Regional foods

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Local or regional foods are foods that are produced and consumed in the same region . The term "region" as such is neither protected nor is there a generally binding definition or standard. The topic is discussed as a marketing concept , in regional structural policy and under ecological aspects.

Historical

In 1826 Johann Heinrich von Thünen founded the regional agricultural economy with the so-called Thünenschen Rings , which determined the maximum distance to the market for certain agricultural products, whereby all food transports had to be carried out on foot or by horse-drawn vehicle and without refrigeration . These technical limitations no longer exist today, so that regional foods are in competition with continental and global offerings.

Regionality category

According to the “Zukunftsinstitut” headed by trend and future researcher Matthias Horx , regionality is one of eight categories that turn a market into a “ market of meaning ”. Markets that meet the criterion of regionality therefore belong to the “meaningful markets of the near, the good and the familiar”. The trend researcher Eike Wenzel says: “Basically, by 2020 there will be two paths on which the marketing of regionality will take place. [...] On the one hand, an umbrella brand strategy in which the products from the region are carried under identifiable labels and thus convey associations such as authenticity and uniqueness. The other marketing path works through direct contact between the producer and the consumer - buying trust is created through direct encounter. "

Whether the desired associations correspond to reality in individual cases is irrelevant for the success of a marketing strategy. It is important that a customer trusts “familiar” suppliers from the local area (ie suppliers he thinks he knows) more than “foreign” suppliers, so that they have preferences for local products.

Economic aspects

The product origin actually has an empirically verifiable influence on buyer preferences. This applies to both sales on the regional market (the subject of this article) and supra-regional sales (see designation of origin ). All other things being equal, customers prefer products from their own country (“ Country of origin ” or “ Made in ” effect) over foreign and regional over those from other regions or without a designation of origin.

This does not apply equally to all products. A consumer survey conducted by the Chair of Agricultural Marketing at the University of Kiel in 1998 showed that consumers value regional origins, especially when it comes to fresh produce. On a 5-digit scale (1 = very important; 5 = completely unimportant), the respondents rated the importance of the regional origin of eggs (1.6), meat (1.7) and milk (products) (1.8) as particularly important. In contrast, the importance of canned food, ready meals or pasta (3.6) was rated lower. The origin of the product is one of the deciding factors among others. In the consumer survey, taste, health, appearance and freedom from genetic engineering were rated more important, brand name, packaging or ecological production process as less important than regional origin.

Accordingly, food retailers and food manufacturers use regional origins as a marketing tool. This is supported by the efforts of regional marketing to establish regions as brands. A number of public funding programs aim to improve the marketing of regional products. In this way, regional political, ecological and economic goals are pursued.

Goals and possible effects

With regard to the regionalization of food production, a number of goals and desired and undesired effects are discussed.

target description positive effects negative effects
Traffic avoidance The distribution of agricultural products causes traffic . This causes economic and ecological costs Shortening the distances between producer and consumer can reduce freight traffic A poorer utilization of means of transport, the shift to smaller means of transport and the elimination of logistical bundling effects can increase freight transport
Increase in regional added value The added value takes place in the region itself Higher "gross regional product" through added value in the region Lower “gross regional product” due to comparative cost disadvantages
regional job security Securing jobs in regional agriculture and food processing Settlement of decentralized marketing and processing companies Loss of employment opportunities in companies “exporting” from the region. If all regions promote regional foods, the paradox of competition arises
Increase in product quality In particular, the freshness of food should be promoted through regional economy Freshness, social control of the (known) local producers, diversity of locally different varieties Poor quality management through smaller, less industrialized companies, lower product diversity through regional restrictions
Environmentally friendly production Environmentally friendly production decentralized raw material and waste recycling, site-adapted production higher energy and space consumption due to smaller, more ineffective systems
Food safety Food safety lower risk of spreading pathogens through regional delimitation Poor quality management through smaller, less industrialized companies
Cultural identity Relation to one's own regional culture and tradition Identification with the region, strengthening of regional traditions Church tower thinking , xenophobia , self-sufficiency , regionalism

