Does an Alternative Local Food Network Contribute to Improving Sustainable Food Security?

Abstract

Food security is the state of having reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, safe, and nutritious food for all people. It is a critical point to be achieved yet has many aspects to be considered, which include food availability, stability, access, and utilization. Each aspect has its own challenge, which makes food security a complex goal to achieve. Therefore, this paper aims to demonstrate how the Local Food Network (LFN) might be able to address the challenges of food security and eventually achieve it. Moreover, this paper also takes the standpoint of sustainability aspects to ensure food security can be achieved sustainably and responsibly. A case study in Indonesia is given in this paper to provide a concrete explanation of the topic. Rice commodity is used in this study as the staple food of Indonesia. To achieve the goal of this paper, a Multi-objective Linear Programming (MOLP) model, which reflects the LFN, is developed. Furthermore, sustainability’s social, economic, and environmental aspects are directly incorporated into the model. Through several measures obtained from the model results, this paper indicates that food security can be achieved sustainably through the concept of LFN.

1. Introduction

All people should have access, physically and economically, to healthy and safe foods [1,2]. Food accessibility should be maintained to ensure all people can reach the available food source to fulfill their dietary needs [3]. Therefore, one critical aspect of ensuring all people can satisfy their dietary needs is maintaining food availability, which guarantees the food stock is sufficient to be accessed by all people [4]. This point is also strongly correlated with food stability, i.e., the food system’s resilience to ensure food stock remains stable against disruptions [5]. These three points deliver the purpose of ensuring everyone can reach food at all times.

Nevertheless, ensuring all people can reach food at all times does not necessarily indicate that they can satisfy their dietary needs. To achieve such a goal, food utilization is another important aspect, i.e., how people can benefit from all nutrition contained in the food they consume [6,7]. This aspect ensures that the nutritional substance within the food is maintained from farm to fork during preparation, processing, and cooking. All four fundamental propositions, i.e., availability, accessibility, stability, and utilization, are the pillars of food security [8], making it a complex goal to achieve.

One of the challenges in achieving food security is climate change. Climate shifts and weather pattern changes generally affect food production, leading to resource depletion [8]. Another challenge has come from natural disasters. Natural disasters also pose a risk of affecting food productivity. Furthermore, natural disasters also disrupt the food supply chain, cutting off the connectivity from one actor to another along the supply chain. These significantly reduce food availability and accessibility over a certain period.

Moreover, war and conflict have a causal relationship with food security [9]. Conflict significantly affects the food supply, particularly for people close to the conflicting areas. In extreme cases, food and hunger are used as a weapon of war [10]. In addition, the causal effect of conflict might also be experienced by people living far away from the conflicting areas that have some dependencies on the conflicting parties. The current conflict between Ukraine and Russia resulted in negative socio-economic consequences that are felt internationally and can be exacerbated.

If geopolitical instability continues, the food crisis will only worsen. The food crisis is a challenge for many countries, especially those that rely on food imports, such as the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) [11,12,13]. It is possible that it has an impact on countries in Southeast Asia, including Indonesia [14]. At the same time, wars and conflicts occur, while the world is still facing the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, food prices in the global market have experienced increases. War also impacts the increasing global demand by triggering a panic buying movement at country and individual levels. Furthermore, crop yields have decreased in several countries due to the disruption of fertilizers due to the restriction of fertilizer supply, and future harvests are uncertain [10,12]. These two countries are major producers of oil, fertilizers, and wheat commodities [15]. This has had a major impact on the ASEAN Indian economy. The occurrence of artificial disasters such as conflict directly worsens the food security of the global community [16,17]. These challenges are only a few examples of issues concerning food security, which certainly has various unique challenges in each region worldwide.

Therefore, developing a local food network as an alternative food security strategy is essential. In uncertain conditions such as those today, local food network development must consider sustainability. A sustainable local food network pays attention to the environmental, social, economic, political, and corporate impacts on the food system while ensuring a sustainable and healthy diet for all societies [18]. To address the challenges above in achieving food security, designing an optimal food supply network through the concept of a Local Food Network (LFN) has become a prioritized mission. LFN is a concept in the food supply chain where local farmers are allowed to sell food directly to consumers and/or wholesalers within the same region [19]. LFN is a form of sustainable local food network that was developed as part of the resilience of food security action and ensures food from a local source for the community [20,21,22].

