Farmer-Community Connections and the Future of Ecological Agriculture in California

While questions about the environmental sustainability of contemporary farming practices and the socioeconomic viability of rural communities are attracting increasing attention throughout the US, these two issues are rarely considered together. This paper explores the current and potential connections between these two aspects of sustainability, using data on community members’ and farmers’ views of agricultural issues in California’s Central Valley. These views were collected from a series of individual and group interviews with biologically oriented and conventional farmers as well as community stakeholders. Local marketing, farmland preservation, and perceptions of sustainable agriculture comprised the primary topics of discussion. The mixed results indicate that, while many farmers and community members have a strong interest in these topics, sustainable community development and the use of sustainable farming practices are seldom explicitly linked. On the other hand, many separate efforts around the Valley to increase local marketing and agritourism, improve public education about agriculture, and organize grassroots farmland preservation initiatives were documented. We conclude that linking these efforts more explicitly to sustainable agriculture and promoting more engagement between ecologically oriented farmers and their communities could engender more economic and political support for these farmers, helping them and their communities to achieve greater sustainability in the long run. Sonja Brodt is a former program evaluation specialist with the University of California Integrated Pest Management Program. Her current research focuses on extension and adoption of integrated pest management strategies by California growers and the impacts of pesticide safety training programs on farmworkers. Gail Feenstra is a food systems analyst at the University of California Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program (SAREP). She coordinates SAREP’s Community Development and Public Policy grants program and conducts outreach and education to academic and community-based groups to build their capacity and leadership skills for developing sustainable community food systems. Robin Kozloff is a social science researcher and consultant in agricultural and land use policy. Karen Klonsky is an extension specialist at the University of California at Davis in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics. Her research focuses on the economic viability of organic and sustainable farming systems as well as the evolution of the organic market. Laura Tourte is county director and farm advisor at the University of California Cooperative Extension in Santa Cruz County. Her research and extension activities currently focus on farm management and marketing for small-scale growers.     

Sustainability and multifunctionality in French farms: Analysis of the implementation of Territorial Farming Contracts

Sustainable agriculture and ways to achieve it are important issues for agricultural policy. However, the concept of sustainability has yet to be made operational in many agricultural situations, and only a few studies so far have addressed the implementation process of sustainable agriculture. This paper provides an assessment of the Territorial Farming Contracts (TFC) – the French model for implementing sustainable agriculture – and aims to give some insights into the ways to facilitate the development of sustainable farming. Using a systems approach, the founding concept of the TFC model, an analysis has been made of the TFCs signed in the Midi-Pyrenees Region in south-western France. The results show that the first aspect of sustainability apparent in farmers’ projects referred to economic objectives. The environmental and social aspects were not foremost in the farming changes undertaken. In addition, the territorial dimension of the TFC was under-addressed. The majority of TFCs reveal a moderate or even low convergence with territorial priorities. These results are explained partly by the dominance of professional farming organizations in the implementation of TFC, and they imply that the organizational social dimensions of sustainability must not be neglected. Mohamed Gafsi is an assistant professor of farm management at the National School of Agronomic Training. He received his PhD in management science at the University of Bourgogne. His research interests include farm management and protection of natural resources, corporate environmental management, sustainable agriculture, and African family farms. Geneviève Nguyen is assistant professor in rural economics at the National Polytechnique Institute – National Superior School of Agronomy, in Toulouse. Her research interests include the dynamics of agrarian institutions in uncertain economies, the supply and organization of services in remote rural areas. Her research has been carried out in Europe, Africa, and Asia. She received her MA in Economics and her PhD in Agricultural Economics from the Ohio State University. Bruno Legagneux is assistant professor of farm management at the National Polytechnique Institute – National Superior School of Agronomy, in Toulouse. His research interests include farm management and the entry of young farmers into farming. Patrice Robin is an engineer agronomist. He received his diploma from the National Superior School of Agronomy, in Montpellier. He is currently a doctoral candidate at the University of Toulouse. His research interests include agriculture and rural development, environmental issues, and food quality.     

