Recent literature has claimed for a better understanding of food networks, especially in
the case of local food systems. Studies should consider the social and territorial
dimension of local food networks, in order to understand how they are established and to
assess their effective sustainability. The aim of this contribution is to develop a
methodology to perform a spatial network analysis in order to include both the territorial
and socio-economic dimensions of local food networks, starting from the point of view of
farmers. The methods has been applied on 14 livestock producers and on the processors
and different sellers and distributors they are related to. The case study is the periurban
area of Pisa, in Italy. Seven Local Food Networks Types result from the first step of
analysis, showing a high degree of initiatives organised by farmers to maintain the
products locally. Especially while the production and the sale of the product is located at
the local area, most of the processing is done outside the local area, demonstrating that
different actors provide a different definition of what is “local”; moreover the
spatialisation demonstrates the high degree of fragmentation of the local food supply
from local farmers to local spaces of sale (groceries, restaurants, etc..). Finally the
constraints analysis applied on farmers, processors, and sellers demonstrate a lack of
coordination of individual initiatives which may undermine the future sustainability of
local food system.