It is critical to consider sustainability aspects in this problem to ensure that food security is achieved and maintained for as long as possible with minimum impacts on other aspects, which might generate other issues [18]. LFN accommodated a holistic food system and integrated it with dynamic situations. Furthermore, LFN is designed in an integrated manner, between aspects of food production, processing, distribution, and consumption, and can maintain the sustainability of food security [20,21]. Based on the statement above, alternative local food networks must consider sustainability in developing food security.

However, several researchers have demonstrated ideas for developing local food networks. Developing local food networks is a form of developing distribution strategies to achieve food security [23,24]. The development of local food networks is intended to ensure efficiency in distribution costs to ensure consumers are provided competitive prices and upstream food actors can obtain higher margins. The distribution strategy is also one of the steps to improve inventory management efficiency, especially for staple foods such as food grains [25]. Distribution efficiency also reduces the negative impact on the environment and is an effort to improve the local economy [26,27,28,29]. Developing local food networks is also intended as a strategy to overcome a country’s dependence on imports and pay economic attention to aspects of local food sustainability [30,31].

The articles related to the development of the local food network above are analyzed using mathematical models, such as multi-objective linear programming (MOLP) [23], a multi-objective formulation (MOF) and a solution approach based on simulation [24,30], multi-period mixed-integer non-linear programming (MINLP) [25,26,27], a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) model [28], and a stochastics optimization model [29,31]. In short, within the broader scope of the local food networks, several studies have addressed the issue of the three pillars of sustainability in the food supply network using MOLP. However, no one has used MOLP to solve the rice supply chain problem. The main novelty of this research lies within the substantial standpoint in which this article develops a MOLP model in the scope of the rice supply chain, considering the five pillars of sustainability in the study.

This article is structured as follows: Section 2 discusses materials and methods, covering the case study and the optimization model developed in this study. Section 3 discusses the results and findings of our research. Then, Section 4 concludes our study.

2. Literature Review

2.1. Emerging Alternative Local Food Network to Enhance Food Security

Food security and sustainability are two things that are interrelated and aim to reduce hunger by considering economic, social, and environmental aspects. The fulfillment of food security is a situation in which all people can obtain an affordable price for food, and each individual can access food easily with guaranteed availability at all times [32]. Accordingly, a food supply chain design or strategy is needed to adjust the robustness and agility of the food networks. Uncertain situations, where war, conflict, climate change, and unexpected situations such as the COVID-19 pandemic lead to an economic crisis and increasing food insecurity, require the redesign of alternative local food networks [33,34].

One alternative to local food networks (LFNs) was developed to improve the efficiency of the distribution of local food supplies [35]. The LFN was designed to increase local food’s value and capability to meet the availability of food demand. Accordingly, the LFN can be developed in developing countries as an alternative strategy to improve the local food systems and support the improvement of food security [22].

LFN is seen as an alternative strategy to improve food security amid various challenges in the food network. LFN can be designed as a logistics service provider that is agile, robust, and oriented to help improve the capabilities of local food systems [21,22,35]. LFN is also one of the concepts for developing an alternative local food system that can implement sustainability aspects, namely economic, social, environmental, political, and corporate [18]. In this study, LFN focuses on developing an alternative strategy to enhance the capability of local food actors as a solution to overcome the challenges of food security in uncertain situations.

For this reason, it is necessary to involve the five aspects of sustainability as pillars of LFN development. Rice is chosen as the staple food for people in Asia, including Indonesia [36,37]. Maximizing rice demand fulfillment from retailers is a focus area to achieve social goals in sustainability. Maximizing the rice demand fulfillment means minimizing hunger, one of the most critical items in the social sustainability pillar [18].

Promoting the economic sustainability standpoint increases the welfare of local farmers and Rice Milling Units (RMUs) [38]. This point is achieved by prioritizing rice demand fulfillment from all local farmers available first before sourcing or importing from other regions. This economic goal is attained by selecting the most profitable markets with the best price and lowest cost possible for the RMUs [38,39].

