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In the EU, policies towards territorial development and the sustainability of agrofood systems are exemplified above all in Pillar II of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). However, policies for the promotion of sustainable food systems and networks are mainly driven by municipalities and large cities. In order to understand multi-level configurations of policies to promote Sustainable Food Systems (SFS), this paper strives to identify the challenges that municipal policymakers face in implementing sustainable agro-food policies, from a multilevel governance perspective. To this end, and through in-depth interviews and secondary documentation analysis, the policies implemented in 10 different municipalities of the Madrid Region (Spain) are studied and the challenges these municipalities are facing are analysed from a multi-scale and territorialised perspective. The following research objectives are addressed: (1) description of the type of policies implemented for the promotion of SFS and the narrative frameworks in which they are shaped; (2) identification of challenges of local policies to support SFS especially governance challenges; and (3) proposals for the promotion of sustainable food systems through a multi-level, territorialised governance perspective. The paper identifies three main axes of tension and discoordination--municipal Vs regional powers; agricultural vs. food policies; and rural vs. urban territories--that constrains the sustainability potential of multi-level agro food policies. Finally, we provide a comprehensive, sustainable scheme to assess local agro-food governance throughout a multi-level and multi-actor approach, setting interrelations between the different levels, actors and agencies involved to overcome the lock-ins identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In pursuing agroecological urbanism – a strategic endeavor to dismantle disempowering structures within urban food systems through cultivating mutual interdependencies – alternative food networks (AFNs) emerge as pivotal catalysts for transformative change. Indeed, there are increasing arguments for AFNs working on diverse issues to pool resources and address food system challenges from multiple perspectives under a common frame. However, a pressing need exists for greater clarity on tensions and challenges in establishing a network of AFNs within a shared framework, such as that fostered by agroecological urbanism. This study explores impediments to organizing AFNs into transformative networks, drawing insights from two diverse urban contexts – Preston, England, and Vitoria-Gasteiz, Basque Country – using a case study methodology comprising online semi-structured interviews and participant observation. Our findings underscore three primary barriers to this process: divergent conceptualizations of food questions, education and awareness-raising as a limited convergence point, and constrained resources. Such barriers generate a practical divorce between social and environmental goals in the experiences analyzed. Central to this division is also the pivotal question of the subject of justice – whether AFNs advocate primarily for urban citizens’ interests or prioritize peri-urban and rural farmers’ concerns. The analysis highlights the need to develop inclusive socio-ecological narratives within the overarching framework of agroecological urbanism as a critical step in fostering collaborative coalitions among AFNs that move beyond individualized change. Building these coalitions would depend on funding availability for long-term strategic collaborative efforts, emphasizing the crucial role of public authorities in such processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the determinants of resilience in Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) and strategies for CSA expansion, including the role of public policies, providing a genuine international comparison of inputs from CSA coordinators in Brazil and Spain. The results indicate that CSA projects with an engaged small consumer core group that supports the producer have additional tools to build resilience. Synergies with other like-minded social, educational, or environmental projects offer significant expansion opportunities. Distrust of CSA actors in public policies limits their ability to support the CSA movement, but indirect policy adjustments could have a favorable effects on CSA expansion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The efforts of agroecology-oriented farmers and peasants' organizations have been studied in depth in relation to their political expression, but less so with regard to the forms they adopt to strengthen the socio-economic viability of small- and medium-sized farms within sustainable food systems. Whilst farmers' self-organization represents a core process in the development of Agroecology-based Local Agri-food Systems (ALAS), the development of collective, economic structures among agroecology-oriented farmers' is still weak. In an attempt to understand why and how agroecology-oriented farmers are constructing their own position within ALAS, and the challenges they are facing in this sense, we conducted a qualitative study on the self-organizational processes and structures of five Agroecology-Oriented Farmers' Groups in Spain. Based on 27 interviews and six online, participatory workshops, our results reveal different reasons for joining and setting up farmers' groups as non-mixed collective spaces, with instrumental and social factors constituting the principal motivations. Politics and advocacy aroused controversy and were only observed in the biggest, most powerful and well-structured organizations. The main challenges identified refer to the precariousness and isolation of farmers, as well as of the different local groups. The weakness of the Agroecology-Oriented Farmers' Groups highlights the need for further action-oriented research and accompaniment [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scientific debates on agroecology highlight the relevance of