Designing sustainable agriculture education: Academics’ suggestions for an undergraduate curriculum at a land grant university

Historically, land grant universities and their colleges of agriculture have been discipline driven in both their curricula and research agendas. Critics call for interdisciplinary approaches to undergraduate curriculum. Concomitantly, sustainable agriculture (SA) education is beginning to emerge as a way to address many complex social and environmental problems. University of California at Davis faculty, staff, and students are developing an undergraduate SA major. To inform this process, a web-based Delphi survey of academics working in fields related to SA was conducted. Faculty from colleges and universities across the US were surveyed. Participants suggested that students needed knowledge of natural and social science disciplines relating to the agri-food system. In addition, stakeholders suggested students learn through experiences that link the classroom to field work, engaging a broad range of actors within applied settings. Stakeholders also emphasized the need for interdisciplinary and applied scholarship. Additionally, they proposed a range of teaching and learning approaches, including many practical experiences. Given the diverse suggestions of content knowledge and means of producing knowledge, the survey presented unique challenges and called into question the epistemological and pedagogical norms currently found in land grant colleges of agriculture. This study has implications for land grant universities seeking to develop undergraduate curriculum appropriate to the field of SA. Damian M. Parr is a doctoral student of Agricultural and Environmental Education, in the School of Education at the University of California at Davis. His professional interests include organic farming, sustainable agriculture, experiential and transformational learning, critical pedagogy, and participatory action research. He is currently working on linking on-campus student initiated sustainable farm and food systems projects to curricula at land grant universities Cary J. Trexler is an assistant professor of Agricultural and Environmental Education at the University of California at Davis where he teaches courses in the history of agricultural education, experiential learning, and research methods for practicing teachers. His research focuses on experiential learning, sustainable agriculture education, and needs of teachers and informal educators within the context of the agri-food system Navina R. Khanna is a graduate student pursuing an MS in International Agricultural Development at the University of California at Davis. She is committed to facilitating community dialogue and education about sustainability issues. Her work at the university focuses on the process and goal of sustainability in agricultural education and campus food system sustainability. Her primary professional interests include democratic participatory process in agri-food system sustainability and urban revitalization Bryce T. Battisti is a doctoral student of Agricultural and Environmental Education, in the School of Education at the University of California at Davis. His research interests include the development of alternative models for university education that are founded on student-centered experiential learning. Specifically, he studies models of permaculture education that lead toward accredited degrees and relates these models to sustainable agriculture degree programs     

The poverty of sustainability: An analysis of current positions

A short time ago the idea of sustainable agriculture was accepted only at the extreme margins of the U. S. agricultural systems. Although sustainability has now become a major theme of many U. S. agricultural groups, there remains much under-explored terrain in the meaning of sustainable agriculture. A thorough examination of who and what we want to sustain and how we can sustain them is critical if sustainable agriculture is to be a practical improvement over conventional agriculture. In order to begin this effort, this article analyzes contemporary sustainable agriculture discourse and suggests alternatives for reconceptualizing sustainable agriculture. In particular we look at three arenas of sustainable discourse—family farm/rural community preservation, food safety, and agricultural science—and address issues of class, race/ethnicity, and gender found in current sustainability positions. We find that while advocates of sustainability have succeeded in pushing agricultural researchers and policy makers to address environmental issues, we need to go much farther both in theory and practice in order to deal with equally important issues of social equity.Patricia Allen is senior analyst with the Agroecology Program at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her work concentrates on the political economic aspects of sustainability issues in food and agricultural systems. Her edited book,Food for the Future: Conditions and Contradictions of Sustainability, will be published this spring by John Wiley & Sons.     

Capturing the Sustainability Agenda: Organic Foods and Media Discourses on Food Scares, Environment, Genetic Engineering, and Health

This paper undertakes a content analysis of newspaper articles from Australia, the UK, and the US concerned with a variety of issues relevant to sustainable food and agriculture from 1996 to 2002. It then goes on to identify the various ways in which sustainability, organic food and agriculture, genetic engineering, genetically modified foods, and food safety are framed both in their own terms and in relation to each other. It finds that despite the many competing approaches to sustainability found in scientific and agricultural production discourses, media discourses tend to reduce this complexity to a straightforward conflict between organic and conventional foods. Despite regular reporting of viewpoints highly critical of organic food and agriculture, this binary opposition produces discourses in which organic foods are seen as more-or-less synonymous with safety, naturalness and nutrition, and their alternatives as artificial, threatening, and untrustworthy. Particularly controversial food-related issues such as genetic engineering, food scares, chemical residues, and regulatory failure are treated as part of the same problem to which organic food offers a trustworthy and easily understood solution. Stewart Lockie is Associate Professor of Rural and Environmental Sociology and Associate Dean (Research) in the Faculty of Sciences, Engineering and Health at Central Queensland University. His main research interests lie in the greening of food and agriculture, food commodity networks, and natural resource management. Recent co-edited books include Rurality Bites: The Social and Environmental Transformation of Rural Australia and Consuming Foods, Sustaining Environments.     