Optimizing the supply chain network by considering distribution costs that result in shorter delivery distances is a strategy to achieve the environmental goals of sustainability. A shorter delivery distance minimizes carbon emissions during food distribution [40]. A shorter delivery distance also helps preserve the product’s freshness and minimize the risk of the product perishing, which eventually reduces food waste [41,42,43].

Poor governance is one of the critical issues of political sustainability [18]. The optimal design of the local food network is obtained through LFN sustainability. Optimizing governance will be the basis for improving the organizational system of the local food network as it addresses the challenges of achieving food security. For example, through the optimal design of the local food network, the welfare of local farmers and RMUs is increased, which also supports the corporate sustainability of the local farmers and RMUs.

Based on the above understanding, the development of food security requires continuous development and involves various aspects in its development. The five sustainability pillars are interrelated and become aspects of the development of local food networks that are seen as solutions to various challenges.

2.2. Optimizing the Alternative Local Food Network

Designing an alternative local food network encompasses multiple actors and simultaneously produces various products. Accordingly, the alternative local food network requires a resilience distribution with various modes to support the implementation of the five pillars of sustainability [44]. Various issues related to the food distribution process became the focus of the solutions carried out by scientists. One of the efforts made was to optimize the alternative local food network. Optimizing the food network aims to reduce distribution costs, reduce carbon emissions during the distribution processes, mitigate food loss and waste during the logistics processes, and optimize added value and profits obtained by food network actors [45,46,47,48]. In addition, logistics governance is essential as part of an alternative strategy to improve food security and optimize food distribution networks sourced from local products [49].

Optimizing the food distribution network is one of the management strategies built to mitigate the issues hindering food security achievement. The optimization models developed by scholars are diverse, such as reducing Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions through a series of engineering processes in food transportation and distribution [37,47]. Moreover, the optimization model is used to reduce food loss and waste, optimize costs, increase farmer welfare, and optimize distribution networks for disasters [50,51].

Based on this, developing optimization models on local food networks (LFNs) is essential, primarily related to developing food security strategies in times of uncertainty such as today. Optimization model development has been carried out using various optimization methods. Several scholars used multi-objective linear programming (MOLP), mixed-integer linear programming (MILP), the multi-objective cross entropy (CE) algorithm, multi-period mixed-integer non-linear programming (MINLP), and the stochastic optimization model to achieve their research goals [23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,50].

3. Materials and Methods

3.1. Materials

The case study in this article focuses on the distribution of rice distributions in Indonesia, particularly in the West Java Province, one of the provinces located on Java Island. This province is one of Indonesia’s most densely populated provinces [52]. Moreover, this province also acts as one of the primary rice producers in Indonesia [53]. This study focuses on distribution at the city or regency level. This study considers 27 cities and regencies, as seen in Figure 1.

The flow of rice distribution in West Java Province involves many actors: Rice farmers, RMUs, wholesalers, and retailers. Figure 2 shows the concept overview of LFN for the rice distribution channel in the West Java Province. In addition, some non-local actors might also be able to participate in this LFN to help strengthen the food security in the West Java Province.

There are several data used in this study. These data include rice production and demand in each city and regency in the West Java Province, the flow of rice in and out of the Cipinang rice wholesale market (located outside of the West Java Province and one of the largest rice markets in Indonesia), and the distance between each city or regency. Data on the demand and production of rice in West Java can be seen in Figure 3. All data used are secondary data that come from various sources. The data on the demand and production of rice in each region of the West Java Province are sourced from the West Java Province, as shown in Figure 3 [54]. The flow of rice data in the Cipinang rice wholesaler were obtained from the InfoPIBC website [55]. For mileage between cities or regencies in the West Java region, the author used the website maps.google.com applications.

