Urban Farm DB
Research catalogue
Database research record2009·Australia

Localisation through Alternative farming: Embeddings for a better future

G. Palaniappan, Christine King

Queensland's institutional digital repository (The University of Queensland)

Urban Farm DB summary

A conceptual paper framing local food production systems—termed "alternative farming"—against a backdrop of global environmental changes (retreating sea ice, landscape drying, shifts in seasonal timing and animal migration) and climate-driven increases in energy prices and dependence on fossil fuels, which the authors say have raised interest in localization and sustainability among communities worldwide. It examines systems including organics, natural farming, biodynamics, permaculture, community gardens, and community-supported agriculture (CSA) in terms of how they might contribute to localizing food production and consumption, and discusses the transition from globalized to localized farming and re-localization's ecological and social dimensions. The paper argues that sustainability can be grounded in local ecological, social, economic, and political systems, but the discussion is conceptual rather than based on presented empirical data.