IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ags/joafsc/360280.html

Alternative food distribution networks, resilience, and urban food security in Turkey during the COVID-19 pandemic

Author

Listed:
  • Atalan-Helicke, Nurcan
  • Abiral, Bürge

Abstract

This article explores the potential of alternative food networks (AFNs) for food security and resili­ence as COVID-19 has raised challenges to the global food supply chain. Pandemic-induced dis­ruptions to conventional food production, distri­bution, and consumption networks have revealed problems with the global food system and have drawn attention to the re-localization and regional­ization of food systems. Lockdown and mobility restrictions have also disrupted the availability, quality, and stability of food. We evaluate how AFNs have responded to these challenges in a non-western context through a case-study ap­proach informed by participant observation and semistructured interviews. After examining the multiple factors that have been critical to the emergence and expansion of AFNs in Turkey since the mid-2000s, we argue that these food distribu­tion networks have aimed to address food security, environmental sustainability, and farmer liveli­hoods in complementary ways. We provide a time­line of state-led measures in response to COVID-19 in Turkey as we consider their impacts on food distribution systems and access in urban areas. We then compare two AFNs: a food community work­ing within a participatory guarantee system, and a consumer cooperative that connects producers and consumers in urban areas. Although the two AFNs faced initial challenges due to disruptions in deliv­ery services and lockdowns, they have been able to continue their services and address increasing de­mand. They also provided special solidarity pack­ages for those adversely affected by the economic impacts of COVID-19. By building on the existing networks and relationships of trust between con­sumers and producers, and the capacity and will­ingness of producers to adapt to the new regulatory environment, the two AFNs have been able to continue their activities and start new initiatives.

Suggested Citation

  • Atalan-Helicke, Nurcan & Abiral, Bürge, 2021. "Alternative food distribution networks, resilience, and urban food security in Turkey during the COVID-19 pandemic," Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development, Center for Transformative Action, Cornell University, vol. 10(2).
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:joafsc:360280
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/360280/files/912.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Patricia Allen, 2008. "Mining for justice in the food system: perceptions, practices, and possibilities," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 25(2), pages 157-161, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sara A. L. Smaal & Joost Dessein & Barend J. Wind & Elke Rogge, 2021. "Social justice-oriented narratives in European urban food strategies: Bringing forward redistribution, recognition and representation," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 38(3), pages 709-727, September.
    2. MacAuley, Lorien E. & Niewolny, Kim L., 2016. "Situating On-farm Apprenticeships within the Alternative Agrifood Movement: Labor and Social Justice Implications," Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development, Center for Transformative Action, Cornell University, vol. 6(2).
    3. Kelly J. Hodgins & Evan D. G. Fraser, 2018. ""We are a business, not a social service agency." Barriers to widening access for low-income shoppers in alternative food market spaces," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 35(1), pages 149-162, March.
    4. Manoj Misra, 2018. "Moving away from technocratic framing: agroecology and food sovereignty as possible alternatives to alleviate rural malnutrition in Bangladesh," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 35(2), pages 473-487, June.
    5. William Lacy, 2023. "Local food systems, citizen and public science, empowered communities, and democracy: hopes deserving to live," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 40(1), pages 1-17, March.
    6. Peter Horton & Steve A. Banwart & Dan Brockington & Garrett W. Brown & Richard Bruce & Duncan Cameron & Michelle Holdsworth & S. C. Lenny Koh & Jurriaan Ton & Peter Jackson, 2017. "An agenda for integrated system-wide interdisciplinary agri-food research," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 9(2), pages 195-210, April.
    7. Ela, Nate, 2018. "Use-Based Welfare: Property Experiments in Chicago, 1895-1935," SocArXiv 5qpa6, Center for Open Science.
    8. Paul Hebinck & Henk Oostindie, 2018. "Performing food and nutritional security in Europe: claims, promises and limitations," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 10(6), pages 1311-1324, December.
    9. Meenar, Mahbubur R. & Hoover, Brandon M., 2012. "Community Food Security via Urban Agriculture: Understanding People, Place, Economy, and Accessibility from a Food Justice Perspective," Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development, Center for Transformative Action, Cornell University, vol. 3(1).
    10. Horst, Megan & Gwin, Lauren, 2018. "Land access for direct market food farmers in Oregon, USA," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 594-611.
    11. Melissa N. Poulsen, 2017. "Cultivating citizenship, equity, and social inclusion? Putting civic agriculture into practice through urban farming," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 34(1), pages 135-148, March.
    12. Adam Czudec, 2022. "The Altruistic Behaviour of Consumers Who Prefer a Local Origin of Organic Food," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-12, April.
    13. Annemarieke Bruin & Imke J.M. Boer & Niels R. Faber & Gjalt Jong & Katrien J.A.M. Termeer & Evelien M. Olde, 2024. "Easier said than defined? Conceptualising justice in food system transitions," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 41(1), pages 345-362, March.
    14. Laura-Anne Minkoff-Zern & Sea Sloat, 2017. "A new era of civil rights? Latino immigrant farmers and exclusion at the United States Department of Agriculture," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 34(3), pages 631-643, September.
    15. Julia M. L. Laforge & Colin R. Anderson & Stéphane M. McLachlan, 2017. "Governments, grassroots, and the struggle for local food systems: containing, coopting, contesting and collaborating," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 34(3), pages 663-681, September.
    16. Joshua Sbicca, 2015. "Food labor, economic inequality, and the imperfect politics of process in the alternative food movement," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 32(4), pages 675-687, December.
    17. Diego Thompson, 2021. "Building and transforming collective agency and collective identity to address Latinx farmworkers’ needs and challenges in rural Vermont," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 38(1), pages 129-143, February.
    18. Poppy Nicol, 2020. "Pathways to Scaling Agroecology in the City Region: Scaling out, Scaling up and Scaling deep through Community-Led Trade," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(19), pages 1-20, September.
    19. Joshua Sbicca, 2012. "Growing food justice by planting an anti-oppression foundation: opportunities and obstacles for a budding social movement," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 29(4), pages 455-466, December.
    20. Amy Herrington & Tamara L. Mix, 2021. "Invisible and Insecure in Rural America: Cultivating Dignity in Local Food Security Initiatives," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-21, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:joafsc:360280. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.