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LOCAL FOOD, URBANIZATION, AND TRANSPORT-RELATED GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS: LOCAL FOOD, URBANIZATION, AND GHG EMISSIONS
Abstract
We argue that “buying local” does not necessarily reduce transport-related greenhouse gas emissions, even if production technologies and yields are homogeneous in space. We develop a partial-equilibrium model of rural-urban systems where the spatial distribution of food production within and between regions is endogenous. We exhibit cases where locating some food production in the least-urbanized regions results in lower emissions and higher welfare than if all regions are self-sufficient. The optimal spatial allocation of food production does not exclude the possibility that some regions should be self-sufficient, provided that their urban population sizes are neither too large nor too small.
... Other trade-offs between indoor, locally grown plants and imported plants were not included in the LCA but are important to stress here. The indoor system allows a steady and predictable year-round production of fresh plants, which facilitates supply-chain logistics and reduces the need for storage (De Cara et al. 2017;Stein 2021). Also, social impacts assessment of both types of production would highlight the strong differences between both supply chains from this respect, particularly regarding labor intensity, wages and contribution to the local economy. ...
Controlled environment agriculture is developing rapidly to shorten supply chains and reduce the energy and greenhouse gas intensity of products transportation to consumers. However, compared to conventional value chains, these benefits are counter-acted by a higher energy consumption at the farm stage. Few studies have addressed this trade-off because of the novelty of controlled environment systems and the lack of suitable data to assess them. Benchmarking this new industry against its current counterfactuals is nevertheless critical and may point to potential options to mitigate its impacts.
This study aimed to bridge this gap by evaluating the environmental performance of an urban vertical, indoor farm through life-cycle assessment. The farm, located near Paris, France, uses aeroponic towers to grow plants usually sourced from tropical countries for use in high-added-value cosmetic products. The analysis covered the whole production cycle up to the processing plant gate and involved three species: Ocimum sanctum, Centella asiatica and Coleus forskohlii.
Climate change impacts amounted 9.7 kg CO2-eq./kg of plant biomass, as averaged across all crops, with large differences between species. These emissions were 4-fold larger than those of the air-imported, conventional chain for Centella Asiatica. On-farm electricity consumption contributed 60% of the carbon footprint. Sensitivity analysis showed that optimal farming processes could significantly reduce environmental impacts. Other beneficial trade-offs associated with local production, such as national employment, easier supply chain management, and quality of active ingredients, should be factored in for a comprehensive assessment of indoor farms.
... Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems 08 frontiersin.org analyzing whether it can reduce emissions associated with food transport (De Cara et al., 2017;Duarte et al., 2019;Schnell, 2013;Striebig et al., 2019;Weber and Matthews, 2008). Moreover, food miles emissions studies have mainly focused on fruit and vegetables, which are the main contributors to total food miles emissions (Bigaran Aliotte and Ramos De Oliveira, 2022; Blanke and Burdick, 2005;du Plessis et al., 2022). ...
Beef production is a major contributor to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and has therefore been placed at the center of global policy and research agendas on climate change mitigation and adaptation. However, detailed quantification of the intensity of beef’s contribution to emissions has mostly focused on the farm level. This research uses the calculation of a food miles emissions indicator to analyze the Colombian beef supply network from slaughterhouses to national consumption centers and its emissions between 2019 and 2022, including a network analysis and weighted average source distance (WASD) estimation. The results were compared with emissions from the transport of alternative animal proteins, specifically chicken and pork. The results show that the beef miles emissions indicator in Colombia is equivalent to 0.055330 kg CO2eq/ton of beef/km, which is higher than pork and chicken. These findings highlight the need to develop comprehensive approaches and strategies to reduce emissions from beef production, recognizing the critical role that the beef supply network, transport distances, infrastructure, and technology play in beef-related emissions.
... Short chains (in terms of distance and relations) have fewer intermediaries than long ones. This may lead to lower final prices than longer chains, but this is not systematically the case, because long chains may enable economies of scale (De Cara et al. 2017). In line with predictions from spatial economics, short food chains predominate in the supply of perishable produce, e.g., leafy vegetables, milk, eggs and chicken. ...
... The relationships between farmers, wholesalers and retailers are characterised by long-term acquaintance and regular interaction. The shortness of chains in terms of distance and intermediaries may lead to lower final prices (and environmental costs) than longer chains but this is not systematically the case because long chains may enable economies of scale (De Cara et al., 2017). ...
This paper helps fill gaps in the literature on urban food security and food policy which currently focuses on high-income countries and lacks a systemic approach. We characterise urban food systems in low and middle-income economies highlighting the connections between urban food consumption, food environments, food supply chains and their outcomes in terms of employment, food security and environmental preservation. We bring to the fore the diversity of consumer profiles, consumer environments and provisioning chains. Urban food systems involve the combination of at least six urban food chains: a subsistence chain, one short relational, one long relational, one value-oriented small and medium enterprise (SME)-driven, one value-oriented supermarket-driven, and one value-oriented e-commerce-driven. We identify overlaps, combinations and interactions between each type. Such diversity and interactions are keys to the resilience of urban food systems, yet they are not supported by public governance of urban food systems. We recommend interventions by national, regional and city authorities pertaining to regulations, resources and incentives, education and awareness, institutional capacity, mostly in support of SMEs and low-income consumers.
... Short chains (in terms of distance and relations) have fewer intermediaries than long ones. This may lead to lower final prices than longer chains, but this is not systematically the case, because long chains may enable economies of scale (De Cara et al. 2017). In line with predictions from spatial economics, short food chains predominate in the supply of perishable produce, e.g., leafy vegetables, milk, eggs and chicken. ...
