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Sustainability Challenges of Pre-industrial Local Food Systems—Insights from Long-Term Socio-Ecological Research in Austria

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Socio-Metabolic Perspectives on the Sustainability of Local Food Systems

Part of the book series: Human-Environment Interactions ((HUEN,volume 7))

Abstract

This chapter digs into the history of local food systems (LFS), arguing that we need to understand pre-industrial, organic forms of agriculture to learn about its potentially sustainable futures. A close look back in time provides insights into the structure and functioning of LFS under the conditions of an agrarian socio-metabolic regime . We use socio-ecological concepts and methods derived from the “Vienna School” of Social Ecology to address three sustainability challenges of pre-industrial local food systems (PILFS) —the maintenance of soil fertility in the long run, the stable provision of food for the farming community and the equal distribution of critical resources. We draw upon a rich tradition of Long-Term Socio-Ecological Research (LTSER), applying it to Austria for a systemic understanding of PILFS and their sustainability potentials and constraints. The results and lessons learnt from pre-industrial agriculture are used to explore specific solutions and “leapfrogging” opportunities in recent discussions on the sustainability of local food systems.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See also Tello and González de Molina, Chap. 2 in this volume.

  2. 2.

    External Final EROI relates final produce (i.e. all biomass products either used and consumed locally or sold at markets) to external inputs (i.e. human labour, non-local biomass bought on markets and industrial inputs such as machinery or fossil fuels). Internal Final EROI relates the final produce to local biomass reuses (i.e. livestock feed and litter, seeds, stubble ploughed into fields or biomass burned).

  3. 3.

    In Catalonia, burning and burying of biomass replaced a significant amount of N lost in soils (Padro et al., Chap. 5 in this volume). In Austria, those strategies were of minor quantitative importance.

  4. 4.

    EROI of Theyern was calculated in Krausmann (2004), following the methodology in Hall et al. (1986).

  5. 5.

    Taxes and tithes were considered at the household level only.

  6. 6.

    Further research would be required to better understand how different soil qualities were distributed between lords and peasants. The Franciscean cadastre would entail information on different types of land use classes (e.g. arable I = highly productive, arable IV = poorly productive).

  7. 7.

    Further research would be required to understand implications for P availability in the soils (see Sect. 6.4).

  8. 8.

    Since 2010, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the FAO division on Integrated Crop-Livestock Systems (ICLS) have put forward similar ideas under the auspices of “Integrated crop-livestock farming systems”, providing knowledge and toolkits for smallholders on how to efficiently integrate livestock into their farming systems.

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Gizicki-Neundlinger, M., Gingrich, S., Güldner, D. (2017). Sustainability Challenges of Pre-industrial Local Food Systems—Insights from Long-Term Socio-Ecological Research in Austria. In: Fraňková, E., Haas, W., Singh, S. (eds) Socio-Metabolic Perspectives on the Sustainability of Local Food Systems. Human-Environment Interactions, vol 7. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69236-4_6

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