Social change and the adoption and adaptation of knowledge claims: Whose truth do you trust in regard to sustainable agriculture?

This paper examines sustainable agriculture’s steady rise as a legitimate farm management system. In doing this, it offers an account of social change that centers on trust and its intersection with networks of knowledge. The argument to follow is informed by the works of Foucault and Latour but moves beyond this literature in important ways. Guided by and building upon earlier conceptual framework first forwarded by Carolan and Bell (2003, Environmental Values 12: 225–245), sustainable agriculture is examined through the lens of a “phenomenological challenge.” In doing this, analytic emphasis centers on the interpretative resources of everyday life and the artful act of practice – in other words, on “the local.” Research data involving Iowa farmers and agriculture professionals are examined to understand how social relations of trust and knowledge are contested and shaped within and between agricultural social networks and organizational configurations. All of this is meant to further our understanding of what “sustainable agriculture” is and is not, who it is, and how these boundaries change over time. Michael S. Carolan is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Colorado State University. His areas of specialization included environmental sociology, sociology of science and knowledge, sociology of food systems and agriculture, and the sociology of risk. Some of his recent writings have focused on the theorizing of nature–society relations, epistemological issues related to agriculture (and sustainable agriculture in particular), and the processes by which knowledge claims are constructed and contested in response to environmental threats.     

Sustainable agriculture and free market economics: Finding common ground in Adam Smith

There are two competing approaches to sustainability in agriculture. One stresses a strict economic approach in which market forces should guide the activities of agricultural producers. The other advocates the need to balance economic with environmental and social objectives, even to the point of reducing profitability. The writings of the eighteenth century moral philosopher Adam Smith could bridge the debate. Smith certainly promoted profit-seeking, private property, and free market exchange consistent with the strict economic perspective. However, his writings are also consistent with many aspects of sustainable agriculture. For example, Smith argued that people ought to exercise restraint in their pursuit of self-interest, and he believed in balancing economic with environmental and social considerations. If both sides of the debate more fully regard the work of Adam Smith, then proponents of the strict economic perspective might be more appreciative of the concerns raised within the sustainable agriculture community, while advocates of sustainability might be more effective in achieving the objective of a sustainable agriculture. Harvey S. James Jr., PhD is an Associate Professor in the Division of Applied Social Sciences at the University of Missouri-Columbia. His research interests are in the economic determinants of trust and ethical behavior. He recently completed studies on trust in biotechnology institutions and the ethical attitudes of farmers.     

Victual Vicissitudes: Consumer Deskilling and the (Gendered) Transformation of Food Systems

A considerable literature addresses worker deskilling in manufacturing and the related loss of control over production processes experienced by farmers and others working in the agri-food industry. Much less attention has been directed at a parallel process of consumer deskilling in the food system, which has been no less important. Consumer deskilling in its various dimensions carries enormous consequences for the restructuring of agro-food systems and for consumer sovereignty, diets, and health. The prevalence of packaged, processed, and industrially transformed foodstuffs is often explained in terms of consumer preference for convenience. A closer look at the social construction of “consumers” reveals that the agro-food industry has waged a double disinformation campaign to manipulate and to re-educate consumers while appearing to respond to consumer demand. Many consumers have lost the knowledge necessary to make discerning decisions about the multiple dimensions of quality, including the contributions a well-chosen diet can make to health, planetary sustainability, and community economic development. They have also lost the skills needed to make use of basic commodities in a manner that allows them to eat a high quality diet while also eating lower on the food chain and on a lower budget. This process has a significant gender dimension, as it is the autonomy of those primarily responsible for purchasing and preparing foodstuffs that has been systematically undermined. Too often, food industry professionals and regulatory agencies have been accessories to this process by misdirecting attention to the less important dimensions of quality. JoAnn Jaffe teaches rural, environmental, and development sociology, the sociology of gender, and theory in the Department of Sociology and Social Studies of the University of Regina. Michael Gertler teaches rural sociology, the sociology of communities, and the sociology of agriculture in the Department of Sociology at the University of Saskatchewan. He holds a cross appointment in the Centre for the Study of Co-operatives.     

