscapes in Urban Milieu: The case of Rome. Rivista di studi sulla sostenibilita, 1, 79-97. DOI: 10.3280/RISS2015-001006
  11. De Fazio, M. (2015). Agriculture and sustainability of the welfare: the role of the short supply chain. Agriculture and Agricultural Science Procedia, 8, 461-466.
  12. fao, ifad, unicef, wfp and who (2018). The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2018. Building climate resilience for food security and nutrition, Rome, fao.
  13. Graeub, B.E., Chappell, M.J., Wittman, H., Ledermann, S., Bezner, R.K., & Gemmill-Herren, B. (2016). The State of Family Farms in the World. World Development, 87, 1-15.
  14. Hassanein, N. (2003). Practicing food democracy: a pragmatic politics of transformation. Journal of Rural Studies, 19(1), 77-86.
  15. HLPE (2017). Nutrition and food systems. A report by the High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition of the Committee on World Food Security, Rome.
  16. Koc, M. & Bas, J.A. (2012). Canada’s action plan for food security: the interactions between civil society and the state to advance food security in Canada. In MacRae, R. & Abergel, E. (Eds). Health and sustainability in the Canadian food system: advocacy and opportunity for civil society. (173-203). Vancouver: ubc Press.
  17. Lang, T., & Heasman, M. (2004). Food Wars: The Global Battle for Minds, Mouths and Markets. London: Earthscan Publications.
  18. Land T. (2005). Food control or food democracy? Re-engaging nutrition with society and the environment. Public Health Nutrition: 8(6A), 730-737. DOI: 10.1079/PHN2005772
  19. Louro Caldeira, S., Storcksdieck Genannt Bonsmann, S., Bakogianni, I., Gauci, C., Calleja, A., & Furtado, A. (2017). Public Procurement of Food for Health: technical report on the school setting. Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety (European Commission), Joint Research Centre (European Commission). DOI: 10.2760/269508
  20. Marino, D., Mastronardi, L., Giannelli, A., Giaccio, V. & Mazzocchi, G. (2018). Territorialisation dynamics for Italian farms adhering to Alternative Food Networks. Bulletin of Geography. Socio-economic Series, 40(40), 113-131.
  21. Mastronardi, L., Marino, D., Cavallo, A. & Giannelli, A. (2015). Exploring the role of farmers in short food supply chains: The case of Italy. International Food and Agribusiness Management Review, 18(2), 109-130. -- Available at: http://purl.umn.edu/204139, DoA: 18.09.2017.
  22. Mazzocchi, G., & Marino, D. (2018). Linking Food Policies and Sustainable Development Goals. In: Proceeding of the international scientific event Connections and Missing Links within Urban Agriculture, Food and Food Systems. 26-27th of April, Lisbon, Portugal.
  23. Mooney, P. (2018). Blocking the chain. Industrial food chain concentration, Big Data platforms and food sovereignty solutions. etc Group Report Morgan, K. & Sonnino, R. (2008). The School Food Revolution. Public Food and the Challenge of Sustainable Development. London: Earthscan.
  24. Morgan, K. & Morley, A. (2002). Re-localising the food chain: the role of creative public procurement. The Regeneration Institute, Cardiff University.
  25. Morgan, K. (2015). Nourishing the city: the rise of the urban food question in the Global North. Urban Studies, 52(8). DOI: 10.1177/0042098014534902
  26. Paganini, N., Lemke, S., Macamo Raimundo, I., Engel, E., Kuhn, A., Schelchen, A., & Koppelin, J. (2018). The potential of urban agriculture towards a more sustainable urban food system in food-insecure neighbourhoods in Cape Town and Maputo. Economia agro-alimentare, 20(3), 401-423.
  27. Renting, H., Schermer, M., & Rossi, A. (2012). Building Food Democracy: Exploring Civic Food Networks and Newly Emerging Forms of Food Citizenship. International Journal of Society of Agriculture & Food, 19(3), 289-307.
  28. Ruini, L.F., Ciati, R., Pratesi, C.A., Marino, M., Principato, L., & Vannuzzi, E. (2015). Working toward Healthy and Sustainable Diets: The “Double Pyramid Model” Developed by the Barilla Center for Food and Nutrition to Raise Awareness about the Environmental and Nutritional Impact of Foods. Front Nutr., 2(9). Published online 2015 May 4.
