Written by Dubravka
Vrdoljak (ETH Zurich, Maria Tereza de Alencar (University of Graz), Anja Tesic
(University of Basel)
Many
alternative food networks (AFNs) developed over the past few years in Zurich
and Basel. AFNs are an umbrella term that encompasses different foci in
sustainable food systems, such as community-supported and urban agriculture,
short food supply chains up to direct farm retail or food cooperatives with the
objectives of shortening the food chain from farmers to consumers, bringing it
closer to urban or peri-urban areas; the promotion of community engagement and
participation; and the reduction of food waste (Moschitz et al., 2018).
We analyzed
three AFNs operating in Zurich and/or Basel, namely Too Good To Go, Urban
Agriculture Basel and Bachsemärt for their goals, visions, interventions and
formats and organized it in the process-oriented Theory of Change (ToC).
In summary
we have built ToC analysis based on the informations on the webpages of each
AFN, crucial contributors to diverse agri-food chains. With the help of the
ToC, we could provide compelling evidence that alternative food system
initiatives work with a long-term goal model, even though they don’t clearly
communicate it to the public. This approach has the potential to help emerging
AFN’s to learn from existing ones and to establish a bigger network and best
practices.
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The
seminar “Sustainable Plant Systems” (VVZ: 551-0209-00L) is organized by
the Zurich-Basel Plant Science Center for MSc and PhD students of ETH Zurich,
University of Zurich and University of Basel every autumn term.