The very idea of sustainability

Discussions of the desirability and ethical justifiability of sustainable agriculture are frequently impeded, if not derailed by the variety of meanings attached to the term sustainable. This paper suggests a taxonomy of different notions of sustainability distinguishing between agricultural product and process sustainability, in both static and dynamic forms, pursued by reductive (extractive), compensatory, regenerative, and induced homeostasis strategies. The discussion then goes on to argue that ethics demand sustainable agriculture. Finally the paper tries to identify just which types of sustainable agriculture will meet the ethical demands. I conclude with reasons for living sustainably in the present, as opposed to trying to orient agriculture by reference to the rights of future generations.Charles V. Blatz is Associate Professor and Chairman of the Department of Philosophy at The University of Toledo (Ohio). He is a founding member of the International Development Ethics Association, and is editor ofEthics and Agriculture: An Anthology on Current Issues in World Context (University of Idaho Press, 1991).     

Agriculture,livelihoods, and globalization: The analysis of new trajectories (and avoidance of just-so stories) of human-environment change and conservation

Globalization offers a mix of new trajectories for agriculture, livelihoods, resource use, and environmental conservation. The papers in this issue share elements that advance our understanding of these new trajectories. The shared elements suggest an approach that places stress on: (i) the common ground of theoretical concepts (local-global interactions), methodologies (case study design), and analytical frameworks (spatio-temporal emphasis); (ii) farm-level economic diversification and the dynamics of agricultural intensification-disintensification; (iii) the pervasive role of agricultural as well as environmental institutions, organizations, and governance issues; (iv) the ‹agency of nature’ that blends the roles of non-human organisms and the cultural and social practices of people both at the local scale and beyond; (v) the framing of sustainability initiatives and outcomes through the perspective of historical change; (vi)␣spatial environmental dynamics of the ‹new geographics of environmental conservation’ that impact agriculture, food production, and resource management; and (vii) successful and promising policies, projects, and developments mapping out possible spaces of hope for agricultural sustainability, aquitable development, and food security. The adoption and application of these elements is successful also in avoiding the tendency toward just-so accounts or overly simplified stories of agrarian and environment successes amid the often grim realities of globalization and its impacts. Karl Zimmerer is a geographer and environmental scientist researching and teaching on the topics of globalization and human-environment change (with emphasis on agriculture, conservation and rural livelihoods); the dynamics of agrobiodiversity in tropical mountains (currently focused on irrigation and the relations of new water resource management to agrobiodiversity change); and the development and experience of spatial-environmental models, environmental science, and conservation planning. Karl is the author of numerous articles and his books and monographs include four publications, most recently Globalization and New Geographies of Conservation (2006, University of Chicago). He is active in various organizations involved with agricultural, environmental, conservation, and globalization policies and also edits the Nature-Society section of the Annals of the Association of American Geographers.     

Fruit and vegetable access in four low-income food deserts communities in Minnesota

Access to fruits and vegetables by low-income residents living in selected urban and rural Minnesotan communities was investigated. Communities were selected based on higher than state average poverty rates, limited access to grocery stores, and urban influence codes (USDA ERS codes). Four communities, two urban and two rural, were selected. Data were gathered from focus group discussions (n = 41), responses to a consumer survey (n = 396 in urban neighborhoods and n = 400 in rural communities), and an inventory of foodstuffs available at stores located in all the communities and at large grocery stores in neighborhoods adjacent to the urban communities. In the two urban neighborhoods, a significant number of foods (26% and 52%) were significantly more expensive than the Thrifty Food Plan’s (TFP) market basket price (MBP). Additionally, a significant number of foods in the two rural communities were more expensive (11% and 26%). In focus groups, participants identified major barriers to shopping in their community to be cost, quality of food, and food choice limitations. Results of the food inventory show that foods within the communities were costly, of fair or poor quality, and limited in number and type available, supporting complaints verbalized by focus group participants. Through focus groups and surveys, participants expressed concern that healthy food choices were not affordable within their communities and believed that people in their community suffered from food insecurity. The absence of quality, affordable food for low-income residents in these four Minnesota communities prevents or diminishes their ability to choose foods that help maintain a healthy lifestyle. Deja Hendrickson is currently a graduate student at the University of California and working towards obtaining her MS in nutrition in order to become a registered dietitian. Chery Smith, PhD, MPH, RD, is an associate professor in the Department of Food Science and Nutrition at the University of Minnesota with research interests in the dietary behavior of low-income and homeless people, community and international nutrition, and food systems. Nicole Eikenberry is a Registered Dietitian and recently completed her MS in the Department of Food Science and Nutrition, University of Minnesota, with primary research emphasis on food access and food choice for low-income Minnesotan adults.     

