Getting out the commodity trap: Enabling diversity through an alternative food network

• DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.4555299
• Publication Date: 2021-02-22
• Authors: K Bliss; Adam H. Villa; James R. Meldrum; Chaolin Zhang; Anja Vieweger; Charlotte Bickler
• Keywords: Trap (plumbing); Commodity chain

Many UK arable farmers are stuck in a ‘commodity trap’. Despite growing evidence of the role of temporal and spatial crop diversity in enhancing the resilience and performance of agroecosystems, they are limited by markets that demand large volumes of consistent products. The infrastructure built up around these commodity markets does not allow for small batches of more diverse crops – access to seed, production, harvest, storage, transport and processing present additional challenges. As such, although there is growing interest in crop diversification at a genetic, crop and rotation level, arable cropping in the UK is focused on a relatively small number of crops grown for the commodity market. In parallel, there is a growing consumer interest in more resource efficient and plant-based diets, creating more demand for pulses and other novel grains. However much of this is currently met by imports and not supporting crop diversification and associated agroecological benefits in the UK. As such there is huge potential for initiatives which seek to support to connect these farmers and consumers to build diverse, agroecological food systems.