COVID-19 has affected the functioning of food systems all over the world. This paper seeks to identify and analyse the economic, legal and institutional, as well as social effects of the pandemic’s outbreak on food systems, and the implications for the EU Farm to Fork Strategy whose main purpose is to put food systems on a sustainable path. Qualitative economic and social impact analysis was used to identify the above types of effect on the food system on a macroscale, using Poland as an example. Information was sourced from existing data and qualitative studies. Studies show that the consequences of the pandemic for individual elements of the food system in Poland in 2020 were related to numerous disruptions in functioning, leading to uncertainty, financial losses, and interrupted transactions. The crisis under analysis also revealed modifications in these actors’ behaviours in food markets, noticeable in changes in consumption patterns and in the ways demand for food was met. Nevertheless, an analysis of the gathered information and data testifies to the food system’s relative resistance to the effects of the pandemic, and also to the adaptive skills of the system’s entities, especially food producers and consumers. The paper’s discussion contains recommendations for public policies shaping the food system, pointing to actions that might reduce the negative effects of other potential exogenic crises in the future and aid the implementation of the Farm to Fork Strategy’s principles.

The increasing importance of large cities (metropolises) poses a range of challenges to the socio-economic functions of the rural and agricultural areas around them. One such challenge is pressure exerted on family-run farms to abandon agricultural activity and on people engaged in such activity to shift to other sectors. This may be a hindrance to successful succession on family farms. The aim of this paper is to present spatial variation in generational changes in farms located around large cities (metropolises) in Poland and to assess the factors affecting the scale of such changes. Special attention was paid to the importance of the location of farms relative to large cities. One innovative feature of the approach presented was to conduct an analysis of generational changes in the agricultural sector at the supra-local level along with an attempt to quantify the impact of large urban centers on that process. The empirical material based on which the conclusions were formulated included official statistics data and information made available by an institution engaged in the implementation of agricultural policy programs financed from European Union (EU) funds, i.e., young farmer payments (Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) pillar I) and measures “Setting up of young farmers” and “Early retirement” (CAP Pillar II). In the executed study, methods of descriptive and multivariate statistics, including regression trees, were used. It was found that socio-economic (exogenous) factors had a significant statistical impact on generational changes in farms. In areas with an attractive labor market and a high level of urbanization, a successful generational shift in farms occurred less often. Nonetheless, generational changes in the agriculture of the analyzed areas were relatively most strongly determined by endogenous factors linked with the economic potential of the farm. Farm characteristics (area of agricultural land and economic size) and the characteristics of managers, including in particular their education, were found to be more important than exogenous factors. In areas where large and economically strong farms dominated and the level of education among farmers was relatively high, generational changes were faster compared to other areas.

In order to produce agri-food products in a sustainable way, a new and pro-environmental farmer attitude to soil is of key importance. In a situation of significant degradation of agricultural land as a result of the spread of intensive farming, there has been growing interest in regenerative agriculture. Based on a literature review as well as quantitative and qualitative primary data, the authors aim to analyse various ways in which regenerative agriculture is defined, understood and implemented, with selected countries, namely Poland, Czechia and Slovakia, serving as examples. The objective of the study is also to recognise how and to what extent the concepts and practices of regenerative agriculture meet the principles of sustainable food production. An examination of the literature shows that regenerative agriculture is a relatively new and diversely described concept drawing on many models of agriculture. The results of a bibliometric and webometric analysis suggest that the scientific, expert and public perceptions of regenerative agriculture are still limited. In the countries under consideration, regenerative agriculture is often identified with the concept of biological farming (biologisation of agriculture), and the conscious implementation of its practices at farms is infrequent, usually only taking place at large farms. The study was conducted from the point of view of the social sciences and agricultural economics, is comparative in character, and includes recommendations for agricultural policy as well as guidelines for possible future research.

The aim of the study was to provide the examples of eco-innovations in agriculture relating to the concept of sustainable development and the indication of their conditions. Quantitative and qualitative methods were applied to the research, namely: descriptive statistical and economic analysis of the Polish Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) data and Statistics Poland data, as well as case studies of organic food producers, covering the years 2005–2019. Indicated information sources, encompassing long time span of analysis and various data collections, allowed presenting the complementary picture of eco-innovations at the sector and farm levels. The research examined the different types of ecological innovations in Polish agriculture, including: (1) organisational innovations with an institutional background (e.g., the organic farming support and greening mechanism of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP)—implemented in the family farming sector); and (2) the product, marketing, process and organisational innovations in selected organic farms that were individual farmers’ initiatives. On the one hand, the research documented the effectiveness of new agricultural policy solutions in the agricultural sector that are examples of organisational eco-innovations. During 2005–2016, the certification system, as well as policy support, contributed to the development of organic farms in Poland in terms of the growth in the share of this type of holdings in total (from 0.5% to 4.6%) and in the overall utilised agricultural area (UAA) (from 0.3% to 3.7%). Moreover, during 2014–2015, as a result of the greening in agricultural holdings, the area sown with pulses and papilionaceous, i.e., crops improving soil structure and protecting soils, rose by 174% and 161%, respectively. On the other hand, the case studies conducted showed that the food producers’ knowledge and skills combined with a favourable local economic and social situation, as well as institutional support, played a key role in the process of the emergence of eco-innovations. Among those factors, the respondents’ individual characteristics associated with attitudes towards farming and the social, human and physical capital passed on by family members should be highlighted. This paper contributes to existing literature in two ways. First, this study combines both quantitative and qualitative (including in-depth interviews) approaches to eco-innovations at the micro and macro level of analysis. Second, by differentiating two approaches to ecological innovations, namely the conventional and the sustainable, the article indicates and considers the key factors favourable to the latter.

In this paper the impact of selected determinants on farm succession in Poland is analysed. The study shows that socio-demographic\ud factors associated primarily with the characteristics of families, particularly of farm managers, had a significant infl uence\ud on the family transfers of agricultural holdings. The impact of micro-economic and spatial factors on farm succession was\ud observed as well. However, the research results indicate different scales and characters of succession determinants. Behind\ud this variability was an institutional change linked to Poland’s accession to the European Union and changes in the economy.\ud The paper argues that this context, along with conducive social and legal background, reinforced a generational change in the\ud sector. Analysis at the micro level was prepared on the basis of empirical data from the longitudinal IERiGŻ-PIB surveys conducted\ud in 76 villages located across Poland with the use of multinomial dependent variable logit models. A unique feature of the\ud study is an exploration of farm succession as an intra-family and generational phenomenon, relating to the different phases of\ud family life cycle, as well as to kinship relationships. Moreover, unlike the majority of succession studies, the presented research\ud distinguishes three types of succession (inter-generational, intra-generational and reverse inter-generational) and is based\ud on information concerning actual changes in surveyed rural households, not only respondents’ declarations about the future

Making Development More Sustainable? The EU Cohesion Policy and Socio-Economic Growth of Rural Regions in Poland