appropriate narratives as a means to widen and amplify agroecological transitions in the material world. However, it is actually far-right discourses—often linked to populist political proposals—which, though not majoritarian, are reaching broad and growing diffusion among both rural communities and farmers. Research focusing on the symbolic mechanisms around food systems' transitions are scarce. In order to address this gap, an exploratory research project was developed to identify responses to different messages and audiovisual languages favorable to agroecological transitions, through the dissemination of three brief audiovisual pieces among specific socio-professional profiles linked to food systems, together with an online survey. The results obtained (n = 524) show significant differences in the responses to open questions collected, regarding socio-economic diversity expressed in the axes male/female, urban/rural, farmer/not farmer and organic/conventional farming. Responses from conventional farmers express a need for developing a "politics of recognition" and repair that would acknowledge the unfair, subordinated role that farmers and rural communities feel in the current globalized food system. The paper shows the need for further empirical research on the issue, covering different territories and socio-economic and cultural profiles, in order to fully understand the symbolic mechanisms underlying material, agroecological transitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the extensive literature on Local Agro-food Systems (LAFS), which involves research on local food identity and organisational proximity, the environmental sustainability of these systems has rarely been addressed. This paper develops a new concept called Local Agroecological Food Systems (LAEFS), which focuses the research not only on local food identity, but also on agroecological principles. We aim to conduct a reflexive review of the literature on the conceptual factors attempting to describe the particular characteristics of LAEFS (distinguishing these from LAFS). We explore five axes of analysis: (a) to establish a compromise at the local level between agro-food sectoral specialisation on the one hand and greater cultivated biodiversity and a more diversified economic structure on the other; (b) to geographically and commercially shorten food channels to the fullest extent; (c) to construct new institutional formulae in the fields of logistics, distribution and public procurement for the scaling up of sustainable food; (d) to develop a participatory, bottom-up, multi-stakeholder and multi-level territorial governance; and (e) to reduce the metabolic profile of food systems by reorganising rural-urban linkages. One of the principal objectives of LAEFS should involve redesigning agricultural and food systems at a scale greater than that of the farm (territory or landscape). This requires both a major public policy push and sustainable territorial governance that incorporate an approach based on territory, food systems and agroecology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban food policies are increasingly considered central instruments for the promotion of food systems sustainability. As for their social sustainability, justice and equity are expected to play a central role, but gender equity remains not fully developed. In order to explore how gender relations can be addressed in the context of urban food policies in global North settings, in this paper we analyze the drafting process of the Urban Food Strategy of Zaragoza (Spain), self-identified as agroecology-oriented and which aimed at introducing a gender-sensitive approach. Based on empirical insights from this case study, we show that a lack of reflection and empirical development exists on the food policy-gender equity nexus, while at the same time there is an emergent body of specific proposals to be obtained from feminist and agroecological reflections on urban lifestyles. Indeed, our paper shows that agroecological and feminist approaches converge in claiming for the visibilization of food-related care work, and in its de-privatization through community-based infrastructures. The paper also unveils limiting conditions which may hinder the transformative potential of agroecology and feminism in urban food policy co-production processes, such as top-down approaches to food policy production, weak participatory processes, and gender-blind decisions among city officers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When public administrations promote agroecological transition processes there is a risk that these be conventionalized and co-opted. However there is a notable lack of research on the adoption of participatory approaches to processes of agroecological transition, especially in larger territories. This article analyzes two case studies in which territorial Action Plans for agroecological transition have been co-produced through participatory processes in metropolitan areas of the Spanish State. Analysis of these two cases leads us to outline a series of significant factors that may serve to adapt the methodological approach of Local Agroecological Dynamization to different contexts. We also point out some contradictions inherent to participatory processes for agroecological transitions promoted by the administration, in regards to the conflictive dialectics among top-down and bottom-up processes, and to the weakness of agroecology-oriented farmers in metropolitan environments. Finally, we propose some efforts to overcome these contradictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We consider a singular parabolic equation tβut - Δu = f, for (x, t) ∊ Ω × (0, T), arising in symmetric boundary layer ows. Here Ω RN is a bounded domain with C² boundary @ Ω, β 埄 1, f = f(t, x) is bounded, and T > 0 is some βxed time. We establish sufficient conditions for the existence and uniqueness of a weak solution of this singular parabolic equation with Dirichlet boundary conditions, and we investigate its regularity. There are two different cases depending on β. If β < 1, for any initial data u0 ∊ L2(Ω), there exists a unique weak solution, which in fact is a strong solution. The singularity is removable when β < 1. While if β = 1, there exists a unique solution of the singular parabolic problem tut - Δu = f. The initial data cannot be arbitrarily chosen. In fact, if f is continuous and f(t) → f0, as t → 0, then, this solution converges, as t → 0, to the solution of the elliptic problem -Δu = f0; for x ∊ Ω, with Dirichlet boundary conditions. Hence, no initial data can be prescribed when β = 1, and the singularity in that case is strong. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this work was to prepare metal soaps of epoxidized sunflower oil (ESO) and use them as thermal stabilizers for polyvinyl chloride (PVC). For that purpose, commercial sunflower oil was first epoxidized and then used to prepare (Ba, Zn, Pb, and Cd) metal soap derivatives, which were characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The prepared metal soaps derivatives of ESO were used as thermal stabilizers for plasticized PVC. Discoloration, residual thermal stability at 200 °C, and rheological properties of PVC samples were tested. The structural modifications were investigated by UV-visible spectroscopy. The best thermal stabilization effects were observed in the presence of Pb soap of ESO. Furthermore, metal derivatives of ESO were classified according to their stabilizing effect as follows: Pb-ESO > Ba-ESO > Cd-ESO > ESO > Zn-ESO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the transition to sustainability at a food systems' scale has drawn major attention both from the scientific and political arenas. Agroecology has become central to such discussions, while impressive efforts have been made to conceptualize the agroecology scaling process. It has thus become necessary to apply the concept of agroecology transitions to the scale of food systems and in different "real-world" contexts. Scaling local agroecology experiences of production, distribution, and consumption, which are often disconnected and/or disorganized, also reveals emergent research gaps. A critical review was performed in order to establish a transdisciplinary dialogue between both political agroecology and the literature on sustainable food systems. The objective was to build insights into how to advance towards Agroecology-based Local Agri-food Systems (ALAS). Our review unveils emergent questions such as: how to overcome the metabolic rift related to segregated activities along the food chain, how to feed cities sustainably, and how they should relate to the surrounding territories, which social subjects should drive such transitions, and which governance arrangements would be needed. The paper argues in favor of the re-construction of food metabolisms, territorial flows, plural subjects and (bottom-up) governance assemblages, placing life at the center of the food system and going beyond the rural–urban divide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the factors threatening the sustainability of rural territories is the hegemonic agro-industrial model, whose environmental and social impacts strongly limit rural life. Here, we want to call attention to the opportunities provided by alternative agri-food systems, based on agroecology and food sovereignty, as a cultural heritage to support sustainable local development. We have carried out exploratory research to draft the main agroecological initiatives in Spain, particularly those having explicit support or encouragement from public administrations. An on-line questionnaire (n = 40) was delivered, and in-depth interviews (n = 15) were carried out among a sample of people working in the Spanish agroecology sector (public and private). The results demonstrate how the recovery and promotion of traditional ecological knowledge can help to increase the capacity of the social-ecological systems to cope with shocks and disturbances and maintain long-term resilience. In addition, agroecological practices allow collective identities to emerge around the characteristics of the territory strengthening local life, placing the society-ecosystem coevolution at the center of local identity. In conclusion, although still a minority, we have showed how several types of policies conceiving agroecological practices as an intangible collective heritage, with significant transformative potential towards local sustainability, have already been implemented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional agroecological knowledge (TAeK) refers to the cumulative and evolving body of knowledge, practices, beliefs, institutions, and worldviews about the relationships between a society or cultural group and their agroecosystems. These knowledge systems contribute to maintaining environmental and culturally sensitive food systems and have been considered very relevant for agroecological transitions, or the processes of scaling-up and -out agroecology. However, TAeK's erosion and enclosure threatens its use and reproduction, which in turn might affect TAeK's potential contribution to agroecological transitions. Here, we explore how transforming TAeK, and particularly TAeK on landraces, into a digital commons can contribute to its maintenance and protection, and thus to agroecological transitions. We do so by analyzing the CONECT-e platform, an initiative for digitally storing and sharing TAeK in a participatory way. One year after being launched, CONECT-e has documented 452 geographically distinct landraces from 81 different species. The information shared in this platform is well-structured, clear, and reliable; it thus allows for the replication of the knowledge reported. Moreover, because CONECT-e makes the documented information freely available and protects it with a copyleft license, placing information in this platform could help one face landrace misappropriation issues. CONECT-e, or similar initiatives, could contribute to agroecological transitions via maintaining TAeK under the digital commons framework, making it accessible to all society and avoiding enclosure processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]