This chapter is concerned with identifying: (i) challenges to food systems in Africa, Asia, and Latin America caused by urban development, (ii) how existing food systems respond to these challenges, and (iii) what can be done to improve their responsiveness. The chapter is based on the authors’ published research complemented by additional literature. We define ‘urban food systems’ as food systems linked to cities by material and human flows. Urbanisation poses challenges related to food and nutritional security with the co-existence of multiple forms of malnutrition (especially for women and children/adolescents), changing employment (including for women), and environmental protection. It is widely acknowledged that contemporary food systems respond differently to these challenges according to their traditional (small-scale, subsistence, informal) versus modern (large-scale, value-oriented, formal) characteristics. We go beyond this classification and propose six types of urban food system: subsistence, short relational, long relational, value-oriented small and medium enterprise (SME)-driven, value-oriented supermarket-driven, and digital. These correspond to different consumer food environments in terms of subsistence versus market orientation, access through retail markets, shops or supermarkets, diversity of food, prices and food quality attributes. Urban food supply chains differ not only in scale and technology, but also in the origin (rural, urban or imports) and perishability of food products. We stress the complementarity between short chains that supply many perishable and fresh food items (usually nutrient-dense) and long chains that involve collectors, wholesalers, retailers, storage and processing enterprises for many calorie-rich staple food commodities. More and more SMEs are upgrading their business through technologies, consumer orientation, and stakeholder coordination patterns, including food clusters and alliances.
Urban food systems based on micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) have proven resilient in times of crisis (including in the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic). Rather than promoting the linear development of so-called ‘traditional’ towards ‘modern’ food systems, we propose seven sets of recommendations aimed at further upgrading MSME business, improving the affordability and accessibility of food to ensure food and nutritional security while accounting for the specificities of urban contexts of low- and middle-income countries.
... The related question of whether locally grown food is more environmentally sustainable than food grown and transported on a global scale is controversial, however. Based again on scale effects locally-produced food may also present disadvantages in terms of sustainability (De Cara et al., 2017). ...
... fr/action/une-nouvelle-politique-de-l-alimentation) qui prône la consommation locale illustre cette évolution « de proximité ». La littérature, l'aborde majoritairement sous l'angle des consommateurs citadins (Cara, Fournier, et Gaigné 2017). Les recherches traitant spécifiquement les questions logistiques amont sous l'angle du premier acteur de la chaîne agricole, sont moins répetues. ...
Résumé
La question des chaînes logistiques amont et aval est au cœur des enjeux de la création de valeur. La logistique comme premier maillon de la chaîne reste embryonnaire notamment dans le domaine agricole où les « petits acteurs »(les exploitations) sont vitaux pour le développement et la survie de certains territoires. Le contexte alimentaire contraint les agriculteurs au développement individuel ou collectif, de solutions adaptées aux particularismes locaux et à leur compétitivité économique. Une méthodologie qualitative développée sur une zone agricole du Cantal sert d’appui à une compréhension des mécanismes d’une stratégie logistique collective autour d’une supply chain collective entre agriculteurs écartelés entre leurs lieux de production (zone rurale) et de commercialisation (zone urbaine). Celle-ci s’avère être limitée par la coopétition qu’elle induit. Certains aspects consensuels (stockage, transport) tendent vers la création d’un objet-frontière devant néanmoins préserver les particularités de chacun.
... The related question of whether locally grown food is more environmentally sustainable than food grown and transported on a global scale is controversial, however. Based again on scale effects locally-produced food may also present disadvantages in terms of sustainability (De Cara et al., 2017). ...
... Quelques auteurs ont d'ores et déjà tenté un rapprochement entre proximité physique et proximité relationnelle dans les systèmes alimentaires (Aubry et Kebir, 2013 ;De Cara et al., 2017), et notamment dans les pays en développement (Moustier, 2017). Selon la revue de littérature de Moustier (2017) sur des études dans 14 pays d'Afrique sub-saharienne et d'Asie entre 1990 et 2007, les zones périurbaines sont encore prépondérantes -plus de 80 % -dans l'approvisionnement des villes en production alimentaire très périssables (légumes feuilles et plantes aromatiques). ...
... L es évolutions des canaux de distribution tendent à évoluer vers une dimension plus locale : les relations des acteurs s'inscrivent sur un territoire « à taille humaine », qui correspond à une origine géographique clairement identifiée (Merle et Piotrowski, 2012). Les débats politiques font d'ailleurs écho à cette tendance, puisque le document de la politique alimentaire nationale de 2015 fait référence à Si l'évolution de la distribution est largement abordée dans la littérature sous l'angle des consommateurs citadins (Cara et al., 2017 ;Rose et al., 2017), les recherches abordant spécifiquement les questions de distribution dans les zones rurales sont moins répandues. Or la ruralité engendre des problématiques de distribution particulières. ...
... The related question of whether locally grown food is more environmentally sustainable than food grown and transported on a global scale is, however, a controversial one. Based again on scale effects locally produced food may also present disadvantages in regard to sustainability (De Cara at al., 2017). ...
This paper aims to present an exploratory view of rural supply chain management (RSCM) and furthermore, to provide a framework to facilitate further study and research. The paper also identifies future research directions derived from the framework. Based on the limited literature in the field, this paper adopts an inductive approach using an interdisciplinary panel of international experts. The findings pinpoint that RSCM is multi-faced and classifies the research area into four main dimensions and lenses, resulting in a holistic framework which brings together the wide-ranging character of the areas. The four proposed overarching dimensions of RSCM are; rural logistics, policy, community and innovation. The research shows that there exists an explicit need for more research on RSCM. This paper provides a foundation for future examination of, and theory building in, this research area. Specifically, it highlights a significant number of opportunities for further research for scholars from various disciplines. Practical implications This paper can support the development of rural markets and businesses while they cope with the logistical challenges (e.g. scale effects) particularly relevant to retail and service industries. It also enables leveraging opportunities (e.g. heterogeneity and identity) in these areas. This work represents the first initiative to present a comprehensive view of RSCM, and expands supply chain management beyond focal firms to consider the ecosystem posited to be a requisite in the study of the concept of RSCM.
The paper is a revised version of a research brief produced for the World Food Summit as Moustier, P., Holdsworth, M., Dao The Anh, Pape Abdoulaye Seck, Renting, H., Caron, P., Bricas,N. 2021. Priorities for urban food systems transformations in the global South. United Nations Food Systems Summit 2021 Scientific Group. This brief will be published as a forthcoming book chapter of Joachim von Braun, Kaosar Afsana, Louise Fresco and Mohamed Hag Ali Hassan (eds), Science and Innovations for Food Systems Transformation. Springer.
