Agroaldea
*Javier Guzman is director of VSF Global Food Justice.
The key to food transformation will be to rethink the distribution and logistics system adapted to local consumption, ecological and fair.
The current food model is at a historic crossroads. An obvious fact is that the world is increasingly urban and in the coming years the trend will continue, and that is why the relationship between the urban world and food and its relationship with nearby rural areas is key..
On the other hand, there is an increasing interest and demand to consume local and organic food and the number of hectares dedicated to this type of production continues on an upward trend. Spain is the EU country with the largest area dedicated to organic production with 1.610.129 hectares, although the 80% destined for export.
These two trends represent a great opportunity to change the current agri-food model based on large distribution chains, kilometer-long foods and highly processed foods.
The great challenge is how to organize the food supply to large cities in a sustainable way, both in terms of energy flows, and logistics and also reaches broad layers of the population.
Today, food in cities depends mainly on large distribution chains, in Spain more than 70% (MAGRAMA), causing the rapid disappearance of thousands of neighborhood stores.
This type of consumption has been transforming cities by disconnecting the power from the neighborhoods themselves and inexorably leading us towards a form of consumption that is unsustainable both for farmers in economic terms, as for consumers in terms of health.
We see how in Spain, for example, the 60% of the benefit of the final price of the product remains in the large distribution; instead, the average agricultural income is below that of 1990. On the consumer side, we see how the price of foods such as fruits and vegetables has increased by 300% over the last few years in most of the world.
Instead, the price of caloric foods that promote overweight and obesity has been cut in half in the same period. What has caused a crisis of obesity and diseases related to poor diet.
In recent years we have seen how, despite this hegemonic power of distribution, the trend towards ecological and local consumption has made its way through different alternatives, consumer cooperatives, public purchase of food, etc, but all of them are limited by their own capacity for expansion of their experience, and therefore of multiplication.
We find in these alternative models some paradoxes that are difficult to solve. On the one hand, the fragmentation of experiences that hinders coordination, the “diseconomies” due to the small scale that sometimes make the product more expensive, the need for time and voluntarism that is not always possible for producers and consumers and, Finally, the shortcomings at the logistical level, that cause a greater impact on costs.
Therefore, The time has come for cities to take seriously the nutrition of their citizens and it is urgent that they initiate processes through public policies and investment towards a transition to a mainly locally based sustainable and accessible food system.
The key to this process will be to rethink the distribution and logistics system, and create your own adapted to this production and consumption model.
At VSF Justicia Alimentaria Global we have spent years studying proposals made in other countries and we see how one of the most viable and innovative is the creation of regional food distribution centers or food HUBs supported by public administrations, that on the other hand have been operating for years in cities of the United States and Europe, as is the case of the city of Turin with its Food Hub TO Connect (FHTC), which is a social innovation project winner of the Smart Cities and Communities and Social Innovation call of the 2013 managed by MIUR (Italian Ministry of Education and Research).
It is about overcoming the limits of the local food system in order to guarantee greater sustainability and favor a growing localization of food production and consumption.. This type of project can carry out different services that help to streamline the logistics process of local products with a short distribution chain, through the ability to aggregate supply and demand, put in contact with all the actors of the system to generate a distribution system that reaches key points of sale such as local markets, neighborhood stores and public purchase of food.
In this way, regional food distribution centers increase market access for local and regional producers. Many farmers and ranchers, especially the little ones, are threatened by the lack of adequate distribution and processing infrastructure that would give them greater access to retail markets. Making it possible for consumers to have adequate and easy access to local and quality food, and producers obtain a system of points of sale consistent with their own production philosophy and a balanced margin and income distribution pact.
Finally, cities get a boost to the neighborhood economic fabric, reconnection of city spaces, and a daytime life of its own in the streets. Here it is worth recalling one of the largest comparative studies that exist and carried out by the New Economics Foundation (NEF) In England. The study concluded that a system based on municipal markets and short food circuits generates twice as many jobs as another based on supermarkets.
In the United States, this experience has been making its way for years and developing, and at this moment it has 168 regional centers.
In our country, no public administration has yet taken the step. The experiences and knowledge are there, producers and consumers prepared, It only remains that there is political will and a real commitment to the transformation of the food system.