Sammanfattning

In the process of searching for sustainable trajectories in the food system, this paper reviews and discusses the importance of tightening feedback loops between ecosystems, actors in the food production chain and consumers. Intensification, specialization, distancing, concentration and homogenization are trends identified as major constraints for tightened feedback loops. These trends can mask or make it possible to disregard feedback signals from unhealthy ecosystems and weaken communication in the food chain. We explore possibilities for improved feedback management on local to global scales and present examples where feedback loops have been tightened. Enhanced communication between the actors in the food system and consciousness of ecological feedback, through e.g., increased reliance on local resources, are possibilities for improvement. However, where distances between resource and resource user are too large, feedback has to be directed through institutions on an overarching level, e.g., policy measures or environmental and social labelling of products. (C) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Publicerad i

Food Policy
2005, Volym: 30, nummer: 2, sidor: 224-239
Utgivare: ELSEVIER SCI LTD

SLU författare

• Milestad, Rebecka

  • Institutionen för stad och land, Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet
    

UKÄ forskningsämne

Environmental Sciences related to Agriculture and Land-use
Economics and Business
Social Sciences


Publikationens identifierare

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodpol.2005.02.003

Permanent länk till denna sida (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/19147