Title: Local food systems from a sustainability perspective: experiences from Sweden

Authors: Helen Nilsson

Addresses: International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics, Box 196, Lund 22100, Sweden

Abstract: The concept of globalisation has wrought changes during the last decades. One of the responses to this globalisation has been a renewed emphasis on local food systems. This article is an exploratory piece to ascertain the advantages and disadvantages of local food systems from a sustainability perspective. A literature review was conducted and findings from this were tested on two case studies conducted in Sweden: Farmers| Markets and a local food producer network. It was found that local food systems in Sweden shared many of the characteristics of local food systems found in the literature, such as the social contact experienced between the producers and consumers. However, the widespread presence of farmers| cooperatives found in Sweden made the study cases different from those observed elsewhere.

Keywords: local food; sustainability; Farmers Markets; local producer networks; Sweden; sustainability; globalisation; food producer networks; social contact; farmer cooperatives.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSSOC.2009.028906

International Journal of Sustainable Society, 2009 Vol.1 No.4, pp.347 - 363

Published online: 11 Oct 2009 *

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