Contributions of organic farming to rural development: Ecological-socioeconomic analysis alongside the supply chain of organic bread grains in Lower Austria
Abstract
Regional product chains make an important contribution to sustainable regional development. They are of major strategic importance for the further development and innovation in organic farming as they contribute to economical, ecological and social improvements for those involved in the product chain - from farmers to consumers, and their regional environment. The geographical closeness favours the social and cultural embeddedness of economic processes in social relationships that leads to an increase of the quality of communication, of trust and solidarity. Regional product chains are en vogue - for politicians in an Austrian and European context. Consumers look upon regional products favorably. They mostly assume organic products to be regional regarding the production site and the location of processing. In Lower Austria - the main production area of (organic) food grains - regional cooperations bringing together farmers, millers, bakers and retail are scarce. The aim of the project is to analyse the few existing cooperations to find potentials to their benefit and to the benefit of further regional cooperations of organic regional players.
keywords regional product chain regional development Social Embeddedness Indicators
Publikationen
Project staff
Ruth Bartel-Kratochvil
Dipl.-Ing. Dr.nat.techn. Ruth Bartel-Kratochvil
Project Staff
01.01.2005 - 31.12.2006