Williams Tim G, Bürgi Matthias, Debonne Niels, Diogo Vasco, Helfenstein Julian, Levers Christian, Mohr Franziska, Stratton Anne Elise, Verburg Peter H
Environmental Geography Group, IVM Institute for Environmental Studies, VU University Amsterdam, de Boelelaan 1087, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Land Change Science Research Unit, Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Zurich, Switzerland.
Sustain Sci. 2024;19(4):1221-1242. doi: 10.1007/s11625-024-01480-y. Epub 2024 Apr 8.
European agri-food systems must overcome structural lock-ins to achieve more sustainable modes of production and consumption. Yet European regions are highly diverse, and we lack understanding of how different regional characteristics may enable or inhibit sustainability transitions. This hinders the development of context-tailored governance strategies. In this paper, we identify and apply sets of spatial indicators to map the regional potentials for agri-food transitions. We first analyse the strength of lock-in to the incumbent agro-industrial paradigm. We then map the enabling environments for two alternative agri-food networks-multifunctional value chains and civic food networks-that each embed distinct social-ecological qualities of agriculture and food. Results demonstrate a large spatial diversity in transition potential, with stronger lock-ins throughout North and Western Europe and stronger enabling environments for agri-food transitions in Italy, France, Switzerland, and Southwest Germany. We find that lock-ins are strongest in livestock-dominated regions and are associated with higher GHG emissions and excess nitrogen levels. Our study demonstrates the need for coordinated public policies that (1) leverage region-specific transition potentials and (2) enable complementary innovations in market-based and community-led networks.
The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11625-024-01480-y.
欧洲农业食品系统必须克服结构性锁定，以实现更可持续的生产和消费模式。然而，欧洲各地区差异很大，我们对不同的区域特征如何促进或阻碍可持续性转型缺乏了解。这阻碍了因地制宜的治理策略的制定。在本文中，我们识别并应用了一系列空间指标来描绘农业食品转型的区域潜力。我们首先分析了对现有农业产业范式的锁定强度。然后，我们描绘了两种替代农业食品网络——多功能价值链和公民食品网络——的有利环境，这两种网络各自蕴含着农业和食品独特的社会生态特质。结果表明，转型潜力在空间上存在很大差异，在整个北欧和西欧锁定更强，而在意大利、法国、瑞士和德国西南部，农业食品转型的有利环境更强。我们发现，锁定在以畜牧业为主的地区最为强烈，并且与更高的温室气体排放和过量氮水平相关。我们的研究表明，需要协调一致的公共政策，（1）利用特定区域的转型潜力，（2）在基于市场和社区主导的网络中实现互补性创新。
在线版本包含可在10.1007/s11625-024-01480-y获取的补充材料。
