The Short Food Supply Chain: A Concrete Example of Sustainability. A Literature Review

The present work is a literature review on the short food supply chain, interpreted as a concrete example of sustainability, in which various economic, social and environmental topics are linked in a way that interprets the short food supply chain as a new form of dynamism in the market for agricultural goods. This work presents the expected benefits of the alternative agri-food networks for the producer, the consumer and the community, the various interpretative approaches and the criteria for the classification of different forms of short food supply chain. In particular, the paper shows how the short food supply chain offers to the manufacturer and the consumer elements of response to the crisis of modernization, which led to the promotion of “relocalization” processes of production-consumption systems, according to the principles of sustainability. In fact, the consumer, by selecting the short food supply chain, not only searches for certain characteristics of the product, but also wants to participate in a “social event” which includes environmental, fairness and food and economic democracy principles. The producer, through the direct sale, expresses his will to retain a greater final value added, but also enhances the quality of the products and, improving the network of relations, re-evaluates its social role, with positive effects for the community. The short food supply chain, thus, becomes a concrete place where several players – not only the producer and the consumer – interact in the spirit of agri-food governance, where the act of buying is transformed in an act with an economic, social and ecological positive valence.