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In recent years there has been growing attention for the emergence of alternative food networks, first as a possible strategy for farm households to counter deteriorating market conditions and respond to changing societal demands, and more recently as expression of a growing consumer involvement in the shaping of food systems. In debates on AFNs contributions from Spain have been relatively scarce, not because these tendencies do not occur but rather because applied analytical frameworks somehow did not seem to capture the specific nature of experiences in the peninsula. Against this background, this paper aims to analyze emerging grassroots food movements in Spain, explore to what extent different initiatives constitute a coherent alternative paradigm for sustainable local food systems, and identify relevant dimensions that shape their development and potential contribution to the sustainable development of rural areas and society at large. The paper is mainly based on case studies from Andalucia and the Basque country, and stresses that food initiatives have been largely driven by social movements, incl. peasant‐based farmers and consumer groups but also agroecology movements. As a result, Spanish food movements often have a wider focus and combine ethical values like fairness, solidarity and participative democracy with economic and environmental concerns.

Values and value conflicts play an important role in organic but also in non-organic farming. In discussions about the future way to go unconscious systems in human behaviour should be taken into account. Pictures, images and symbols are commonly used in marketing but are not really explored as a source for ethical orientation and strategic planning for farmers, advisors and researchers. Experiences with the use pictures and images in discussions with farmers and researchers and in advisory work (example of Bioland) about desirable sustainable futures will be reported. A further developed methodology and systematic, how to use pictures/images, is proposed.

A wider range of stakeholders is expected to be involved in organic research. A decision‐support tool is needed to define priorities and to allocate tasks among institutions. Based on research and management experience in organic research, the authors have developed a framework for experimental and research projects. The framework is based on a multi‐level approach. Each level is defined according to the directness of the innovation impact on the organic systems. The projects carried out for each level were assessed over a ten-year period. Two applications are presented: analysis of crop protection strategies in horticulture and plant breeding programmes. When combined with four development models of organic farming, this multi‐level analysis appears to be promising for defining research agendas.

The CORE Organic pilot project ‘Farmer Consumer Partnerships’ aims to strengthen the partnership between producers and consumers through better communication. To achieve this the project first mapped concerns of organic stakeholders in relation to a broad range of ethical values and then compared them with the European regulations for organic food before testing a limited number of communication arguments related to those concerns with consumers. Stakeholders of organic supply chains refer to a broad range of values that include concerns about systems integrity, regional origin, fairness issues as well as impact on the environment, on animals and other social impact. Several concerns including regional origin of products and fairness issues are not directly covered by the European Regulation for organic food. Seven different ethical attributes were tested with about 1200 consumers in relation to product prices and additional premiums by means of an Information‐Display‐Matrix (IDM) in five European countries. In all countries the most important ethical attributes to consumers turned out to be 'animal welfare', 'regional production' and 'fair prices for farmers'. It is concluded that communicating ethical quality of organic products that are produced in ways that go beyond the requirements of the European Regulation represents an opportunity for differentiation in an increasingly competitive market. Increasing transparency could be the first step in facing the difficulties in defining mandatory standards, particularly regarding ‘fairness’ and ‘local/regional production’.