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Redistributing ManufacturingLocalised Food Systems

Dr John IngramFood Systems Programme LeaderEnvironmental Change Institute

University of Oxford

Dr Aidong Yang‘Food’ RDM Project Leader

Department of Engineering ScienceUniversity of Oxford

“To develop the research agenda for Re-Distributed

Manufacturing with a particular focus and to engage with

both relevant academic and user communities.”

Re-Distributed ManufacturingCall for Networks

(2014)

Food in manufacturing

(2014, UK)

Guiding Questions for the Food project

1. What would be the drivers of reorganising food manufacturing?

2. What would be the necessary organisational, regulatory and technological facilitators of such a change?

3. What would be the consequences (intended and unintended) of such a change?

“Technology, systems and strategies that change the economics and organisation of manufacturing, particularly with regard to location and scale.”

EPSRC working definition of RDM

How the research agenda (questions)was produced

Scoping projects(literature review + empirical studies)

Stakeholder interviews and workshops

“raw” research questions

Selection, combination, streamlining, regrouping

Overarching questions

Engineering & technology

Economics and business

Policy and society

(a) Resources, wastes and emission

(b) Food technology

Research questions:

• How has the distribution of food manufacturing changed over time in the UK, both in terms of ownership and geography?

• What is the relative concentration and distribution of manufacturing for different food products in the UK, and what factors account for the variance?

• What are the food security and resilience implications of RDM in the food sector?

Food manufacturing in the UK

Research questions:

• What kinds of products are best suited to local markets, why and what are their key characteristics?

• How do customers perceive locally manufactured foods relative to centrally manufactured foods?

• How would the business and regulatory landscape have to change to promote more local food manufacturing businesses at city scale?

Central vs local manufacture?

Local food: how ‘local’ is ‘local’?

Definition of ‘local’• The geographical scope of a

locale, within which beneficial alignment of resource, production and consumption can be effectively established through innovations in technology, products and systems.

• The size of such a locale may vary, depending on its physical

and social-economic situation.

Case studies

2 geographic case studies:

Oxford: 150,000, ca. 1% food from county=> retrofitting existing systems

Northstowe: 40,000, ?% food from county=> designing de novo

2 food case studies:

Bread Tomato paste

Oxford case study

• As scale has increased over C20, manufacturing sites have become consolidated

• Distance from consumer has increased, even becoming global• Facilitated by manufacturing technology, transportation, global trade, etc…

MANY, SMALLER FEWER, LARGER

Bread case study

80% PLANT BAKERY

17% IN-STORE BAKERY

3% CRAFT BAKERY

Bread case study

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EXAMPLE 2: BREAD

How does bread get to Oxford?• A mixture of global, regional and local elements• Why this geographical balance?

• Use of UK grain enabled by technological changes –Chorleywood

• Shelf-life• Economies of scale• Food culture – compare to Italy, Spain

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EXAMPLE 2: BREAD

Shifting the balance - Oxford manufacturing its own bread?• Abundant wheat is available in the county• A very small mill? A year’s flour for Oxford = 7 weeks flour

production for a small commercial mill; 2.5 days for a large mill• One or many bakeries – existing artisan bakeries as a blueprint?

Or a mechanised model?

• Consequences: • Cost; retail; investment; efficiency; ownership; employment…

Research questions:

• What future scenarios would encourage businesses to radically redistribute bread manufacturing, for example rising transport fuel costs?

• What are the cultural and structural differences underlying the differing distributions of milling and baking in France vs the UK?

Bread case study

• Highly centralised (globalised) manufacturing• An archetypal global food product• A non-perishable form of a highly perishable raw material, preserving

important attributes• A highly seasonal product can be sold all year• Removing water = reducing weight, so transport is easy

What if… Oxford manufactured its own tomato paste?• Tomatoes would have to be grown here too > 1.8ha heated greenhouses• Small-scale equipment• Economic viability – £1.50/100ml vs 22p/100ml• Potential for value-added? Environmental and social benefits? …or costs!

Processing tomatoes >> remove skin and seeds >> juice >> condense >> pack

Tomato paste case study

1. The home replicator

Manufacturing in every home

2. Artisanal dream

High quality small batch products

3. Mid-sized, mechanised

A bakery for every town

4. Onshoring

Made in Britain

Current systems: Large-scale, national International

Distance to consumer

Scal

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f o

pe

rati

on

What could redistributed food manufacturing look like?

Research questions:

• How well do these four preliminary categories of RDM in the food sector fulfil analytical needs? Can they be strengthened or improved upon?

• Do the multiple different ‘types’ of RDM in the food sector constitute a coherent research area or are they best researched separately?

• How do drivers and outcomes of change differ across these four RDM types?

What could redistributed food manufacturing look like?

Food is globalised manufacturing

ChinaBelgium

UK

France

NetherlandsBelgium

Mauritius

Factory in NE England

Switzerland

Argentina

Japan

Italy

Germany

Spain

Poland

Brazil1 product with18 ingredients from14 countries

Research questions:

• What are the political and philosophical questions surrounding the RDM of food?

• How aligned is RDM with localist philosophies?

Local vs. global?

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LNN Feasibility Projects

1. Food2. Energy 3. Water4. Business models and practices5. Policy and society6. System integration

www.localnexus.org