3.2. Linear Programming

Linear programming is an optimization method that can be applied to solve problems with an objective function and constraints with a decision variable in the form of a linear function. Constraint equations in linear programming problems can be equations or inequalities. The general form of linear programming can be expressed as follows [56]:

$$\min f\left(x\right)=c^{T}x$$

(1)

$$s.t Ax\ge b$$

(2)

$$x\ge 0$$

(3)

where

$$\mathit{x}=\left[\begin{array}{c}{x}_1\\ x_2\\ ⋮\\ x_n\end{array}\right], \mathit{b}=\left[\begin{array}{c}{b}_1\\ b_2\\ ⋮\\ b_m\end{array}\right], \mathit{c}=\left[\begin{array}{c}{c}_1\\ c_2\\ ⋮\\ c_n\end{array}\right], A=\left[\begin{array}{cccc}{a}_{11}& a_{12}& \cdots & a_{1n}\\ a_{21}& a_{22}& \cdots & a_{2n}\\ ⋮& ⋮& & ⋮\\ a_{m1}& a_{m2}& \cdots & a_{mn}\end{array}\right]$$

Furthermore, Equation (1) is an objective function, inequality (2) is a constraint function, and inequality (3) is a constraint that the decision variable on the problem has a non-negative value. Linear programming problems have characteristics in standard form, namely:

• The objective function is in the form of minimization.
• All constraint functions are in the form of equations.
• All decision variables have non-negative values.

3.3. Model Formulation

This study uses multi-objective linear programming (MOLP) as the model structure. As discussed in the Section 1, this paper tries to optimize the local food supply network through many aspects from various actors involved along the chain, in which the main objective is to maximize the rice demand fulfillment from a retailer standpoint as given in (4). This objective function supports one of the pillars of social sustainability, where it can minimize hunger, which is the most critical part of the social sustainability pillar [18]. Meanwhile, from the standpoint of local farmers, this paper also empowers and raises farmers’ welfare by maximizing the rice demand fulfillment from local farmers, as given in (5). Furthermore, this paper raises the welfare of RMU actors by maximizing profit, ensuring the RMUs obtained the best price at the minimum possible cost, as given in (6). Functions (5) and (6) support economic sustainability because they can improve the welfare of local farmers and RMUs from this rice supply chain process. Lastly, this paper also enhances the local food network by minimizing the total distribution cost from farm to fork, as given in (7), which minimizes the total footprint of the distribution network and contributes to lowering carbon emissions to support environmental sustainability [40].

Subject to

$$\max {\displaystyle \sum }_{j\in J}{\displaystyle \sum }_{i\in I}{z}_{ji}+{\displaystyle \sum }_{k\in K}{\displaystyle \sum }_{i\in I}y{4}_{ki}+{\displaystyle \sum }_{l\in L}{\displaystyle \sum }_{i\in Q\left[l\right]}y{5}_{li}$$

(4)

$$\max {\displaystyle \sum }_{m\in M}{\displaystyle \sum }_{l\in L}x{1}_{ml}$$

(5)

$$\max {\displaystyle \sum }_{l\in L}{\displaystyle \sum }_{j\in J}p{1}_{j}y{1}_{lj}+{\displaystyle \sum }_{l\in L}{\displaystyle \sum }_{k\in K}p{2}_{k}y{2}_{lk}+{\displaystyle \sum }_{l\in L}{\displaystyle \sum }_{i\in Q\left[l\right]}p{1}_{i}y{5}_{li}-\left({\displaystyle \sum }_{l\in L}{\displaystyle \sum }_{j\in J}{b}_{lj}y{1}_{lj}+{\displaystyle \sum }_{j\in J}{\displaystyle \sum }_{k\in K}{b}_{lk}y{2}_{lk}+{\displaystyle \sum }_{l\in L}{\displaystyle \sum }_{i\in Q\left[l\right]}{b}_{li}y{5}_{li}\right)$$

(6)

$$\min {\displaystyle \sum }_{m\in M}{\displaystyle \sum }_{l\in L}{b}_{ml}x{1}_{ml}+{\displaystyle \sum }_{n\in N}{\displaystyle \sum }_{l\in L}{b}_{nl}x{2}_{nl}+{\displaystyle \sum }_{l\in L}{\displaystyle \sum }_{j\in J}{b}_{lj}y{1}_{lj}+{\displaystyle \sum }_{j\in J}{\displaystyle \sum }_{k\in K}{b}_{lk}y{2}_{lk}+{\displaystyle \sum }_{j\in J}{\displaystyle \sum }_{k\in K}{b}_{kj}y{3}_{kj}+{\displaystyle \sum }_{l\in L}{\displaystyle \sum }_{i\in Q\left[l\right]}{b}_{li}y{5}_{li}+{\displaystyle \sum }_{j\in J}{\displaystyle \sum }_{i\in I}{b}_{ji}{z}_{ji}$$