  29. Sonnino, R. (2009). Quality food, public procurement and sustainable development: the school meal revolution in Rome. Environment and Planning A, 90, 425-440.
  30. Steel, C. (2013). Hungry City: how Food shapes our lives. Random House, UK (reissue edition).
  31. Stiegman, M. (2012). Confessions of a reluctant food activist. Organize!: Building from the Local for Global Justice. Oakland, US: PM Press. -- Retrieved from www.ebrary.com.
  32. Torquati, B., Giacche, G., Musotti, F., & Taglione, C. (2009). Agricoltura periurbana tra adattamento aziendale, funzioni riconosciute e funzioni percepite. Rivista di Economia Agraria, 64(3-4), 401-441.
  33. Torquati, B., Giacche, G., Marino, D., Pastore, R., Mazzocchi, G., Niño, L., Arnaiz, C., & Daga, A. (2018). Urban farming opportunities: a comparative analysis between Italy and Argentina. Acta Hortic. 1215. ISHS 2018.
  34. Ecosystem Services in a Climate Changing World.
  35. Wezel, A., Bellon, S., Dore, T., Francis, C., Vallod, C., & David, C. (2009). Agroecology as a science, a movement and a practice. A review. Agronomy for Sustainable Development, 29(4), 503-515.
  36. Willett, W., Rockstrom, J., Loken, B., Springmann, M., Lang, T., Vermeulen, S., Garnett, T., Tilman, D., DeClerck, F., Wood, A., Jonell, M., Clark, M., Gordon, L.J., Fanzo, J., Hawkes, C., Zurayk, R., Rivera, J.A., De Vries, W., Sibanda, L.M., Afshin, A., Chaudhary, A., Herrero, M., Agustina, R., Branca, F., Lartey, A., Fan, S., Crona, B., Fox, E., Bignet, V., Troell, M., Lindahl, T., Singh, S., Cornell, S.E., Reddy, K.S., Narain, S., Nishtar, S., & Murray, C.J.L. (2019). Food in the Anthropocene: the eat-Lancet Commission on healthy diets from sustainable food systems, The Lancet Commissions, 393(10170), 447-492.
  37. Wittman, H., Desmarais, A.A., & Wiebe, N. (Eds.) (2010). Food Sovereignty: Reconnecting Food, Nature and Community. Oxford: Pambazuka.
  38. Vasquez, A., Sherwood, N., Larson N., & Story M. (2017). Community-Supported Agriculture as a Dietary and Health Improvement Strategy: A Narrative Review. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, 117 (1), 83-94.

  • An analytical framework to measure the social return of community-supported agriculture Marco Medici, Maurizio Canavari, Alessandra Castellini, in Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems /2023 pp.1319
    DOI: 10.1080/21683565.2023.2236989
  • Modelling food policies in Italian urban agendas in the time of Covid-19: Experiences, challenges and opportunities Daniele Fattibene, Giampiero Mazzocchi, Marta Antonelli, Davide Marino, Luca Romagnoli, in Cities 104199/2023 pp.104199
    DOI: 10.1016/j.cities.2023.104199
  • Varieties of food democracy: a systematic literature review Julia Behringer, Peter H. Feindt, in Critical Policy Studies /2024 pp.25
    DOI: 10.1080/19460171.2023.2191859
  • Practices of food democracy: A systematic review Valeria Borsellino, Michela Ascani, Gaetano Martino, Emanuele Schimmenti, in Local Development & Society /2024 pp.268
    DOI: 10.1080/26883597.2024.2326944
  • Urban food policies in Italy: Drivers, governance, and impacts Davide Marino, Marco Vassallo, Valentina Cattivelli, in Cities 105257/2024 pp.105257
    DOI: 10.1016/j.cities.2024.105257
  • Governance of local food systems: Current research and future directions Hyewon Kang, April M. Roggio, Luis F. Luna-Reyes, in Journal of Cleaner Production 130626/2022 pp.130626
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.130626

Giampiero Mazzocchi, Davide Marino, Does Food Public Procurement boost Food Democracy? Theories and evidences from some case studies in "ECONOMIA AGRO-ALIMENTARE" 2/2019, pp 379-404, DOI: 10.3280/ECAG2019-002011