Food hub as an efficient alternative to sustainably feed the cities

Abstract

The task of feeding cities is a challenge that nowadays all governments face, it involves the coordination of multiple producers, distributors, logistics operators and traders of perishable foods. This paper analyzes the Food hubs concept and its impact on urban development in a critical perception from the literature review. The state of the art on the concept of Food Hub is presented at first instance. Then a classification of different types of Food hub is done by focusing on the actors involved in the food system distribution process, structure and functions. After that, an analysis of the prospects of the implementation of Food hubs is performed, evaluating its economic, social and environmental impacts. Finally, the main opportunities for the deployment of urban Food hubs are presented, and four Latin-American cases are introduced, linked them with the proposed typology.