Infrastructures for sustainable food systems: the case of Armentera’s slaughterhouse

This report examines the role of local slaughterhouses as critical food system infrastructure in a context marked by the crisis of the industrial pork sector, increasing corporate concentration, and growing dependence on global markets. Drawing on economic, social, and environmental data, it shows how the decline of these infrastructures has contributed to the erosion of peasant farming and heightened territorial vulnerability.

The analysis is grounded in a clear premise: without local food infrastructure, meaningful alternatives cannot be built. The disappearance of local slaughterhouses undermines the economic viability of small and medium-scale livestock farmers, while reinforcing a highly concentrated production model that remains particularly exposed to sanitary, economic, and logistical shocks.

The report then focuses on the Public–Community Slaughterhouse of L’Armentera as a concrete example of an “infrastructure of the middle”—one capable of articulating local economies, ecological sustainability, and territorial democracy. The case highlights how public–community governance arrangements can sustain short food supply chains, strengthen local value creation, and support agroecological transitions.

Finally, the study distils key lessons for public policy, offering guidance on how food system infrastructure can be reoriented to support a just, resilient, and territorially rooted food transition.

• Date: 2025
• Authors: Mauro Castro, Adrià Rodríguez, Frederic Horta, Andrea Walsh
• With the support of: Project selected under the call “Del Campo a la Despensa. Alimentación Sostenible 2025”, Daniel and Nina Carasso Foundation.
• Keywords: food infrastructures, short food supply chains, public–community governance, agroecological transition