Food in space: the spatial organization of food systems

Abstract

Contemporary food production is facing many challenges. One of these challenges is to re-connect the food system with various public domains, such as spatial planning. Sustainable food planning is a growing domain in planning research. One of the important topics of research concerns the geographical or territorial properties of the food system. This paper addresses the territorial properties of the agricultural system using different spatial concepts. The paper includes a case study of a greenhouse vegetable production system in Venlo, the Netherlands, and its relationships with the regional spatial organization. The assessment allowed to draw some conclusions on the suitability of different spatial concepts to assess the spatial organization of food systems and their potential applicability in supporting the transition toward a more sustainable food system.