The following arguments are also given in the discussion: The unequal distribution of production and consumption is a regional economic problem. In developing countries, despite good production, there would be an undersupply in the country if exports are more profitable because the industrialized nations pay higher prices. The death of farmers in Central Europe despite high food consumption, food speculation and the relocation of numerous negative consequences of intensive cultivation to other parts of the world (land clearing, overexploitation, use of pesticides, working conditions, etc.) are cited as arguments for the need for regionalized food production. Also health-ecological aspects, as summarized under the catchphrase " denaturation ", aspects of the quality of the food (such as unripe harvest and post-ripening during transport with the help of certain chemicals), but also the risk of disturbance of endemic ecosystems by neophytes as a result of the relocation of a Economy in other regions of the world are mentioned. In addition, there are ethical and psychological concerns such as poor conditions for animal transport or reservations about the permanent availability of any product regardless of the season. Finally, there is also a legal aspect, because the standards and regulations - and the associated expectations of quality and consumer protection - are quite different around the world (including the question of genetic engineering ). Associated with this, there is a fundamental mistrust of stations and actors in food production over which one has no knowledge, let alone personal control.

Regional food and sustainability

The production of regional food is first of all separated from the question of sustainable or ecological economic management. Industrial agriculture can be regional, while organic agriculture can export worldwide. Long-term studies by Elmar Schlich's working group at the Justus Liebig University in Giessen have empirically proven that the size of the company has a decisive influence on the environmental impact. According to the scientific theory of the Ecology of Scale , larger farms generally cause less environmental impact per production unit than smaller farms because of the better utilization and higher efficiency of the means of production and transport. The pure market distance is only one of many influencing factors on the environmental impact.

Nevertheless, the aspects are often linked in the public discussion. In this context, more modern concepts such as small is beautiful , sustainability or the concept of the ecological footprint have been taken up, but also a regionalized version of the fair trade idea - originally conceived in world trade - which is also applied to the peasantry of industrialized nations to strengthen them in competition with international food companies. Some of these models date back to the 1970s. The promotion of regional production is therefore often understood as part of an ecological agricultural turnaround , especially when industrialized agriculture is only just beginning in the region concerned. For example, is the use of the "umbrella brand Allgäu" on the knowledge of the customer that encountered there Alpwirtschaft not by factory farming can be replaced. A related concept are regional currencies such as the Chiemgauer to promote regional production.

In 2019, the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research was able to show in a study that optimized local production could reduce emissions from food transport worldwide by a factor of ten. The CO 2 footprint would decrease and help protect the climate .

Local or regional agricultural and food production and processing is one of the basic sectors of the concept of planners of a regional economy that competes with a globalized market economy. It should strengthen its own region, i.e. represent a basis for sustainable regional development, but if possible not place an unreasonable burden on other regions. The definition of “regional” can refer to the geographical distance from the producer to the consumer as well as the number of stations in the supply chain .

Implementations

Farmers' markets offer local products without having to go through processing and distribution

The classic forms of regional food sales are direct marketing ( direct sales ), i.e. the purchase from the producer himself, and the farmers ' shops and farmers' markets , which take up the traditional form of the weekly market and general store ( corner shop ). A delivery service has recently started from producers to consumers, for example in the catering industry, and increasingly also to end consumers (in-house delivery as a “food basket”), which is emerging as a new form of direct marketing, particularly through online trading .

For some years now, supermarket chains have also started to set up “regional corners” that preferably offer food from the surrounding region for sale. In 2013, the Stiftung Warentest found out in random samples that there was no “cheating” with indications of origin (but cf. the judgment of the Higher Administrative Court of Münster, among others), but that the impression that food “produced around the corner” was always with regard to the quality of the goods and was not always true the production conditions are particularly good, so that the buyer can have a clear conscience when buying. The online supermarket Farmy.ch , which was founded in Switzerland in 2014 , mainly offers regional food and was able to record above-average sales growth of 40 percent in 2018.

Regionalization is of particular importance in upscale gastronomy ; for high-priced hotels and restaurants, local cuisine is now an important pillar for profiling in the meanwhile global competition in tourism destination marketing.

Related newer concepts of the regionalization movement are, for example, self-harvesting areas that farmers make available, also urban farming , which relocates production directly to the cities, or community gardening (assistance in production supported by agricultural experts or financial participation in exchange for share rights in the harvest) . These also take up the form of the allotment garden (allotment garden) developed in the period of industrialization for the self-sufficiency of the urban workers with fresh food and transfer them into contemporary urban sociology.

Associations and institutions that advocate the idea of ​​local production include, for example, the Slow Food movement and the numerous associations from organic agriculture in their diverse currents - although the concept of greening agriculture is not related to regionalization (Conventional agriculture can also operate regionally, and ecological ideas are also relevant for world trade). These organizations also promote regionalization, not least out of self-interest in their immediate living environment. The first Regionalwert AG was founded in 2006 in Eichstetten am Kaiserstuhl for the Freiburg administrative region.

