<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p>Globally, food systems are the most significant cause of environmental change; therefore, efforts to create more environmentally sustainable food systems are presented. One of the directions is strengthening the local actors and short food supply chains. Simultaneously, changes in farming systems are needed, and organic agriculture is one of the ways to make food systems more environmentally sustainable. Despite the abundance of research on the environmental consciousness of consumers in short food supply chains, the question is raised whether local food chain farmers are also committed to environmental sustainability. Therefore, this paper aims to explore the importance of environmental sustainability to organic short food supply chain actors. More specifically, the research depicts the views of organic farmers and consumers and their relation to the actual environmental sustainability of short food supply chains. During the research, a specific short food supply chain – a direct purchasing network – was explored. A qualitative approach was applied to reach the aim. Thus, in-depth interviews and observations were used as a research method. The research results demonstrated the views of farmers and consumers of the specific network regarding environmental sustainability aspects in the network. In the research, such environmental aspects as the circularity of resources, biodiversity, chemicals in the environment, seasonality and locality of diets, and the distance (food miles) were admitted as crucial ones by the specific short food supply chain actors. The differences in opinions of consumers and farmers emerged when thinking about the scale of their views.</p>
</abstract>

Globally, food systems are the most significant cause of environmental change; therefore, efforts to create more environmentally sustainable food systems are presented. One of the directions is strengthening the local actors and short food supply chains. Simultaneously, changes in farming systems are needed, and organic agriculture is one of the ways to make food systems more environmentally sustainable. Despite the abundance of research on the environmental consciousness of consumers in short food supply chains, the question is raised whether local food chain farmers are also committed to environmental sustainability. Therefore, this paper aims to explore the importance of environmental sustainability to organic short food supply chain actors. More specifically, the research depicts the views of organic farmers and consumers and their relation to the actual environmental sustainability of short food supply chains. During the research, a specific short food supply chain – a direct purchasing network – was explored. A qualitative approach was applied to reach the aim. Thus, in-depth interviews and observations were used as a research method. The research results demonstrated the views of farmers and consumers of the specific network regarding environmental sustainability aspects in the network. In the research, such environmental aspects as the circularity of resources, biodiversity, chemicals in the environment, seasonality and locality of diets, and the distance (food miles) were admitted as crucial ones by the specific short food supply chain actors. The differences in opinions of consumers and farmers emerged when thinking about the scale of their views.

Environmental Sustainability Aspects in Short Food Supply Chains: the Views of Organic Farmers and Consumers

Rural Sustainability Research

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Globally, food systems are the most significant cause of environmental change; therefore, efforts to create more environmentally sustainable food systems are...

Environmental Sustainability Aspects in Short Food Supply Chains: the Views of Organic Farmers and Consumers

Published Online: Jan 22, 2024

Page range: 85 - 93

Received: Jun 24, 2023

Accepted: Dec 07, 2023

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/plua-2023-0018

Keywords
organic agriculture, alternative food networks, short food supply chains, sustainable food systems, environmental sustainability, Latvia, Eastern Europe

© 2023 Maija Ušča et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Environmental Sustainability Aspects in Short Food Supply Chains: the Views of Organic Farmers and Consumers

Published Online: Jan 22, 2024

Page range: 85 - 93

Received: Jun 24, 2023

Accepted: Dec 07, 2023

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/plua-2023-0018

Keywordsorganic agriculture, alternative food networks, short food supply chains, sustainable food systems, environmental sustainability, Latvia, Eastern Europe

© 2023 Maija Ušča et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
organic agriculture, alternative food networks, short food supply chains, sustainable food systems, environmental sustainability, Latvia, Eastern Europe