Luke Owen is a senior research assistant who studies short food chains and local food systems. His background includes a PhD on the role of short food chains in sustaining livelihoods. Short food chains are characterized by closer relationships between producers and consumers with reduced intermediaries, making the food chain more transparent and traceable. Mobile communication technology can help facilitate social capital and relationships to create and sustain short food chains. Some key research questions focus on understanding how producers and consumers in short food chains use mobile technology, its role in developing producer networks, and the potential for consumers to source local food using smart mobile apps and tools.

1. Luke Owen
Resilient ‘Short Food Chains’
Senior Research Assistant
Centre for Agroecology and Food Security
Coventry University
Email: Luke.Owen@coventry.ac.uk

2. Research profile &
background
• Social Scientist
• Food and Communities
o Local and ‘alternative’ food systems
o Community based food initiatives
o Routes to market
• Background:
• PhD: The role of Short Food Chains in sustaining
livelihoods of small-scale food producers in The Gambia
and UK
• More recently: Role of online and social media in ‘Short
Food Chains and Civic Food Networks’

3. Short Food Chains
• ‘Closer’ relationships between producers and
consumers
• Reduced intermediaries
• More transparent, traceable food chains
• Characterise ‘Local Food Systems’
• Importance of social capital (Glowacki-Dudka 2012)
• Networks, trust (Fisher 2012), ‘geography of regard’ (Sage
2003)

4. Types of Short Food Chains
1. Consumer-Producer
Partnerships e.g. CSA -
Community Supported
Agriculture
2. On-farm, direct sales e.g.
farm shops, farm based hospitality,
roadside sales, pick-your-own
3. Off-farm, direct or with minimum intermediaries
e.g. farmers markets, box schemes, catering
(Renting et al 2003)

5. Resilient Short Food Chains:
harnessing mobile communication technology
• Online, mobile interactive communication technology
facilitates social capital
• Develop relationships, social networks
• Rapidly growing technological ‘toolkit’ to create and sustain
Short Food Chains
• “Short Food Supply Chains may rely less on some technologies
than conventional supply chains (i.e., refrigerated trucks) yet
more on others (i.e. social media for recruiting CSA
subscribers).” (Freidberg and Goldstein 2011: 26)
• A need to understand how to harness mobile communication
technology to create resilient Short Food Chains (Stanley 2013)

6. The role of mobile communication technology in
Short Food Chains
Producers &
processors
Retailers &
consumers
Institutional
stakeholders
(e.g. NGO)
‘Basic’
communication
technology
e.g. mobile
phones
Improved
connection to
e.g. markets
Consolidate
networks
Source products
for retail and
consumption in
real-time (reduce
waste)
Improve
communications
e.g. extension
work, crisis
management
‘Smart’ mobile
communication
technology
e.g. social media,
smartphones
Web Applications
e.g. real-time
changes in
markets,
precision
agriculture
Marketing space
Help identify
local food
through online
space
Blogging e.g.
sharing recipes,
experiences of
‘local’ food
Maintain real-time
information &
analytics about
the geography of
local food
systems
Crowdsourcing/
funding platform

7. Research questions & future agendas
• The extent of online access, social media use and
mobile phone ownership amongst producers and
consumers engaged in Short Food Chains
• How is mobile communication technology being used to
create and sustain Short Food Chains?
• The role of this technology in developing and
consolidating producer networks
• The potential for consumers to source locally produced
food using ‘smart’ mobile communication technology
• E.g. to identify retailers of locally produced food

8. Thank You
Email: Luke.Owen@coventry.ac.uk
Twitter: @LukeOwen86
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/lukeowen1
Skype: Luke.Owen86