Interactions between distant places are increasingly widespread and influential, often leading to unexpected outcomes with profound implications for sustainability. Numerous sustainability studies have been conducted within a particular place with little attention to the impacts of distant interactions on sustainability in multiple places. Although distant forces have been studied, they are usually treated as exogenous variables and feedbacks have rarely been considered. To understand and integrate various distant interactions better, we propose an integrated framework based on telecoupling, an umbrella concept that refers to socioeconomic and environmental interactions over distances. The concept of telecoupling is a logical extension of research on coupled human and natural systems, in which interactions occur within particular geographic locations. The telecoupling framework contains five major interrelated components, i.e., coupled human and natural systems, flows, agents, causes, and effects. We illustrate the framework using two examples of distant interactions associated with trade of agricultural commodities and invasive species, highlight the implications of the framework, and discuss research needs and approaches to move research on telecouplings forward. The framework can help to analyze system components and their interrelationships, identify research gaps, detect hidden costs and untapped benefits, provide a useful means to incorporate feedbacks as well as trade-offs and synergies across multiple systems (sending, receiving, and spillover systems), and improve the understanding of distant interactions and the effectiveness of policies for socioeconomic and environmental sustainability from local to global levels.

/pdf/framing-sustainability-in-a-telecoupled-world-3vrhogpiuj.pdf

Framing Sustainability in a Telecoupled World

This comprehensive overview of local food systems explores alternative definitions of local food, estimates market size and reach, describes the characteristics of local consumers and producers, and examines early indications of the economic and health impacts of local food systems. There is no consensus on a definition of “local” or “local food systems” in terms of the geographic distance between production and consumption. But defining “local” based on marketing arrangements, such as farmers selling directly to consumers at regional farmers’ markets or to schools, is well recognized. Statistics suggest that local food markets account for a small, but growing, share of U.S. agricultural production. For smaller farms, direct marketing to consumers accounts for a higher percentage of their sales than for larger farms. Findings are mixed on the impact of local food systems on local economic development and better nutrition levels among consumers, and sparse literature is so far inconclusive about whether localization reduces energy use or greenhouse gas emissions.

Local Food Systems: Concepts, Impacts, and Issues

https://www.pure.ed.ac.uk/ws/files/8652516/progressing_knowledge.pdf

Progressing knowledge in alternative and local food networks: Critical reflections and a research agenda

“Scaling-up” is the next hurdle facing the local food movement. In order to effect broader systemic impacts, local food systems (LFS) will have to grow, and engage either more or larger consumers and producers. Encouraging the involvement of mid-sized farms looks to be an elegant solution, by broadening the accessibility of local food while providing alternative revenue streams for troubled family farms. Logistical, structural and regulatory barriers to increased scale in LFS are well known. Less is understood about the way in which scale developments affect the perception and legitimacy of LFS. This value-added opportunity begs the question: Is the value that adheres to local food scalable? Many familiar with local food discourse might suggest that important pieces of added value within LFS are generated by the reconnection of producer and consumer, the direct exchange through which this occurs, and the shared goals and values that provide the basis for reconnection. However, these assertions are based on tenuous assumptions about how interactions within the direct exchange produce value, and how LFS are governed. Examination shows that existing assumptions do not properly acknowledge the hybridity, diversity, and flexibility inherent in LFS. A clear analysis of the potential of scale in LFS will depend on understanding both how value is determined within LFS, and the processes through which these systems are governed. Such an analysis shows that, while scaled-up LFS will be challenged to maintain legitimacy and an identity as “alternative”, the establishment of an open governance process—based on a “negotiation of accommodations”—is likely to enhance their viability.

