Public Food Procurement as a Driving Force for Building Local and Agroecological Food Systems: Farmers’ Skepticism in Vega Baja del Jarama, Madrid (Spain)

• Main Authors: Marian Simón-Rojo, Andrés Couceiro, Julia del Valle, José Fariña Tojo
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2020-09-01
• Series: Land
• Subjects: agroecology; Comarca de las Vegas; ecological transition; farming system; local food system; public procurement
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/9/9/317

In the last decade, efforts to re-localize the food system have been gaining ground in a way that is intended to induce changes in the primary sector, thereby improving its conditions and sustainability. The European Union has identified food as one of the ten key sectors with outstanding potential for an ecological transition, and public procurement of (organic) food as an appropriate policy to foster agricultural development and support small farmers. In this study, we analyze changes in land use and farming dynamics in three municipalities close to the metropolitan area of Madrid (Spain). We also explore how stakeholders and farmers perceive the driving forces of these changes and the potential for public procurement in providing stability for farmers and more specifically, boosting the articulation and consolidation of the emerging agroecological sector in an up-to-date hostile peri-urban environment. Some urban policies and food strategies in nearby cities, such as Madrid, have introduced measures to promote sustainable food in public procurement. The procurement could drive 10% of the total food grown in the Comunidad de Madrid, with large variations in the impact on different food subsectors. However, if public procurement is to be organic, local production has no capacity to meet increases in demand, except for honey and oil. Food procurement would not lead to improved stability and increases in farmers’ incomes if public policies to boost ecological transition are not adopted in parallel. For farmers, economic viability takes precedence over other problems, and although public procurement has been mainstreamed as a valuable tool to support local agriculture, stakeholders do not have high expectations for it. The research shows that farm size and specialization have a strong influence on market orientation, and the agroecological farmers and social movements that support them are primed for innovation adoption and may act as catalysts for the process.