(7)

Rice inflows are sourced from mainly local and non-local farmers (rice farmers outside of the West Java Province) when needed. The fulfillment of rice from non-local farmers is an actual illustration that RMU obtains supplies not only from local farmers. However, the rice processed at RMU West Java is also met from other areas outside the West Java Province, as given by (8). The inflows adhere to their respective capability to absorb and process rice as defined in (9). Meanwhile, the outflows from RMU stream down to the local and non-local wholesalers, with the possibility to penetrate retailers within the same direction and adjacent cities or regencies, as given in (10).

$${\displaystyle \sum }_{m\in M}x{1}_{ml}+{\displaystyle \sum }_{n\in N}x{2}_{nl}=s{1}_l, \forall l\in L$$

(8)

$$s{1}_l\le c{4}_l,\forall l\in L$$

(9)

$$s{1}_l={\displaystyle \sum }_{j\in J}y{1}_{lj}+{\displaystyle \sum }_{k\in K}y{2}_{lk}+{\displaystyle \sum }_{i\in Q\left[l\right]}y{5}_{li}, \forall l\in L$$

(10)

Both local and non-local farmers distribute their rice to RMU concerning their production capacity, as stated in (11) and (12), respectively.

$${\displaystyle \sum }_{l\in L}x{1}_{ml}\le c{1}_m, \forall m\in M$$

(11)

$${\displaystyle \sum }_{l\in L}x{2}_{nl}\le c{2}_n, \forall n\in N$$

(12)

Meanwhile, from the standpoint of local wholesalers, the rice inflows are sourced from RMUs and non-local wholesalers as structured in (13). These inflows also follow local wholesalers’ capability to absorb rice and sell it to retailers, as given in (14) and (15).

$${\displaystyle \sum }_{l\in L}y{1}_{lj}+{\displaystyle \sum }_{k\in K}y{3}_{kj}=s{2}_j, \forall j\in J$$

(13)

$$s{2}_j\le c{5}_j, \forall j\in J$$

(14)

$$s{2}_j={\displaystyle \sum }_{i\in I}{z}_{ji}, \forall j\in J$$

(15)

From the view of non-local wholesalers, they received the rice from local RMUs and other sources outside West Java, as given in (16). Hence, the wholesalers have the volume share of rice between local RMUs and other sources as formulated in (17).

$${\displaystyle \sum }_{l\in L}y{2}_{lk}+c{3}_k=s{3}_k, \forall k\in K$$

(16)

$${\displaystyle \sum }_{l\in L}y{2}_{lk}\le a_k, \forall k\in K$$

(17)

From the rice stock, a 10% share will be distributed to the local wholesalers and retailers, whereas the rest will be distributed to other regions outside West Java, as given in (18).

$$s{3}_k=0.9s{3}_k+{\displaystyle \sum }_{j\in J}y{3}_{kj}+{\displaystyle \sum }_{i\in I}y{4}_{ki}, \forall k\in K$$

(18)

Ultimately, from a retailer’s standpoint, the rice demand fulfillment is sourced from various actors, including local wholesalers, RMUs, and non-local wholesalers, as stated in (19).

$${\displaystyle \sum }_{j\in J}{z}_{ji}+{\displaystyle \sum }_{k\in K}y{4}_{ki}+{\displaystyle \sum }_{l\in L}y{5}_{li}\le d_i, \forall i\in I.$$

(19)

4. Results and Discussion

This section discusses the rice distribution network using the MOLP model constructed in Section 3 to obtain the optimum network by considering rice supply, rice demand, and the capacity of each RMU, wholesaler, and retailer. The optimum network is obtained by applying the lexicographic method to solve the model as it has multiple (four) objective functions.

Table 1. Rice demand fulfillment.