Communication and sustainable agriculture: Building agendas for research and practice

Communication cannot be overlooked as a component of sustainable agriculture; theoretical perspectives from communication science, such as coorientation and information systems analysis, can suggest ways to help improve the chances for sustainability, as can attention to specific types of communication. Communicationabout sustainable agriculture, which creates political-economic and social environments that promote development of sustainable systems, must more clearly define sustainability and what is to be sustained and must help producers and the public “think agroecologically.” Communicationof sustainable agriculture, which creates and disseminates information about how to farm and consume sustainably, must expand the standards for what constitues valid information by increasing farmer participation in production research and easing farmer access to media to disseminate on-farm trial findings.     

新型城镇化中休闲农业的定位与作用

从休闲农业的内涵与特性入手,认为它是集生产、生活、生态“三生”一体功能的新型产业,具有可持续性、科技性、文化性和产业融合性的特征。介绍了发展休闲农业与新型城镇化的关系,在实现农民市民化、就地城镇化、文化传承、生态保护和城乡统筹发展5个方面存在的意义。然后从资金保障、发展动力、劳动力资源和物质保障4个方面阐述休闲农业是如何引导新型城镇化的形成,具体介绍了休闲农业引导的新型城镇化的发展模式——旅游小城镇、旅游新农村社区和旅游卫星城镇。最后阐明休闲农业在引导过程中要注意城镇化的不同特色、合理规划和利益共享3个要点。     

知识经济与中国农业现代化

论述了知识经济影响下,现代农业的内涵和特征。包括知识武装农业,生产要素智能化;经济活动信息化;农业产业高级化;资源和资本高效利用;环境与经济的持续发展以及农业,农民,农村“三位一体”;农业现代化,农村工业化,农村城市化,农民知识化“四化”联动;生产,生活生态“三生”统一等。     

论农业可持续发展的途径

农业可持续发展能力,在很大程度上决定着农村经济的前途和未来。因而在全面策划区域经济发展模式的过程中,要从当地实际情况出发,创新思维方式,改进发展思路,挖掘资源潜能,增强发展能力,建立农业可持续发展的体制与机制。通过科技先导,充分发挥区域综合优势,以厚积薄发、"强身健体"的方式,抓住主线,重点突破,从根本上增强农村经济可持续发展的活力和后劲。     

Socio-cultural processes behind the differential distribution of organic farming in Denmark: a case study

Conversion to organic farming, along with its associated driving forces and barriers, has been explored intensively over the past decade, while studies on the distribution and impacts of local socio-cultural processes in relation to conversion to and diffusion of organic farming have been scarce. The concentration of organic farms in Denmark differs according to county and, moreover, there appears to be large within-county variation in the density of organic farms. The present study explores local aspects of conversion to organic farming and the factors that may help explain variation in density and concentration of organic farms within smaller areas. The study is based on nine qualitative interviews with organic farmers from two neighboring areas, referred to as “mainland” and “island,” respectively. Three farms were situated in the high-density area (mainland) and the remaining six in the low-density area (island). Furthermore, five advisors with connections to the area provided information with regard to their local experience and perceptions. Three main, and to some extent interacting, issues are discussed. The first is the price of land related to local scarcity of land, in the context of structural development and the effects of agricultural policies. The second is distance – both physical and social. Cooperation and exchange of experience among organic farmers was frequent on the mainland side, while isolation and lack of interaction was more common for the island farmers. Third, the role of the agricultural advisory service and the existence of champion farmers are important: pioneer farmers on the mainland have been supported by committed agricultural advisors, while lack of organic champion farmers and low priority granted to organic farming among agricultural advisors were found on the island. Marie-Louise Risgaard has an MSc within the field of organic agriculture. Her research interests are organic farming and rural development with the present occupation as innovative partner at a small-scale organic enterprise. In this capacity she is responsible for creating links between the organic enterprise, the gastronomic sector and organic markets, locally as well as nationally. Pia Frederiksen, PhD, is a geographer and senior scientist with research skills in rural development, sustainability, landscape analysis, and agri-environmental indicators. Pernille Kaltoft, PhD, is an environmental sociologist and senior scientist whose work focuses on organic farming and farmers’ perceptions. Dr. Kaltoft’s general research interests include values, perceptions, and views of nature related to agricultural and environmental issues.     

