Oldal 205 [205]
OCR
FOOD SUPPLY AS A GLOBAL CHALLENGE 203 characterize CEE will only contribute to the capitalist accumulation processes, as they make it possible to keep the price of wage labor low by having certain, usually female, members of the household perform this task as invisible work (Czirfusz et al. 2019; Smith, A. et al. 2008). A part of the food produced in the garden can significantly reduce the food costs of the household and the surplus can be sold on local markets or directly from the houses, generating additional income for the backyard farmer. Since they need less technology and land, it is easier to make small-scale food production solutions less dependent on the global market. In small gardens and small-scale farms it is possible to practice seed sovereignty (producing one’s own seeds), to use organic manure instead of artificial fertilizers, and to grow more resistant species so as to avoid spraying or the use of other chemicals. To achieve seed sovereignty in Hungary, members of the Maghaz Network (small-scale, household gardeners and family farmers) collaborate to collect, maintain and exchange traditional and exotic seeds (Balazs — Balogh — Réthy 2021). Although the current food system marginalizes them and they are underresearched in agrarian studies, the decreasing number of Central and Eastern European smallholders often flourish in informal networks of reciprocity and informal markets, which (Visser — Dorondel et al. 2019; Varga 2019) significantly contribute to overall food production (Visser — Kurakin — Nikulin 2019; Thiemann — Spoor 2019), to sustainability (Kiss — Bela — Bodorkés 2012; Jehliéka et al. 2019), and to social cohesion (Jehlicka et al. 2019; Varga 2019). Summary and conclusion This chapter explored food as a global challenge and its reformist and systemic alternatives. Since food as a global challenge affects all parts of the world, in order to understand and manage the challenge, it is necessary to think on a wide range of geographical scales — on a global, continental, macro-regional, state and local level. The two most important attempts to reform the current food system are the solutions that emphasize the geographical proximity of the production and consumption of food and the efforts at making cultivation technology more environmentally friendly (and healthier). The dominant narratives of different “eat local” campaigns, short food supply chains, local farmers’ markets, and shopping collectives do not aim to change the system dominated by marketrelations or the commodification of food, hence their impact remains limited. Organic farming is the best-known, most widespread and most elaborately developed example of making cultivation technology more environmentally friendly. However, ecological farming often only means a technological alternative for cultivation (for instance, the use of synthetic chemical pesticides and herbicides, as well as fertilizers is absolutely, or largely avoided) without questioning the global food supply chains. Food sovereignty is a political framework which points out the systemic challenges generated by the global food systems and seeks possibilities for resistance. It promotes a food system in which small-scale family farmers and peasants grow food suitable for local consumption using agroecological methods. Agroecology is simultaneously a social movement, a set of practices which seeks an alternative