Consumer Area	Supply from Local Wholesale Market (tons)	Supply from Nonlocal Wholesale Market (tons)	Supply from RMU	Total Supply	Total Demand	Percentage of Demand Fulfillment
Ciamis Regency	0	0	107,747	107,747	107,747	100%
Garut Regency	0	0	233,393	233,393	233,393	100%
Tasikmalaya Regency	0	0	156,637	156,637	156,637	100%
Tasikmalaya City	59,135	0	0	59,135	59,135	100%
Cirebon Regency	0	0	197,002	197,002	197,002	100%
Cirebon City	28,748	0	0	28,748	28,748	100%
Indramayu Regency	0	0	155,353	155,353	155,353	100%
Majalengka Regency	108,231	0	0	108,231	108,231	100%
Kuningan Regency	0	0	97,041	97,041	97,041	100%
Sukabumi Regency	219,507	0	0	219,507	219,507	100%
Sukabumi City	29,421	0	0	29,421	29,421	100%
Bogor City	0	0	100,317	100,317	100,317	100%
Depok City	220,541	0	0	220,541	220,541	100%
Bekasi Regency	0	0	344,402	344,402	344,402	100%
Bekasi City	273,739	0	0	273,739	273,739	100%
Bogor Regency	392,651	146,000	0	538,651	538,651	100%
Cianjur Regency	0	0	201,059	201,059	201,059	100%
Bandung Regency	309,363	0	30,023	339,386	339,386	100%
Bandung City	224,220	0	0	224,220	224,220	100%
Cimahi City	55,222	0	0	55,222	55,222	100%
Sumedang Regency	59,894	0	43,411	103,306	103,306	100%
West Bandung Regency	0	0	152,222	152,222	152,222	100%
Subang Regency	27,337	0	116,955	144,292	144,292	100%
Purwakarta Regency	0	0	86,250	86,250	86,250	100%
Karawang Regency	0	0	210,907	210,907	210,907	100%
Banjar City	0	0	16,379	16,379	16,379	100%
Pangandaran Regency	35,992	0	0	35,992	35,992	100%
Total	2,044,000	146,000	2,249,097	4,439,097	4,439,097	100%

shows the results of fulfilling the rice demand from RMU for each consumer area in West Java Province. The consumer area is the name of each city or regency in West Java Province, with a total of 27 cities or regencies (9 cities and 18 regencies). Each consumer area has a different source of supply, where the source of supply is calculated from local wholesalers, non-local wholesales, and some directly from local RMUs. The supply that is met directly from the local RMU is the consumer and rice production areas. Eight of the twenty-seven consumer areas are the main rice production centers and the largest rice supply areas for the Indonesian capital.

Table 2. Rice supplies from farmers to RMUs.

Farmer (by Region)	Rice Production (tons/year)	Rice Distributed to Local RMU (tons/year)	Percentage
Local (West Java)	5,257,909	5,184,135	99%
Ciamis Regency	170,666	170,666	100%
Garut Regency	254,636	254,636	100%
Tasikmalaya Regency	264,921	264,921	100%
Tasikmalaya City	23,937	23,937	100%
Cirebon Regency	282,344	282,344	100%
Cirebon City	635	635	100%
Indramayu Regency	786,395	786,395	100%
Majalengka Regency	320,832	320,832	100%
Kuningan Regency	149,159	149,159	100%
Sukabumi Regency	288,388	288,388	100%
Sukabumi City	8583	8583	100%
Bogor City	120	120	100%
Depok City	175	175	100%
Bekasi Regency	316,891	316,891	100%
Bekasi City	1593	1593	100%
Bogor Regency	173,901	173,901	100%
Cianjur Regency	358,639	358,639	100%
Bandung Regency	176,101	176,101	100%
Bandung City	4096	4096	100%
Cimahi City	245	245	100%
Sumedang Regency	167,608	167,608	100%
West Bandung Regency	91,361	91,361	100%
Subang Regency	555,981	555,981	100%
Purwakarta Regency	91,048	91,048	100%
Karawang Regency	661,712	661,712	100%
Banjar City	17,606	17,606	100%
Pangandaran Regency	90,339	16,565	18%
Non-Local (Outside West Java)	1,810,499	-	0%
Banten (Outside West Java)	898,117	-	0%
Kudus Regency (Outside West Java)	107,204	-	0%
Demak Regency (Outside West Java)	378,181	-	0%
Cilacap Regency (Outside West Java)	426,996	-	0%

shows that the optimum network determined that the maximum fulfillment of rice needs can be achieved at 4,439,097 tons/year, or all rice needs in each consumer area can be met (100%). It can be assumed that all communities can have access to food and reduce the risk of hunger, which directly supports the social pillars of sustainability [18]. Meeting the maximum rice demand is achieved with a minimum total distribution cost, reducing carbon pollution from distribution activities to support environmental sustainability [40,57]. In addition to the environmental aspect, the distribution process with cost efficiency is one of the factors that can increase the ability of the community economically (affordable price) to fulfill the food demand.

