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Abstract

This paper outlines the concept of values-based food systems building on the related idea of values-based food chains (VBFCs), terms which are definitionally diffuse but which cohere around a common commitment to environmental sustainability and social justice. The paper examines the development of four multi-stakeholder local food partnerships in Birmingham, Bristol, Rotherham and Sheffield – and the national Sustainable Food Places network to which they are affiliated. Based on our collaborative research with these organizations and a review of their public statements, the paper identifies the values that guide their work. The paper then draws on the evidence of a series of workshops which revealed some of the challenges the partnerships face as they seek to put their values into practice, focusing on governance issues (and related funding challenges) and the implementation of equity, diversity and inclusion policies. Our findings show that thepartnerships’ work is consistent with the concept of values-based food systems though they do not use the term themselves. Our research also shows the range of work being undertaken by these local food partnerships with much in common but also some significant divergence in their activities. The paper concludes with some reflections about scale and the differences between our English case studies and earlier work on VBFCs in the US.

Publication Type:	Article
Additional Information:	This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Publisher Keywords:	Values-based food systems; local food partnerships; food system transformation; collaborative research; UK
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor H Social Sciences > HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform R Medicine > RA Public aspects of medicine > RA0421 Public health. Hygiene. Preventive Medicine S Agriculture
Departments:	School of Health & Psychological Sciences School of Health & Psychological Sciences > Healthcare Services Research & Management
SWORD Depositor:	Symplectic Administrator

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