Current environmental issues that have been made unavoidable by environmental regulations have become new constraints for industrial companies. In this paper, we consider a joint production-location problem for supply chains under a carbon tax policy on transport-related carbon emissions. We characterize the relationship that links the production level to the input quantities by considering a production function, namely, constant elasticity of substitution (CES) function. Our study focuses on the potential impact of increased transportation costs due to carbon taxation on the joint production-location decision. We find that the location-production configuration differs according to the degree of substitutability among the raw material quantities. More importantly, we observe that a higher carbon tax is more likely to cause a significant jump in firm location choice and a considerable change in production decisions when a firm has high flexibility in its ability to substitute among input quantities.
The sustainability of food chains is an issue consumers, policy makers, researchers, food producers and suppliers are increasingly interested in. This interest is also confirmed by the considerable development of short food supply chain (SFSC) initiatives as an alternative to the globalised food chains typical of the contemporary food industry. However, while SFSCs have grown over the recent years, their logistics is still a challenging issue affecting their performance. Previous SFSC-focused literature reviews have neglected this particular aspect, concentrating primarily on the different forms of supply chains and the benefits and limitations associated with SFSC. The goal of this paper, instead, is to increase researchers’ and practitioners’ knowledge of the role and potential of logistics in improving the effectiveness and sustainability of SFSCs. This work, in fact, focuses on this specific and relevant aspect of SFSC and highlights its possible impact on SFSC development. From a logistics perspective, it identifies a series of actions to be implemented to effectively improve SFSC: to make environmental sustainable choices during all the phases of food distribution, to optimise the location of supply chain nodes, to improve the distribution route and restructure the supply chain. In addition to these actions, farmers are required to adopt an open approach to innovative distribution systems, vertical and horizontal collaboration as well as to cooperation with researchers. The paper's conclusions provide suggestions for future research development and underline the necessity to adopt a holistic and integrated approach and abandon a retrospective evaluation analysis in favour of a more dynamic and future-orientated attitude.
Changes in provisioning routines can trigger more sustainable food practices. Holiday periods, for instance, are paced by less constrained temporalities; often they are times when households travel and discover new shopping environments likely to prompt a shift towards the consumption of local and seasonal foods. However, the actualisation of such shifts relies primarily on social dispositions shaped throughout the life-course. Two case studies of women are compared to evidence how the slight differences between their social trajectories help to explain discrepancies between their food practices and the way they shop and cook during holidays. At a more general level, the objective of this article is to demonstrate how a practice-theoretical approach, with an attention to social trajectories of practitioners and to the context of performances, can help to understand under which conditions short-term transitions may lead to more sustainable consumption habits.
A two-region, spatial economic model is developed to explore the implications of interregional water transfers on household migration and the intraregional distribution of land between urban and agricultural use when there are agglomeration economies in urban production. A particular example is considered where an arid region lacks water resources but has differing levels of amenities and agricultural productivity relative to a water rich region. The conditions for the stability of both the dispersed and concentrated equilibria are found. Numerical simulations provide a graphical example of the set of stable equilibria in the parameter space. Finally, the model is calibrated using data on household consumption and agricultural production patterns in the US.
This report provides an overview of local and regional food systemsacross several dimensions. It details the latest economic information onlocal food producers, consumers, and policy, relying on findings fromseveral national surveys and a synthesis of recent literature to assess thecurrent size of and recent trends in local and regional food systems. Dataare presented on producer characteristics, survival rates and growth, andprices. The local food literature on consumer willingness to pay,environmental impacts, food safety regulations, and local economicimpacts is synthesized when nationally representative data areunavailable. Finally, this report provides an over-view of Federal andselected State and regional policies designed to support local foodsystems and collaboration among market participants.
This report is in response to Section 6206 of the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 (PL
110-246), which directs the Secretaries of Agriculture and Transportation jointly to conduct a
study of rural transportation issues. The report reviews transportation and its effect on rural
communities, with an emphasis on agricultural transportation. It looks in depth into each of
the four major modes of transportation commonly used by agriculture in the United States:
trucking, railroads, barges, and ocean vessels, examining each in the light of its ability to meet
rural America’s transportation needs now and in the future. It identifies some broad issues that
merit attention from policy makers.
Transportation is critical to U.S. agriculture, which raises the food for America and feeds a
hungry world with its abundance. Our transportation system moves food from farms to our
tables, and to ports for export to foreign markets. The four major modes work together in a
seamless network, cooperating and competing with one another in a balanced and flexible
system that delivers products efficiently and economically in an ever-changing market.
Agriculture is the largest user of freight transportation in the United States, claiming 31 percent
of all ton-miles transported in the United States in 2007. Much of this freight travels out of the
country. Global agricultural supply and demand have changed rapidly since 1990. Corn and
soybeans have increased dramatically in both consumption and production. During the past 5
years, half of American wheat was exported, along with 36 percent of the soybean crop and 19
percent of the corn crop. These exports travel from the inland areas of the United States where
they are produced to borders and ports by way of a network of trucks, trains, and barges.
The need for agricultural transportation will continue to increase, based on projected growth in
the demand for U.S. agricultural products domestically and overseas.
This chapter does not aim to survey what has been accomplished in new economic geography (NEG) since the publication of Paul Krugman’s seminal paper. Rather, we provide an overview of recent developments in the NEG literature that build on the idea that the difference in the economic performance of regions is explained by the behavior and interactions between households and firms located within them. This means that we consider NEG models which take into account land markets, thereby the internal structure and industrial mix of urban agglomerations.
The expansion of urban agriculture assists in reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions not only by producing food but also by reducing the amount of food transported from farming areas and therefore reducing the food mileage. This study seeks to estimate “the expected GHG reduction effect” in the case of a revitalization of urban agriculture. For this purpose, this study first calculated the area available for urban farming by targeting the metropolitan area of Seoul and then calculated the production per unit area by focusing on “the crops suitable for urban agriculture”. Using this estimated value, the study estimated crop production, the resultant food mileage decrement, and the reduction of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions that could be obtained if the Seoul metropolis introduced urban agriculture. The results estimated that if the Seoul metropolis implemented urban agriculture in a 51.15 km2 area, it would be possible to reduce CO2 emissions by 11.67 million kg annually. This numerical value is the same amount of CO2 absorbed annually by 20.0 km2 of pine forests and 10.2 km2 of oak tree forests that are 20 years old. From the perspective of GHG reduction effects in the transportation sector, urban agriculture is expected to produce a considerable effect in diverse aspects such as the habituation of green growth, self-sufficiency, and food security.