Transgenic crops: Engineering a more sustainable agriculture?

Transgenic crops currently available foruse potentially provide environmental benefits, suchas reduction in insecticide use and substitution ofless toxic for more toxic herbicides. These benefitsare contingent on a host of factors, such as thepotential for development of resistant pests,out-crossing to weedy relatives, and transgenic cropmanagement regimes. Three scenarios are used toexamine the potential sustainability of transgeniccrop technologies. These scenarios demonstrate thatexisting transgenic varieties, while potentiallyimproving the sustainability of agriculture relativeto existing chemical based production systems, fail inenabling a fully sustainable agriculture. Genetictraits that have a higher potential for promoting asustainable agriculture have been precluded fromdevelopment for a number of reasons. These include thelack of EPA and USDA regulatory policies thatexplicitly promote sustainable traits; the structureof the agricultural biotechnology industry, which isdominated by agricultural chemical companies; andpatent law and industry policies that proscribe farmhouseholds from saving transgenic seed and tailoringtransgenic crops to their local environmentalconditions – ecological, social, and economic.     

陕西省渭北苹果主产区的农业可持续发展评价——以洛川、旬邑与白水县为例

为准确把握陕西省渭北苹果主产区农业可持续发展状况,通过基于欧氏距离的农业可持续发展评价理论对陕西渭北苹果主产区进行农业可持续发展评价,选取洛川、旬邑和白水县2007—2016 10年间的19项指标展开分析,诊断限制当地农业可持续发展的障碍性因子,主要结论如下:1)陕西省渭北苹果主产区总体处于中可持续发展状态,可持续发展能力洛川县旬邑县白水县。2)限制陕西省渭北苹果主产区可持续发展的主要因素有施肥量不适宜、土壤肥力低、人均粮食产量低、人均土地面积少、自然灾害频发和劳动力文化水平低,针对这些问题,应当采取提高秸秆、畜禽粪便还田率提高土肥力;适量施用化肥;保护耕地资源提高土地利用效率;提高当地人民文化素质等措施,推动当地农业走上高可持续发展道路。3)基于欧氏距离的农业可持续发展评价方法能够基本反映农业发展现状,洛川、旬邑和白水3县农业可持续发展指数(ASDI)分别是[0.65,0.77]、[0.63,0.67]和[0.58,0.63],除白水2015和2016年处于低持续状态外其余呈现中持续发展状态。     

On food security and alternative food networks: understanding and performing food security in the context of urban bias

This paper offers one explanation for the institutional basis of food insecurity in Australia, and argues that while alternative food networks and the food sovereignty movement perform a valuable function in building forms of social solidarity between urban consumers and rural producers, they currently make only a minor contribution to Australia’s food and nutrition security. The paper begins by identifying two key drivers of food security: household incomes (on the demand side) and nutrition-sensitive, ‘fair food’ agriculture (on the supply side). We focus on this second driver and argue that healthy populations require an agricultural sector that delivers dietary diversity via a fair and sustainable food system. In order to understand why nutrition-sensitive, fair food agriculture is not flourishing in Australia we introduce the development economics theory of urban bias. According to this theory, governments support capital intensive rather than labour intensive agriculture in order to deliver cheap food alongside the transfer of public revenues gained from rural agriculture to urban infrastructure, where the majority of the voting public resides. We chart the unfolding of the Urban Bias across the twentieth century and its consolidation through neo-liberal orthodoxy, and argue that agricultural policies do little to sustain, let alone revitalize, rural and regional Australia. We conclude that by observing food system dynamics through a re-spatialized lens, Urban Bias Theory is valuable in highlighting rural–urban socio-economic and political economy tensions, particularly regarding food system sustainability. It also sheds light on the cultural economy tensions for alternative food networks as they move beyond niche markets to simultaneously support urban food security and sustainable rural livelihoods.