http://www.usfx.bo/nueva/vicerrectorado/citas/SOCIALES_8/Sociologia/67.pdf

Growing local food: scale and local food systems governance

Effect of distance of transportation on willingness to pay for food

A new generation of food activists has come to believe that "sustainable farming" and "eating local" are the way to solve a host of perceived problems with our modern food supply system. By combining healthy eating and a high standard of environmental stewardship, these locavores think, we can also deliver important economic benefits and increase food security within local economies. But after a thorough review of the evidence, economic geographer Pierre Desrochers and policy analyst Hiroko Shimizu have concluded these claims are mistaken. In The Locavore's Dilemma, they explain the history, science, and economics of food supply to reveal what locavores miss or misunderstand: the real environmental impacts of agricultural production; the drudgery of subsistence farming; and the essential role large-scale, industrial producers play in making food more available, varied, affordable, and nutritionally rich than ever before in history. At best, they show, locavorism is a well-meaning marketing fad among the world's most privileged consumers. At worst, it constitutes a dangerous distraction from solving serious global food issues. Deliberately provocative, but based on scrupulous research and incontrovertible scientific evidence, The Locavore's Dilemma proves that: * Our modern food-supply chain is a superior alternative that has evolved through constant competition and ever-more-rigorous efficiency. * A world food chain characterized by free trade and the absence of agricultural subsidies would deliver lower prices and more variety in a manner that is both economically and environmentally more sustainable. * There is no need to feel guilty for not joining the locavores on their crusade. Eating globally, not only locally, is the way to save the planet.

The Locavore's Dilemma: In Praise of the 10,000-mile Diet

As modern food production and distribution becomes ever more complex and globalized, a "buy local" food movement has arisen. This movement argues that locally produced food is not only fresher and better tasting, but it is also better for the environment: Because locally produced food does not travel far to reach your table, the production and transport of the food expend less energy overall. The local food movement has even coined a term, "food miles," to denote the distance food has traveled from production to consumption and uses the food miles concept as a major way to determine the environmental impact of a food.This Policy Primer examines the origins and validity of the food miles concept. The evidence presented suggests that food miles are, at best, a marketing fad that frequently and severely distorts the environmental impacts of agricultural production. At worst, food miles constitute a dangerous distraction from the very real and serious issues that affect energy consumption and the environmental impact of modern food production and the affordability of food.The course of the debate over food miles is nonetheless instructive for policy makers. It highlights the need to remain focused on the issues that are important-in this case, the greenhouse gas emissions of highly subsidized first-world agriculture, the trade imbalances that prevent both developed and developing countries from realizing the mutual benefits of freer trade, biofuel subsidies, and third-world poverty. With the population of the planet growing rapidly, numerous food-policy issues other than food miles should preoccupy policy makers.

Yes We Have No Bananas: A Critique of the 'Food Miles' Perspective

Background Cancer patients undergoing treatment are often unable to balance treatment and work because of the time required for care at the hospital and a desire to avoid problems at work. Objective The aim of this study was to elucidate the efficacy of an algorithm-based nursing intervention (ANI) to promote balance between social roles and outpatient treatment in cancer patients. Methods Participants were outpatients receiving cancer therapy and randomly assigned to a control or an intervention group, the latter to receive ANI for 2 months. The outcomes were assessed using the Distress and Impact Thermometer and changes in employment status. Data from 54 evaluable participants in each group were analyzed. Results Distress and Impact Thermometer scores in the intervention group were significantly lower than those in the control group (P < .001). In addition, 2 months later, 20 participants had resigned from their employment or were on leave in the control group (37.0%); this was twice the number in the intervention group, a significant difference (χ2 = 4.573, P < .05). Logistic regression analysis showed that the odds ratio in the control group was 3.6 times that of the intervention group of having resigned. Conclusion The ANI appears to have reduced distress and impact scores associated with the course of treatment and to have reduced the likelihood of resignations at 2 months after implementation. Implications for Practice The intervention appears to be effective and may be a new tool for use by outpatient oncology nurses.

https://journals.lww.com/cancernursingonline/Fulltext/9900/Efficacy_of_an_Algorithm_Based_Nursing.15.aspx

Hiroko Shimizu

Papers

The Locavore's Dilemma: In Praise of the 10,000-mile Diet

Yes We Have No Bananas: A Critique of the 'Food Miles' Perspective

Efficacy of an Algorithm-Based Nursing Intervention to Promote a Balance Between Cancer Patients’ Social Roles and Outpatient Treatment