From the standpoint of local RMUs, all rice is supplied by local farmers, as indicated in Figure 4 and Table 2. This result is aligned with the model’s strategy, which prioritizes rice supplies from local farmers before seeking other supplies from non-local farmers. This strategy is intended to empower local farmers’ capability, increase farmer welfare, and eventually support sustainability’s economic pillar [18]. It is essential to improve its value to enhance local product competitiveness and as a form of support for the availability of rice from local farmers. Furthermore, the fulfillment of food sourced from local production is intended as an effort to increase the value of local products. Increasing the value of these products is also one aspect of developing the capacity and capability of local farmers through the development of product values based on local consumer perceptions [58]. This effort is a form of effort to achieve the three pillars of sustainability: Social, economic, and environmental.

Table 2 also shows that local food sources do not meet as much as 1% of the total rice production, which is not used to meet the needs of commercial rice consumption in the West Java Province. The 1% of rice is intended as part of the allocation of buffer stock for the West Java Province to ensure the availability and stability of rice prices at all times [59,60]. Buffer stock is allocated as a form of anticipation when there is a shortage of food supply. Whether the shortage of food supply is caused by natural disasters, geological disasters, meteorology, terrestrial natural disasters, or other disasters that threaten the food security of the people in West Java Province, the allocation of buffer stock is critical, in addition to being a political strategy for sustainability and a form of government mitigation in dealing with food insecurity in West Java Province [61]. Furthermore, the West Java Province is one of the areas prone to disasters, so the government needs to have a buffer stock of food to anticipate various kinds of disasters.

Table 2 also shows other areas that generally supply grain to RMU in the West Java Province: Banten Province, Kudus Regency, Demak Regency, and Cilacap Regency. However, in this simulation process, the four rice production centers outside the West Java Province are designed to not supply grain to RMU in the West Java Province. The four production areas outside the West Java Province are only used as buffer stocks. The buffer stock will be used when the rice yields in the West Java Province experience crop failure or face extreme conditions causing the West Java rice producers to be unable to meet the food demand of the people of the West Java Province.

Table 2 also explains that all rice supplied from local farmers is then processed by the local RMU in the exact location to process 5,184,135 tons of rice per year (the conversion value of grain to the rice used follows Indonesian government standards, which is 62.72%). Furthermore, 43% of the total rice processed by local RMUs is distributed directly to retailers or rice traders in nearby markets and adjacent cities or regencies, as illustrated in Figure 5. All cities have a similar distribution pattern, i.e., all rice production in each region is distributed to RMUs in production areas, except for Pangandaran Regency, which only supplies rice yields to the nearest RMU of as much as 18% of the total production of Pangandaran Regency. Meanwhile, 82% of grain production in Pangandaran Regency is allocated as disaster food reserves in the West Java Province. This direct distribution is one of the efforts to increase the efficiency of distribution costs (especially the use of fuel) and help reduce the carbon footprint of rice distribution activities.

Furthermore, as much as 39% of milled rice from local RMUs is distributed to local wholesalers, as illustrated in Figure 6. Several RMUs located in production centers that can produce rice more than regional needs become suppliers for several markets outside the West Java Province. The remaining 18% of rice production is distributed to non-local wholesalers, as illustrated in Figure 6. For example, Bogor Regency, Depok City, and Sukabumi Regency, which are close to the Indonesian Capital, are the rice suppliers for Wholesale Cipinang, located in the Capital. The distribution design in Figure 6 is intended to ensure the availability of rice in every consumer area of the West Java Province and ensure that rice is evenly distributed throughout the West Java Province. This strategy helps increase RMU’s income, improving RMU’s welfare and strengthening the economic aspects of upstream actors in the rice supply chain.

