PAPERS

Food, Feed, Fuel, Fibre and Finance: Looking for Sustainability Halfway Between Traditional Organic and Industrialised Agriculture in the Czech Republic [Socio-Metabolic Perspectives on the Sustainability of Local Food Systems]

Authors:

• Eva Franková (Masaryk University
• Brno)
• Claudio Cattaneo (Institut Metròpoli)

[*] Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Publication date:
01/2018

Resume:

In this chapter, authors provide an in-depth analysis of a potentially sustainable local food system located in the Czech Republic, a small-scale organic family farm, involved in the Community Supported Agriculture scheme, with a traditional integrated farm structure combining cropland, grassland, and woodland, and a highly localised mode of both production, consumption and distribution. Both the biophysical and monetary profile of the farm is provided, and the biophysical characteristics benchmarked with pre-industrial era (1840’) and current average data on organic and conventional Czech agriculture. The results show an interesting combination of traditional systems’ characteristics (no artificial fertiliser inputs, significant human labour inputs, a significant level of closed internal material loops), and modern/industrialised features (input of fossil fuels related to mechanisation, prevalent market orientation and dependence on external, although mainly local markets). The concept of food localisation is employed to discuss the complex issues of sustainability on the farm level, and the nexus of Food-Feed-Fuel-Fibre production as discussed in the literature is extended to also include the aspect of Finance, too often neglected in current socio-metabolic studies.

Published in: Frankova, E., Haas, W. i Singh, S. (eds.)(2018). Socio-Metabolic Perspectives on the Sustainability of Local Food Systems (pp. 193-229). Cham: Springer.

 

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69236-4_7