Place attachment is a sense of belonging or emotional connection between a person and a place.It is a constructed, acquired process unique to each individual and location, and varying in intensity based on factors such as homeownership, length of residence, stage of the lifecycle, economic investment, and social connections (Sandberg, et al., 2013). Several food system concepts are connected with place.
Foodsheds
See Galzki et al. (2017).
Short food supply chains (adapted from Watson, 2020)
Although there is no precise and universally agreed upon definition because region, culture, climate, and norms all influence the parameters of a supply chain, Renting, et al., (2003) capture the essence of SFSCs as a reimagined food supply chain that allows products to reach the consumer with a significant degree of value-laden information, considerably improving transparency and communication between producer and consumer. The “short” in SFSCs refers to both the physical and social distance between producer and consumer (Galli and Brunori, 2013). SFSCs are designed to increase farmers’ market power previously lost to industrialization. SFSCs accomplish this from the demand side by strengthening consumer knowledge, value, and meaning associated with a product and its local provenance, sustainable production, and consumption (Galli and Brunori, 2013). Mostly, consumers have the opportunity to hear from a direct intermediary or the producer themselves about the benefits and values belonging to a specific food item.
SFSCs are understood to reduce transportation costs, lessen CO2 emissions, promote biodiversity, and enhance urban and peri-urban agriculture by connecting the consumer more directly with producers (Marsden et al., 1999; 2000; Morgan et al., 2008; Galli and Brunori, 2013; Canfora, 2016; Renting et al., 2003).
Alternative Food Networks (AFN)
A broad analytical category of food system actors and activities that operate away from the dominant food production, processing and retailing systems. Usually rooted in regions, networks typically comprise small-scale entrepreneurs, community activists and NGOs that support different and often non-market (but not charitable) ways of food production and provisioning. The AFN concept is linked to SFSC.