In a 2003 report, International Evidence on Food Consumption Patterns, ERS economists estimated income and price elasticities of demand for broad consumption categories and food categories across 114 countries using 1996 International Comparison Program (ICP) data. This report updates that analysis with an estimated two-stage demand system across 144 countries using 2005 ICP data. Advances in ICP data collection since 1996 led to better results and more accurate income and price elasticity estimates. Low-income countries spend a greater portion of their budget on necessities, such as food, while richer countries spend a greater proportion of their income on luxuries, such as recreation. Low-value staples, such as cereals, account for a larger share of the food budget in poorer countries, while high-value food items are a larger share of the food budget in richer countries. Overall, low-income countries are more responsive to changes in income and food prices and, therefore, make larger adjustments to their food consumption pattern when incomes and prices change. However, adjustments to price and income changes are not uniform across all food categories. Staple food consumption changes the least, while consumption of higher-value food items changes the most.
Food production in cities has long been a tradition in many countries around the world and a mainstream activity for many developed countries. While urban agriculture plays an important role in increasing food security and social well-being, it comes with significant costs and constraints. Here, we review the growth of urban agriculture throughout the developed world in order to clarify the different benefits, risks, and hindrances associated with the practice. Through this analysis, we identify the need for better understanding of the following five aspects if urban agriculture is to make a meaningful contribution to food security and social well-being in the future: (1) the impacts of continued urban sprawl and loss of peri-urban agricultural land; (2) appropriate government and institutional support at local, regional, and country levels; (3) the role of urban agriculture in self-sufficiency of cities; (4) the risks posed by pollutants from agriculture to urban ecosystems and from urban ecosystems to agriculture; and (5) the carbon footprint of urban agriculture and use of “food miles.” If urban agriculture is to have a legitimate place in resolving the global food crisis as advocates claim, then it is time to take urban agriculture seriously and assess more rigorously both the positive and negative impacts, especially carbon emissions. Only then can the world’s limited resources be properly allocated to the development of urban agriculture.
Although only a small percentage of global land cover, urban areas significantly alter
climate, biogeochemistry, and hydrology at local, regional, and global scales. To understand
the impact of urban areas on these processes, high quality, regularly updated
information on the urban environment?including maps that monitor location
and extent?is essential. Here we present results from efforts to map the global
distribution of urban land use at 500?m spatial resolution using remotely sensed
data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS). Our
approach uses a supervised decision tree classification algorithm that we process using
region-specific parameters. An accuracy assessment based on sites from a stratified random
sample of 140 cities shows that the new map has an overall accuracy of 93% (k = 0.65) at the pixel level and a high level of agreement at the city scale (R2 = 0.90). Our results (available at http://sage.wisc.edu/urbanenvironment.html) also reveal that
the land footprint of cities occupies less than 0.5% of the Earth's total land area.
We study the effects of a decrease in inter-city transport costs on the spatial distribution of population in a multi-regional
economy, when a rise in the regional population generates higher urban costs. Holding the number of cities constant, as transport
costs are reduced gradually from a very high level to a very low level, there is a first phase in which large cities grow
while small cities shrink, a second phase in which both large and small cities grow while medium size cities shrink, and a
third phase in which large cities shrink while small cities grow. Furthermore, when the number of cities is allowed to vary
as transport costs are reduced from large to small values, it first decreases and then increases.
Urbanization presents both opportunities and challenges for farmers and farm-supporting sectors on the urban fringe. This paper examines the effects of urbanization on the viability of input suppliers and output processors and on the cost and profitability of farming. An analytical model is developed to provide insights into such effects. This model motivates a multiple-equation empirical model that we estimate using county-level panel data for California, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington. Results provide evidence that urbanization has a significant impact on agricultural infrastructure, farm production costs, and net farm income and suggest that agriculture-related opportunities of urbanization outweigh the challenges
This paper evaluates the impact of increasing imports on the reallocation of agrifood production across regions within countries. From French data for the period 1995--2002, we show that regional agrifood production adjusts differently to increasing imports according to the region where the agrifood firms are located. Even though proximity to consumers is important, an increase in agrifood imports does not increase agrifood production with a high demand but makes low-wage regions more attractive. In addition, an increase in imports of agricultural products processed by agrifood firms leads to the reallocation of agrifood production away from regions with good agricultural access and toward those with limited access to agricultural products. Copyright 2010, Oxford University Press.
This paper analyses the evolution of city size distribution in the United States throughout the twentieth century. It tests the validity of two empirical regularities studied in urban economics: Zipf's law (the rank-size rule), and Gibrat's law, or the law of proportionate growth. The main contribution of this work is the use of a new database with information on all the cities (understood as incorporated places), without size restrictions. Our results enable us to confirm that Gibrat's law holds (weakly), and that Zipf's law holds only if the sample is sufficiently restricted at the top, not for a larger sample.
Research on the spatial aspects of economic activity has flourished over the past decade due to the emergence of new theory, new data, and an intense interest on the part of policymakers, especially in Europe but increasingly in North America and elsewhere as well. However, these efforts--collectively known as the "new economic geography"--have devoted little attention to the policy implications of the new theory. Economic Geography and Public Policy fills the gap by illustrating many new policy insights economic geography models can offer to the realm of theoretical policy analysis. Focusing primarily on trade policy, tax policy, and regional policy, Richard Baldwin and coauthors show how these models can be used to make sense of real-world situations. The book not only provides much fresh analysis but also synthesizes insights from the existing literature. The authors begin by presenting and analyzing the widest range of new economic geography models to date. From there they proceed to examine previously unaddressed welfare and policy issues including, in separate sections, trade policy (unilateral, reciprocal, and preferential), tax policy (agglomeration with taxes and public goods, tax competition and agglomeration), and regional policy (infrastructure policies and the political economy of regional subsidies). A well-organized, engaging narrative that progresses smoothly from fundamentals to more complex material, Economic Geography and Public Policy is essential reading for graduate students, researchers, and policymakers seeking new approaches to spatial policy issues.