The distribution system is also a strategy to ensure the availability of supplies for each consumer area in the West Java Province. Furthermore, it ensures the ease of accessing food in each community in the West Java Province. The most important thing is to provide food at an affordable price. The distribution strategy is a prerequisite for meeting food security in this uncertain era [12,44,49]. Based on this, developing a distribution system for local food is very important. Strengthening local food distribution strategies is one of the alternative resilience food networks that can mitigate various threats to food security [20].

From the retailer’s point of view, the overall demand for rice (4,439,097 tons of rice per year) can be met, as shown in Table 1. The main rice supply to retailers is sourced from local RMUs in the same city or regency and nearby through direct delivery (51%) and local wholesale markets (46%), as illustrated in Figure 7. Meanwhile, a small portion of rice (3%) is supplied from non-local wholesalers, namely Cipinang wholesale rice traders. Traders from Cipinang wholesales distribute rice to Bogor Regency retailers, where the two locations are mutually exclusive and close. This strategy helps increase the efficiency of rice distribution, which lowers required distribution costs and reduces the carbon footprint of distribution activities.

The distribution process depicted in Figure 7 also aims to improve food safety. Efficiency in the food distribution network can improve the information exchanges about the source of the purchased rice supply [62]. In addition, RMU and market participants can ensure the availability of supply and demand. Moreover, fluctuations in rice prices can be controlled, contribute to the development of rice distribution, and apply the traceability process [63,64]. Finally, optimizing the rice distribution process reduces food loss and waste [65]. Therefore, the development of alternative local food networks contributes significantly to the development of food security at the regional level.

The results of this study can be used as a reference for government agencies and food distribution actors, particularly all the parties involved in the rice supply chain, to improve the governance of the rice supply chain in achieving sustainable food security as an act of political sustainability. These results show and highlight how the actors’ welfare along the rice supply chain could be improved through the optimal strategy, which supports the corporate sustainability of the actors themselves. These results also show that strengthening food security from local sources can achieve food security goals in an uncertain situation [20,21,26,43,47].

Based on the above explanation, the built food distribution network model can contribute to applying the mathematical model in developing an alternative optimum strategy for the local food distribution network. Alternative food distribution networks also contribute to implementing the five pillars of sustainability that can strengthen the design of alternative food distribution networks in this uncertain era and enhance food security.

In addition to contributing to theory, this alternative local food network design can also be a reference for developing food security policies in developing countries that consider sustainability aspects. Alternative local food network models can also be the basis for developing agile and responsive food supply chains in the current global conditions.

5. Conclusions

Developing a complex alternative local food network is a strategy to minimize the costs incurred in distributing rice. In addition, it can increase local farmers’ welfare and producers’ potencies. The MOLP model that has been formulated obtains optimal results. These results indicate that the amount of locally produced rice exceeds the annual rice demand for each city or region in the West Java Province. The West Java Province can meet its yearly rice demand based on local production. The excess production can be allocated as buffer stock and intended for relief food supply in times of disaster. The buffer stock is allocated from the harvest of production areas outside West Java Province to anticipate crop failures or other extreme conditions in West Java Province.

RMU then processes all products produced by local farmers. The milled rice is distributed directly to local, non-local wholesalers and retailers. This optimizing process is performed to meet demand fulfillment in each city or region in West Java Province. There are four outside West Java rice suppliers: Banten, Kudus, Demak, and Cilacap Regency, as a buffer stock for RMU when the local rice producers cannot fulfill rice demand. The distribution strategy ensures maximum profit for RMU and local producers.

However, the limitation of this research is the lack of Robust Optimization (RO) analysis to solve the problem of uncertainty in alternative local food networks. These limitations become the agenda for further research. Considering uncertainty in designing alternative local food networks will provide a more complex and dynamic analysis so that the resulting model can be more responsive to the actual conditions of the current food network. The uncertainty component is related to the supply and demand of food supply.

Furthermore, the design of this food distribution network can be elaborated on the problems of natural disasters that often occur in production areas. Thus, the methods used can also be developed, and one of them can use Robust Optimization (RO). RO can estimate uncertainty during the food distribution process. Thus, the resulting model will be more complex and dynamic. In addition, further research can explicitly consider two other aspects of supply chain sustainability, namely corporate sustainability and political sustainability, in the mathematical model.