Legal meaning of designations of origin

The term “region” is not protected by law. However, since 2014 there has been a seal of the “ regional window ”. As an imprint on packaging or a label for loose goods, it should provide information about where the ingredients of the product come from and where they were processed. With the regional window, the Federal Ministry of Food promises a seal that defines the region “clearly and verifiably”.

The labeling of the regionality is otherwise not uniform for packaged food in Europe, currently there are three different EU quality seals in addition to many designations of origin .

The misuse of incorrect designations of origin can have far-reaching consequences for a retailer. The Higher Administrative Court of Münster refused a dealer the license for the weekly market in Münster u. a. because he had advertised strawberries from the Vechta area (located in the Oldenburger Münsterland ) as "Münsterländer". According to the court, this is grossly misleading buyers at the weekly market. They do not have to expect that the goods do not come from the "real" Münsterland, i.e. from the North Rhine-Westphalian administrative district of Münster . Vechta is about 110 km from Münster in Lower Saxony , but was a town in the Niederstift Münster until 1803 .

See also

literature

  • Ulrich Ermann: Regional products: Networking and drawing boundaries in the regionalization of food, Volume 3 of the social geographic library, 2005, ISBN 978-3-515-08699-8 , partial digitization
  • Ulrich Karpenstein, Bettina Werres: State support for regional products . A legal analysis. Research report 20218149. Federal Environment Agency, 2004

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Study - Meaning Markets - The Change in Values ​​in the World of Consumption . Smart News Fachverlag GmbH. May 2009
  2. ↑ Eight key trends at a glance. Regionality . manager magazin , June 4, 2009
  3. ^ Reimar von Alvensleben : consumer preferences for regional products: consumer theory basics online
  4. ↑ Michael Besch: Regional Marketing in Agribusiness Success potentials and problem areas presented in local cooperation projects of regional agricultural marketing; in: Innovative Concepts for the Marketing of Agricultural Products and Food, Volume 13, Series of publications by the Landwirtschaftliche Rentenbank, 1999, online ( Memento of the original from April 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.rentenbank.de
  5. ↑ as one of the first, for example, the NRW funding program for the regional marketing of agricultural products from 1997
  6. ↑ Thilo Marauhn (Ed.): State funding for regional products: Protectionism or environmental and consumer protection ?, 2004, ISBN 978-3-16-148322-6
  7. ↑ Ermann: Regionalprodukte, p. 27
  8. ↑ cf. on this Ermann: Regionalprodukte, p. 229 ff
  9. ^ E. Schlich, U. Fleissner: The Ecology of Scale: Assessment of Regional Energy Turnover and Comparison with Global Food. In: International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment. 10, no. 3, (2005), ISSN  0948-3349 , pp. 171-172.
  10. ↑ Ermann: Regional products, Chapter 2.1 Independent and sustainable regional development , p. 20 ff
  11. ↑ From avocados to apples: Producing food locally could help reduce climate emissions. In: pik-potsdam.de . August 29, 2019, accessed October 2, 2019 .
  12. ↑ http://www.ernaehrung-bw.info/pb/,Lde/Startseite/Nachhaltigkeit/Regionale+Lebensmittel+iegen+im+Trend ( Memento from April 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  13. ↑ Stiftung Warentest : Regional Food: Advertising or Truth? . 12th of July 2013
  14. ↑ Online farm shop Farmy increases sales by 40 percent. In: handelszeitung.ch . January 3, 2019, accessed February 8, 2019 .
  15. ↑ cf. for example urban farming. City of Vienna, wien.gv.at, accessed March 21, 2015.
  16. ↑ Jens Blankennagel: Regional organic shares: New company wants to drive the agricultural turnaround. In: berliner-zeitung.de . May 17, 2019, accessed May 18, 2019 .
  17. ↑ Jana Tashina Wörrle: Food: The problem with regionality . German craft newspaper . 2nd August 2017
  18. ↑ EU quality seal: How Swabian are (Swabian) spaetzle? . State initiative Focus on Nutrition BW.
  19. ↑ Münster Higher Administrative Court: Market traders cannot return to the Münster weekly market ( memento of the original dated November 7, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Press release. 3rd November 2017 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ovg.nrw.de