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This commentary compares the primary energy requirement for apples (cultivar ‘Braeburn’), which were either imported or locally-grown in Meckenheim, Germany. Imported apples of the same cultivar were grown in a Southern hemisphere winter in Nelson, Southland, New Zealand, and were picked at the end of March with subsequent 28 d transport by sea for sale in April in Germany. Locally-grown apples (cultivar ‘Braeburn’) were picked in mid-October and required a primary energy of nearly 6 MJ/kg of fruit including 0.8 MJoule/kg for five months CA storage at 1°C during a Northern hemisphere winter until mid-March. This compared favourably with 7.5 MJoule/kg for overseas shipment from New Zealand, i.e. a ca. 27% greater energy requirement for these imported fruits. Overall, the primary energy requirement of regional produce, stored several months on-site, partially compensated for the larger energy required to import fresh fruit from overseas. This result is in marked contrast to reported overestimates of a reported up to 8-fold energy requirement for domestic versus imported apple juice concentrate [7]. Our own findings of less primary energy required for domestic apple fruit is discussed with respect to providing local employment, fruit orchards preserving the countryside, quality assurance systems for local fruit such as QS and EUREP-GAP, networking and other factors favouring regional production.
Despite significant recent public concern and media attention to the environmental impacts of food, few studies in the United States have systematically compared the life-cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with food production against long-distance distribution, aka "food-miles." We find that although food is transported long distances in general (1640 km delivery and 6760 km life-cycle supply chain on average) the GHG emissions associated with food are dominated by the production phase, contributing 83% of the average U.S. household's 8.1 t CO2e/yr footprint for food consumption. Transportation as a whole represents only 11% of life-cycle GHG emissions, and final delivery from producer to retail contributes only 4%. Different food groups exhibit a large range in GHG-intensity; on average, red meat is around 150% more GHG-intensive than chicken or fish. Thus, we suggest that dietary shift can be a more effective means of lowering an average household's food-related climate footprint than "buying local." Shifting less than one day per week's worth of calories from red meat and dairy products to chicken, fish, eggs, or a vegetable-based diet achieves more GHG reduction than buying all locally sourced food.
How should the size and number of cities evolve optimally as population grows? Stripped of the constraints of geography itself, the setup of the new economic geography (NEG) implies that de-agglomeration (or de-urbanization) is efficient. The number of cities increases while the size of each decreases on the optimal path until the economy suddenly disperses to tiny towns of stand-alone firms each specializing in a unique good. The cause of this narrow result is the NEG's strong emphasis on intercity trade to satisfy the taste for more goods. For the same aggregate population, a system of smaller cities saves time lost in commuting, has a larger labor supply, and makes more goods than does a system of larger cities. Falling interurban trading costs favor this de-urbanization process. Only if intraurban commuting costs fall sufficiently, can a pattern of growing city sizes be efficient with growing population. Of course, when the number of cities or the geographic space itself is limited or asymmetric, then agglomeration can arise as an artifact of the constraints imposed by geography as demonstrated by numerous NEG models. This reveals that the central agglomerative force in the NEG is space itself and not the underlying economic relations. Copyright 2004, Oxford University Press.
We address the fundamental question arising in economic geography: why do economic activities agglomerate in a small number of places? The main reasons for the formation of economic clusters involving firms and/or households are analysed: (i) externalities under perfect competition; (ii) increasing returns under monopolistic competition; and (iii) spatial competition under strategic interaction. We review what has been accomplished in these three domains and identify a few general principles governing the organization of economic space. Other standard lines of research in location theory are also discussed while several alternative, new approaches are proposed.
The authors show how a common approach that emphasizes the three-way interaction among increasing returns, transportation costs, and the movement of productive factors can be applied to a wide range of issues in urban, regional, and international economics.
Since 1990 there has been a renaissance of theoretical and empirical work on the spatial aspects of the economy—that is, where economic activity occurs and why. Using new tools—in particular, modeling techniques developed to analyze industrial organization, international trade, and economic growth—this "new economic geography" has emerged as one of the most exciting areas of contemporary economics.
The authors show how seemingly disparate models reflect a few basic themes, and in so doing they develop a common "grammar" for discussing a variety of issues. They show how a common approach that emphasizes the three-way interaction among increasing returns, transportation costs, and the movement of productive factors can be applied to a wide range of issues in urban, regional, and international economics. This book is the first to provide a sound and unified explanation of the existence of large economic agglomerations at various spatial scales.
This chapter surveys recent literature examining the relationship between environmental amenities and urban growth. In this survey, we focus on the role of both exogenous attributes such as climate and coastal access and endogenous attributes such as local air pollution and green space. A city's greenness is a function of its natural beauty and is an emergent property of the types of households and firms that locate within its borders and the types of local and national regulations enacted by voters.
We explore four main issues related to sustainability and environmental quality in cities. First, we introduce a household locational choice model to highlight the role that environmental amenities play in shaping where households locate within a city. We then analyze how ongoing suburbanization affects the carbon footprint of cities. Third, we explore how the system of cities is affected by urban environmental amenity dynamics and we explore the causes of these dynamics. Fourth, we review the recent literature on the private costs and benefits of investing in “green” buildings. Throughout this survey, we pay careful attention to empirical research approaches and highlight what are open research questions. While much of the literature focuses on cities in the developed world, we anticipate that similar issues will be of increased interest in developing nation's cities.
Environmental impacts, such as GHC emissions, have been introduced to supply chain management as an additional parameter to traditional cost, lead-time and on-time delivery. Supply chain management represents a significant source of decisions affecting the eco-efficiency of many products. This paper analyses cases from the food industry, mainly order-picking, transportation, warehousing, and distribution aspects from the greening point of view. Three case examples of decisions in supply chain design in the food industry are considered. The results show dependencies between performance measures. Finally, a framework of decisions and their impact on performance is presented.
The following study assesses cold-season hoop house lettuce production in the context of local food systems' relative environmental effects. For this purpose, we compare the carbon footprints of leaf lettuce production in two climatic zones, one close to the consumer market and one distant, via environmental impact modeling in SimaPro 7.3. A site-specific scenario is first detailed with organic leaf lettuce locally grown in an East Lansing, Michigan hoop house. This is compared to a hypothetical scenario, modeled using average industry data, with leaf lettuce conventionally grown in California then shipped to East Lansing. The system boundaries used in this analysis extend from manufacturing of farm production inputs to a hypothetical retail gate. We assumed that the consumer drove the same distance to the retailer in each case. The functional unit used is 1kg of leaf lettuce. Results demonstrate that the distant system exhibits 4.3 times the CO2 'footprint' per kg of lettuce. This nonlocal system also resulted in higher resource depletion, health impact and ecological damage potential as demonstrated via the SimaPro simulation. This study concludes that unheated, hoop house lettuce production, given the assumption on within-area travel, has a smaller carbon footprint than outdoor, distant production, and speaks to both the potential value of more localized food systems and the need for a more diverse set of scenario modeling to understand the boundaries of this value.
