About this Research Topic
This research topic aims to collate comprehensive research on Sustainable Food Networks (SFNs) with specific objectives: identifying various SFN initiatives across different territories, evaluating their spatial dimensions in global contexts, and assessing policies that can enhance the social, economic, and environmental sustainability of food value chains. Key questions include how alternative values are propagated within SFNs, the critical spatial nodes for these values, the role of urban and peri-urban agriculture, and the interplay between territorial conditions and SFN performance. Additionally, the research seeks to understand how SFNs compete with hegemonic value chains and the potential role of public policy in strengthening these networks.
To gather further insights into the complexities and potentials of SFNs, we welcome articles addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:
• The propagation and transfer of alternative values within SFNs
• Identification of critical spatial nodes for the reproduction of these values
• Roles of urban and peri-urban agriculture in SFNs
• Relationships between territorial conditions, governance, and SFN performance
• Strategies employed by SFNs to tackle competition from corporate value chains
• The impact of SFNs on the surge of local, organic, and healthy food outlets
• The role of public policy in supporting and strengthening SFNs
Keywords: i-urban Food Policies, Governance, Alternative food networks, Sustainable Food systems, Food Value Chain, Short Food Supply Systems, Food Distribution, Urban and Peri-urban Agriculture, Agroecology
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.