ABSTRACT
In the economic dimension of sustainability we observe three main challenges: the escalating dominance of transnational corporations (TNCs) in food supply chains; the externalization of sustainability costs on the basis of efficiency arguments; and the price volatility of commodities as a result of the financialization and concentration of the agri-food system. According to the neoliberal view, the success of the conventional food system is the triumph of the economic mechanisms of economies of scale and free trade. In the social dimension the conventional food system has been associated, among other things, with adverse health effects, lack of transparency and exclusionary consequences for local varieties of plants necessary for the survival of local food cultures. Short food supply chains (SFSCs), a term introduced at the beginning of the twenty-first century, is a distinctive concept within the wider umbrella of AFNs. SFSCs are a "short-circuit" of the long, anonymous supply chains that characterize the industrial mode of food production.