Environmental impacts, such as GHC emissions, have been introduced to supply chain management as an additional parameter to traditional cost, lead-time and on-time delivery. Supply chain management represents a significant source of decisions affecting the eco-efficiency of many products. This paper analyses cases from the food industry, mainly order-picking, transportation, warehousing, and distribution aspects from the greening point of view. Three case examples of decisions in supply chain design in the food industry are considered. The results show dependencies between performance measures. Finally, a framework of decisions and their impact on performance is presented.
The importance of environmental protection has been recently upgraded due to the continuously increasing environmental pollution load. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), wellknown as ISO 14040, has been repeatedly shown to be a useful and powerful tool for assessing the environmental performance of industrial processes, both in the European and American continents as well as in many Asian countries (such as Japan and China). To the best of our knowledge, almost no information is provided in relation to LCA implementation in Africa apart from an article related to Egypt. Although food industries are not considered to be among the most heavily polluting ones, for some like olive oil, wine, dairy, and meat processing, their impact on the environment is a heavy burden. The introduction of LCA aimed at identifying both inputs and outputs to find out which are the most detrimental to the environment in terms of water/energy consumption and solid/liquid and gas releases. In this review, a thorough coverage of literature was made in an attempt to compare the implementation of LCA to a variety of products of both plant and animal origin. It was concluded that there is a high number of subsystems suggested for the same product, thereby, occasionally leading to confusion. An idea toward solving the problem is to proceed to some sort of standardization by means of several generic case studies of LCA implementation, similarly to what had happened in the case of Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) implementation in the United States, Canada, Australia, United Kingdom, and other countries.
With the increased interest in the ‘carbon footprint’ of global economic activities, civil society, governments and the private sector are calling into question the wisdom of transporting food products across continents instead of consuming locally produced food. While the proposition that local consumption will reduce one’s carbon footprint may seem obvious at first glance, this conclusion is not at all clear when one considers that the economic emissions intensity of food production varies widely across regions. In this paper we concentrate on the tradeoff between production and transport emissions reductions by testing the following hypothesis: Substitution of domestic for imported food will reduce the direct and indirect Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions associated with consumption. We focus on ruminant livestock since it has the highest emissions intensity across food sectors, but we also consider other food products as well, and alternately perturb the mix of domestic and imported food products by a marginal (equal) amount. We then compare the emissions associated with each of these consumption changes in order to compute a marginal emissions intensity of local food consumption, by country and product. The variations in regional ruminant emissions intensities have profound implications for the food miles debate. While shifting consumption patterns in wealthy countries from imported to domestic livestock products reduces GHG emissions associated with international trade and transport activity, we find that these transport emissions reductions are swamped by changes in global emissions due to differences in GHG emissions intensities of production. Therefore, diverting consumption to local goods only reduces global emissions when undertaken in regions with relatively low emissions intensities. For non-ruminant products, the story is more nuanced. Transport costs are more important in the case of dairy products and vegetable oils. Overall, domestic emissions intensities are the dominant part of the food miles story in about 90 % of the country/commodity cases examined here.
In order to understand the magnitude, direction, and geographic distribution of land-use changes, we evaluated land-use trends in U.S. counties during the latter half of the 20th century. Our paper synthesizes the dominant spatial and temporal trends in population, agriculture, and urbanized land uses, using a variety of data sources and an ecoregion classification as a frame of reference. A combination of increasing attractiveness of nonmetropolitan areas in the period 1970-2000, decreasing household size, and de- creasing density of settlement has resulted in important trends in the patterns of developed land. By 2000, the area of low-density, exurban development beyond the urban fringe occupied nearly 15 times the area of higher density urbanized development. Efficiency gains, mechanization, and agglomeration of agricultural concerns has resulted in data that show cropland area to be stable throughout the Corn Belt and parts of the West between 1950 and 2000, but decreasing by about 22% east of the Mississippi River. We use a regional case study of the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions to focus in more detail on the land-cover changes resulting from these dynamics. Dominating were land-cover changes associated with the timber practices in the forested plains ecoregions and urban- ization in the piedmont ecoregions. Appalachian ecoregions show the slowest rates of land- cover change. The dominant trends of tremendous exurban growth, throughout the United States, and conversion and abandonment of agricultural lands, especially in the eastern United States, have important implications because they affect large areas of the country, the functioning of ecological systems, and the potential for restoration.
Historically trade policy has been one of the major factors affecting NZ exports. This is still important with NZ restricted by quotas especially for access into high value markets. Moreover, other potential markets for NZ have been affected by the competition from subsidised exports. The EU (European Union) has recently announced it is going to, even without the completion of current Doha round of the WTO (World Trade Organisation), remove export subsidies. This has huge potential for our products. However, a great threat to our access especially into the high value markets is the growing concern about the environment. In particular the issue of climate change has grown in importance as seen through the application of the Kyoto Protocol and issues such as "food miles". This paper outlines some of these threats. Whilst this concentrates upon the UK and EU markets there is growing evidence that this is not just an issue for those markets. Other markets are also showing increasing concern about these factors.
The purpose of this article is twofold. First, we present an alternative model of agglomeration and trade that displays the main features of the recent economic geography literature while allowing for the derivation of analytical results by means of simple algebra. Second, we show how this framework can be used to permit (i) a welfare analysis of the agglomeration process, (ii) a full-fledged forward-looking analysis of the role of history and expectations in the emergence of economic clusters, and (iii) a simple analysis of the impact of urban costs on the spatial distribution of economic activities. Copyright Economics Department of the University of Pennsylvania and the Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association
ABSTRACT We investigate whether an aging population may challenge the supremacy of large working cities. To this end, we develop an economic geography model with two types of individuals (workers and retirees) and two sectors (local services and manufacturing). Workers produce and consume; the elderly consume only. As a result, the mobility decision of workers is driven by both the wage gap and the cost-of-living gap, unlike the elderly who react to the differences in the cost of living only. We show that the return of pre-industrial urban system dominated by rentier cities does not seem to be on the agenda. Quite the opposite, the future of large working cities is still bright, the reason being that today's urban costs act as a strong force that prevents a large share of local services and manufacturing firms from following the rentiers in the elderly cities, while the supply of differentiated b2c services impede their complete separation.
