EDITORIAL article
Front. Sustain. Food Syst.
Sec. Urban Agriculture
Volume 9 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fsufs.2025.1620890
This article is part of the Research TopicSustainable Food Networks: Chains of Values and Food TransitionsView all 10 articles
Editorial: Sustainable Food Networks: Chains of Values and Food Transitions
Provisionally accepted
- 1Autonomous University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain
- 2Department of Geography, Autonomous University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain
- 3Department of Geography, University of Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain
- 4(IEGD/CSIC), Institute of Economics, Geography and Demography, Madrid (MAD), Spain
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Sustainable Food Networks (SFNs), characterized by diverse structures, values, social innovation 16 strategies, and territorial embeddedness, hold significant potential to drive agroecological and food 17 system transitions in urban and rural contexts. The contributions within this body of work reveal the 18 intricate relationships between underlying values, evolving governance arrangements, and enabling 19 policy frameworks that collectively shape the capacity of SFNs to challenge dominant agri-food 20 systems. This Research Topic is framed by the ALISOS project, which investigates how SFNs interact 21 with their territorial contexts. Based on the premise that SFNs are shaped by regional environments, 22 the project emphasizes the importance of stakeholder interfaces in facilitating or hindering the 23 transmission of alternative values along the food chain. demonstrate the varied pathways and inherent challenges in expanding their impact. Moreover, the 80 crucial influence of public policy and governance structures, often shaped by local contexts and facing 81 multi-level complexities, emerges as a key determinant of SFN success. Finally, the conceptualization 82 of food access as a multidimensional construct emphasizes the need for an embedded understanding of 83 urban food environments to achieve genuine sustainability. All in all, fostering the growth and impact 84 of SFNs will require a holistic approach that considers their values, scaling potential, supportive policy 85 frameworks and cooperation between producers and consumers. 86
Keywords: agroecology, Short food supply chains, alternative food networks, food systems, urban food policies
Received: 30 Apr 2025; Accepted: 09 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Yacamán-Ochoa, Sánchez-Hernández and Sanz-Cañada. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Carolina Yacamán-Ochoa, Autonomous University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain
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