The industrialisation of agri-food systems and the demise of home-grown legumes in Europe
Creators: name: Iannetta, Pietro
name: Balázs, Balint
name: Begg, Graham
name: Debeljak, Marko
name: Hamann, Karen
name: Howard, Becky
name: Kelemen, Eszter
name: Kolmans, Alicia
name: Maaß, Henrik
name: Ntatsi, Georgia
name: Quesada, Nora
name: Tran, Fanny
name: Trajanov, Aneta
name: Savvas, Dimitrios
name: Shrestha, Shailesh
name: Styles, David
name: Toma, Luiza
name: Vasconcelos, Marta
name: Vickers, Roger
name: Williams, Michael
name: Squire, Geoff
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2019
Subjects: legumes, protein
food system
industrialisation
value chain
sustainability

description: <strong>The industrialisation of agri-food systems and the demise of home-grown legumes in Europe </strong> <strong>P.P.M. Iannetta<sup>1,*, ±</sup>, B. Balázs<sup>2</sup>, G. Begg<sup>1</sup>, M. Debeljak<sup>3</sup>, K.T. Hamann<sup>4</sup>, B. Howard<sup>5</sup>, E. Kelemen<sup>2</sup>, A. Kolmans<sup>6</sup>, H. Maaß<sup>6</sup>, G. Ntatsi<sup>7,8</sup>, N. </strong><strong>Quesada<sup>1</sup>, </strong><strong>F. Tran<sup>1</sup>, A. Trajanov<sup>3</sup>, D. Savvas<sup>7</sup>, S. Shrestha<sup>9</sup>, D. Styles<sup>10</sup>, L. Toma<sup>9</sup>, M.W. Vasconcelos<sup>11</sup>, R. Vickers<sup>5</sup>, M. Williams<sup>12</sup> and G.R. Squire<sup>1</sup></strong> <sup>1 </sup>Ecological Sciences, James Hutton Institute, Dundee, Scotland, UK <sup>2</sup> Environmental Social Science Research Group, Budapest, Hungary <sup>3 </sup>Department of Knowledge Technologies, The Jozef Stefan Institute, Ljubljana, Slovenia <sup>4</sup> Institute for Food Studies &amp; Agroindustrial Development, Hoersholm, Denmark <sup>5 </sup>PGRO, The Research Station, Great North Road, Thornhaugh, Peterborough, England, UK <sup>6</sup> Research Centre Global Food Security and Ecosystems, University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart, Germany <sup>7</sup> Agricultural University of Athens, Department of Crop Science, Athens, Greece <sup>8 </sup>Institute of Plant Breeding and Genetic Resources, ELGO-DEMETER, Thermi, Thessaloniki, Greece <sup>9</sup> SRUC, West Mains Road, Edinburgh, EH93JG, Scotland, UK <sup>10</sup> SNS, Bangor University, Bangor, Wales, UK <sup>11</sup> Universidade Católica Portuguesa, CBQF Laboratório Associado, Escola Superior de Biotecnologia, Porto, Portugal <sup>12</sup> Department of Botany, School of Natural Sciences, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland ∗ Speaker ± Corresponding author: pete.iannetta@hutton.ac.uk <strong>1 Introduction</strong> The multiple benefits of well-managed legume-supported agri-food systems are known and include provision of: nutritious feed and food; natural nitrogen cycling; improved soil qualities; lowered greenhouse gas emissions; protection of biodiversity; and good-food culture and literacy. Yet, these benefits are all-but forfeited since the vast majority of the legume grains used in Europe are not home-grown, and only rarely (knowingly), consumed directly by humans. Legume grains are mainly imported in the form of soybean for use as animal feed. Consequently, European farmed systems are characterised by specialised and intensive approaches using crops dependent on synthetic nitrogen fertiliser and pesticide inputs - again mainly routed to meat production. Harmonising of ‘<em>The Three Pillars of Sustainability</em>’ (‘social’, ‘environmental’ and ‘economic’: Passet, 1979), demands that greater functional understanding (Figure 1) is applied and with respect to legumes. <strong>Figure 1.</strong> (see slide 21) An illustrative model (opposite) which aims to help re-define ‘The Three Pillars of Sustainability’, in functional- or relational-terms, Each www.true-project.eu Work Package (WP) will define indicators of new sub-pillar components. WP8 Transition Design (not shown), is developing a Decision Support System to identify indicators of sustainable function for each pillar individually, and collectively. <strong>2 Materials and methods</strong> New insight was gained from knowledge sources, including: 1, the multi-stakeholder European Legume Innovation Network (LIN) workshops (www.true-project.eu/lin-workshops/); 2, the ECs report on, “<em>Market developments and policy evaluation aspects of the plant protein sector in the EU</em>” (https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/food-farming-fisheries/plants_and_plant_products/documents/plant-proteins-study-report_en.pdf); 3, abstracts and outputs made during the European Plant Protein Plan launch (https://ec.europa.eu/info/events/development-plant-proteins-europe-opportunities-and-challenges-2018-nov-22_en); 4, recent articles such as Eyhorn et al., (2019); and 5, the public Deliverable, ‘<em>Coproduction of policy assessment’</em> (https://www.true-project.eu/publications-resources/deliverables/), published by the EU H2020 funded project TRUE. <strong>3 Results</strong> Modern day agri-food systems in Europe are characterised by high input dependency and a low level of environmental and societal safeguarding. However, the rejection of legume-based cropping systems preceded the global trade in grain legumes and the introduction of synthetic nitrogen fertilisers by several decades. This coincided with a period of increasing specialisation and intensification of production units to serve high-throughput processing units which demanded the highest possible yields - which could not be provided by grain legumes. These local market challenges have been exacerbated by current day global trade trends whereby political decisions permit the importation of soya and other legume-based protein products to the EU. These imports are allowed at low rates in exchange for low export-tariff rates on cereals and oilseeds. If sustainable agri-food systems are to be enabled in Europe, effective policies and capacities must recognise these historical, and forfeited socio-ecological contexts. <strong>4 Discussion and Conclusions</strong> Consumers are no longer passive recipients in a global protein market and wish to realise more-sustainable consumption. They question the nature of their food, such as its nutritional value, environmental impact of production plus authenticity and provenance. Demitarianism is increasing and specific types of carbohydrate are sought to help offset obesity and diabetes. The diversification of cropping systems and good agronomy will not by themselves realise more-sustainable legume supported food- and feed-chains. Greater cooperation among all supply chain actors is essential to establish a more-effective policy environment to help realise consumers’ desires for access to the most-nutritious of food, affordably, and which is produced in a manner that ensures protection of the environment and biodiversity. <strong>Acknowledgments </strong> This research is supported by the European Union Horizon-2020 project ‘<em>TRansition paths to sUstainable legume-based systems in Europe</em>’ (TRUE, www.true-project.eu), Grant Agreement 727973; and the Scottish Government’s Strategic Research Programme. The James Hutton Institute (www.hutton.ac.uk) is supported by the Rural &amp; Environment Science &amp; Analytical Services (RESAS), a division of the Scottish Government. <strong>References</strong> Eyhorn et al., (2019). Sustainability in global agriculture driven by organic farming. <em>Nature Sustainability,</em> 253. Passet, R. (1979). L'économique et le vivant [<em>The economic and the living</em>] <strong>23</strong>, <em>Payot</em>.
description: For Figure 1 see slide (page) 21