Although transport costs are a key-ingredient of New Economic Geography, the transport sector is usually abstracted away from the analysis. Put differently, freight rates are taken as parametric and are not set by the market. This paper studies the relationships between transport costs, industry location, and welfare when freight rates are set by profit-maximizing carriers. We show that the demand for transport services becomes less elastic as the degree of spatial agglomeration rises, which increases carriers' market power and allows them to charge higher markups. Once it is recognized that firms and consumers are free to relocate in response to changes in transport costs, an increasing number of carriers, falling fixed or marginal costs in transportation, or both, trigger a gradual agglomeration of industry. In the long run, this leads to consumer welfare losses (and to aggregate welfare losses under free entry), with more inequality across agents living in different regions.
The paper examines the formation of free trade agreements (FTAs) as a network formation game. We consider an n-country model in which (possibly asymmetric) countries trade differentiated industrial commodities. We show that if all countries are symmetric, the complete FTA network is pairwise stable and it is the unique stable network if industrial commodities are not highly substitutable. We also compare FTAs and customs unions (CUs) as to which of these two regimes facilitates global trade liberalization, noticing that unlike CUs, each signatory of an FTA can have another FTA without consent of other member countries.
Many cities are located on rivers or coasts. Such cities developed as transportation hubs or markets for interregional trade, since these locations provide better access to other regions. Local products are collected at such hubs, and interregional trade then takes place among these transportation hubs. As the volume of trade between hubs increases, more workers are needed in order to meet labor demand for shipping and handling commodities, resulting in population agglomeration at such hubs. Formalizing the mechanism described above, this paper constructs a simple three location general equilibrium model, in which transportation hubs and population agglomeration emerge endogenously.
This handbook chapter studies the theoretical micro-foundations of urban agglomeration economies. We distinguish three types of micro-foundations, based on sharing, matching, and learning mechanisms. For each of these three categories, we develop one or more core models in detail and discuss the literature in relation to those models. This allows us to give a precise characterisation of some of the main theoretical underpinnings of urban agglomeration economies, to discuss modelling issues that arise when working with these tools, and to compare different sources of agglomeration economies in terms of the aggregate urban outcomes they produce as well as in terms of their normative implications.
How does the research about rural economies in developed countries compare to urban/regional economics? What can the new generation contribute? This paper briefly reviews modern research concerning rural development in one country, the U.S., and reports indicators of U.S. rural distress. It examines the market forces and market failures that cause rural distress and that may limit the applicability of existing urban/regional theories to rural problems. A feast of uniquely rural issues that require-and should inspire-theoretical innovations in rural, urban, regional, and spatial economics are identified and discussed. Copyright (c) 2010, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
.There is a large consensus among international institutions and national governments to favor urban-containment policies –the compact city– as a way to improve the ecological performance of the urban system. This approach overlooks a fundamental fact: what matters for the ecological outcome of cities is the mix between the level of population density and the global pattern of activities. As expected, when both the intercity and intra-urban distributions of activities are given, a higher population density makes cities more environmentally friendly. However, once we account for the fact that cities may be either monocentric or polycentric as well as for the possible relocation of activities between cities, the relationship between population density and the ecological performance of cities appears to be much more involved. Indeed, because changes in population density affect land rents and wages, firms and workers are incited to relocate, thus leading to new commuting and shipping patterns. We show that policies favoring the decentralization of jobs in big cities may be more desirable because they both reduce pollution and improve welfare.
The issue of whether food miles are a relevant indicator for the environmental impacts associated with foods has received significant attention in recent years. It is suggested here that issues other than the distance travelled need to be considered. The argument is presented by illustrating the case for the provision of apples.
The effects of variability in primary energy requirements for apple cultivation and for other life cycle stages, seasonality (timing of consumption) and loss of produce during storage are studied in this paper, by comparing apples from different supplier countries for consumption in Europe.
Data sources for primary energy use (PEU) of apple production are identified ranging from 0.4-3.8 MJ/kg apples for European and Southern American countries and 0.4-0.7 MJ/kg for New Zealand. This variability is related to different yields and producer management practices in the different countries. Storage loss may range from 5% to 40% for storage periods between 4 and 10 months, and this has a significant effect on the results (e.g. increasing the total PEU by 8-16% when stored for 5-9 months in Europe as compared with a no loss and no storage situation). The storage periods and related storage losses change markedly through the year for imported (i.e. non-European) versus European apples.
The timing of consumption and related storage losses need to be included in the assessment, as this affects the order of preference for locally sourced versus imported apples. The variability in energy requirements in different life cycle stages, but particularly for the fruit production stage, is also significant in this comparative analysis.
Overall, it seems that there are similarities in the total PEU ranges for European and New Zealand apples during the Southern Hemisphere's apple season (European spring and summer). However, during the European autumn and winter (Northern Hemisphere apple season) PEU values are generally higher for apples imported from the Southern Hemisphere compared with European apples consumed in Europe. However, this latter observation may not hold true where apples for consumption in one European country are imported from another European country, because energy use for road transportation has a significant influence on the result.
Future studies comparing alternative sources of fresh produce need to account for ranges of data for the fruit production and storage stages, which reflect the seasonality of production.
In this paper, we develop the burgeoning research agenda on alternative food networks in Europe. Through the concept of 'embeddedness', we argue for a much more nuanced and complex understanding of the relationships between conventional and alternative food chains--and, by extension, of their implications for rural development. Rather than viewing alternative and conventional food networks as separate spheres, we see them as highly competitive and as relational to one another and argue for the need to examine the links more critically. In particular, we highlight the need to explore the competitive relationships that alternative food networks have with the conventional sector to expose power imbalances and the effect these may have on wider rural development processes. Copyright 2006, Oxford University Press.
Since 1990 there has been a renaissance of theoretical and empirical work on the spatial aspects of the economy--that is, where economic activity occurs and why. Using new tools--in particular, modeling techniques developed to analyze industrial organization, international trade, and economic growth--this "new economic geography" has emerged as one of the most exciting areas of contemporary economics. The authors show how seemingly disparate models reflect a few basic themes, and in so doing they develop a common "grammar" for discussing a variety of issues. They show how a common approach that emphasizes the three-way interaction among increasing returns, transportation costs, and the movement of productive factors can be applied to a wide range of issues in urban, regional, and international economics. This book is the first to provide a sound and unified explanation of the existence of large economic agglomerations at various spatial scales.
[eng] Transportation costs and monopoly location in presence of regional disparities. . This article aims at analysing the impact of the level of transportation costs on the location choice of a monopolist. We consider two asymmetric regions. The heterogeneity of space lies in both regional incomes and population sizes: the first region is endowed with wide income spreads allocated among few consumers whereas the second one is highly populated however not as wealthy. Among the results, we show that a low transportation costs induces the firm to exploit size effects through locating in the most populated region. Moreover, a small transport cost decrease may induce a net welfare loss, thus allowing for regional development policies which do not rely on inter-regional transportation infrastructures. cost decrease may induce a net welfare loss, thus allowing for regional development policies which do not rely on inter-regional transportation infrastructures. [fre] Cet article d�veloppe une statique comparative de l'impact de diff�rents sc�narios d'investissement (projet d'infrastructure conduisant � une baisse mod�r�e ou � une forte baisse du co�t de transport inter-r�gional) sur le choix de localisation d'une entreprise en situation de monopole, au sein d'un espace int�gr� compos� de deux r�gions aux populations et revenus h�t�rog�nes. La premi�re r�gion, faiblement peupl�e, pr�sente de fortes disparit�s de revenus, tandis que la seconde, plus homog�ne en termes de revenu, repr�sente un march� potentiel plus �tendu. On montre que l'h�t�rog�n�it� des revenus constitue la force dominante du mod�le lorsque le sc�nario d'investissement privil�gi� par les politiques publiques conduit � des gains substantiels du point de vue du co�t de transport entre les deux r�gions. L'effet de richesse, lorsqu'il est associ� � une forte disparit� des revenus, n'incite pas l'entreprise � exploiter son pouvoir de march� au d�triment de la r�gion l
[eng] Transportation costs and monopoly location in presence of regional disparities. . This article aims at analysing the impact of the level of transportation costs on the location choice of a monopolist. We consider two asymmetric regions. The heterogeneity of space lies in both regional incomes and population sizes: the first region is endowed with wide income spreads allocated among few consumers whereas the second one is highly populated however not as wealthy. Among the results, we show that a low transportation costs induces the firm to exploit size effects through locating in the most populated region. Moreover, a small transport cost decrease may induce a net welfare loss, thus allowing for regional development policies which do not rely on inter-regional transportation infrastructures. cost decrease may induce a net welfare loss, thus allowing for regional development policies which do not rely on inter-regional transportation infrastructures. [fre] Cet article d�veloppe une statique comparative de l'impact de diff�rents sc�narios d'investissement (projet d'infrastructure conduisant � une baisse mod�r�e ou � une forte baisse du co�t de transport inter-r�gional) sur le choix de localisation d'une entreprise en situation de monopole, au sein d'un espace int�gr� compos� de deux r�gions aux populations et revenus h�t�rog�nes. La premi�re r�gion, faiblement peupl�e, pr�sente de fortes disparit�s de revenus, tandis que la seconde, plus homog�ne en termes de revenu, repr�sente un march� potentiel plus �tendu. On montre que l'h�t�rog�n�it� des revenus constitue la force dominante du mod�le lorsque le sc�nario d'investissement privil�gi� par les politiques publiques conduit � des gains substantiels du point de vue du co�t de transport entre les deux r�gions. L'effet de richesse, lorsqu'il est associ� � une forte disparit� des revenus, n'incite pas l'entreprise � exploiter son pouvoir de march� au d�triment de la r�gion l
Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics
- Matthew E. Kahn
- Randall Walsh
Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics
- Gilles Duranton
- Diego Puga
Handbook of Regional Science
- Carl Gaigné
The Food Miles Report: The Dangers of Long Distance Food Transport
- Paxton Angela
Paxton, Angela. 1994. "The Food Miles Report: The Dangers of Long Distance Food Transport," Report, SAFE
Alliance, London.
- Richard E Baldwin
- Rikard Forslid
- Philippe Martin
- I P Gianmarco
- Frédéric Ottaviano
- Robert-Nicoud
Baldwin, Richard E., Rikard Forslid, Philippe Martin, Gianmarco I.P. Ottaviano, and Frédéric Robert-Nicoud.
2003. Economic Geography and Public Policy. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Strawberry Fields Forever? Urban Agriculture in Developed Countries: A Review
- Mok
- Virginia G Hoi-Fei
- James R Williamson
- Grove
- S Fiona Burry
- Andrew J Barker
Mok, Hoi-Fei, Virginia G. Williamson, James R. Grove, Kristal Burry, S. Fiona Barker, and Andrew J. Hamilton. 2014. "Strawberry Fields Forever? Urban Agriculture in Developed Countries: A Review," Agronomy for
Sustainable Development, 34(1), 21-43.
Analysis of Farmland Abandonment and the Extent and Location of Agricultural Areas that are Actually Abandoned or Are in Risk to be Abandoned
- Philippe Pointereau
- Frédéric Coulon
- Pierre Girard
- Michel Lambotte
- Tomasz Stuczynski
- Vanessa Sanchez Ortega
- Amanda Del Rio
Pointereau, Philippe, Frédéric Coulon, Pierre Girard, Michel Lambotte, Tomasz Stuczynski, Vanessa Sanchez
Ortega, and Amanda Del Rio. 2008. "Analysis of Farmland Abandonment and the Extent and Location of
Agricultural Areas that are Actually Abandoned or Are in Risk to be Abandoned," Scientific and Technical
Reports 46185, Joint Research Center, IES, Ispra, Italy.
Are Compact Cities Environmentally Friendly
- Gaigné
International Evidence on Food Consumption Patterns: An Update Using
- Andrew Muhammad
- L James
- Seale
- Birgit Meade Anita Regmi