Food Markets and Free Fairs as Contributors for Designing Climate Resilient Cities: A Study Case in Southern Ecuador

Abstract

Climate change will have far-reaching impacts on food systems, which require strengthening social, economic, and political structures that allow farmers to offer their produce and consumers to have access to the food they eat. This research focuses on food access and stability. Specifically, through the analysis of a system of urban markets and free fairs, the (a) public satisfaction with these spaces, (b) the distribution and access to the same spaces, and (c) potential scenarios envisaging a food system that contributes to the designing of a climate resilient city are evaluated. The results indicate a high public satisfaction with markets and free fairs, while providing evidence on the importance of designing cities that include a network of markets and free fairs in urban planning for climate adaptation and resilience, shifting the paradigm from centralised urban systems towards an urbanism of services’ proximity within walking distances.

1. Introduction

There is a steadily growing body of evidence that climate change will have far reaching impacts on all dimensions of food security, namely: production/availability, access, utilisation, and stability [1,2,3,4], as well as on food sovereignty [5]. While food security allows people to have physical, social, and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences [6], food sovereignty requires understanding the dynamics of trade as well as the governance and functioning of domestic food markets [5,7]. Due to this, several efforts have been made to understand how climate change would affect food systems. These systems are considered as dynamic interactions between and within the biogeophysical and human environments which result in the production, processing, distribution, preparation, and consumption of food [8]. Not all food systems or their parts are equally vulnerable to changes because of humans’ ability to adapt, which depends ultimately on social, economic, and political constraints to cope with external stressors such as climate change [8].

Most of the scientific attention on climate has been placed on food production and availability, as for food access and stability, the existent studies recognise that climate change would impact food prices, alter markets, and modify supply chain infrastructure, which will impact poor urban and rural people who already spend a high share of their income on food [9]. Reducing the vulnerability of food access and stability to climate change requires of infrastructural (transportation, fixed facilities) and non-infrastructural (peoples’ needs, commercial concerns, management systems) controls on food systems that allow farmers to offer their produce and consumers to have access to the food they eat [8]. In this context, food markets are envisioned as strategic spaces to alleviate pressures on food price volatility [10] and, therefore, on food access and stability.

Food markets play a fundamental role in the adaptation of global food systems to climate change [7]. Yet, they have been scarcely analysed in the climate context, neglecting their relevance for planning climate-resilient cities. Food markets are essential for enhancing farmers’ climate adaptive capacity because the farmer–buyer relationship influences the investment decisions that farmers make and the practices that they perform on their farms in response to climate change [11]. Food markets in developing countries are pivotal for accessing food, particularly in medium and small cities. However, as urbanisation grows, markets tend to shrink and become strangled by large supermarket chains [11,12], as a result of a rather narrow space organisation that marginalises food markets from urban planning. Climate-resilient cities need to ensure quality of urban life by providing access to basic goods and services and by promoting spatial integration through land use patterns that consider both formal and informal spaces [13]. In this sense, urban development could benefit from incorporating food markets into its planning to reduce vulnerability and increase resilience of food systems to climate change.

For a large proportion of the population in South American countries, food markets are the main places to access fresh food, but they are not the only ones. Food is also distributed and accessed through “free fairs”, also called “street markets” or “farmers’ markets”. These differ from food markets in that they take place in the streets temporarily on days approved by the local authorities. These places give priority to smallholders [12], thus contributing directly to food sovereignty by strengthening local adaptive capacities for food production and distribution. Studies on free fairs are relatively recent and centre their interest on exploring their structures and functioning [14], trading difficulties [15], problems with the neighbourhoods where they are located [16,17], and accessibility issues [18,19,20,21] without considering their importance for strengthening food systems as well as for adapting to climatic changes.

Despite the relevance of free fairs for urban planners, particularly in the Global South, food and agriculture are considered rural issues, overlooking holistic approaches that integrate aspects such as food sovereignty and the need to access nutritious food in the planning of urban food distribution systems [22]. Thus, urban planning has continued to create supply market systems with a rather narrow vision concentrated in the logistics of food distribution and the location of physical spaces in city centres [23,24]. In Latin America, medium-sized cities are defined mainly by their role as intermediaries between the rural world and the metropolitan centres that operate at national and international levels [25,26]. Medium-sized cities are formed discontinuously; they present low densities, mainly in the peripheries, where economic activities and lifestyles intertwine to manifest characteristics of both urban and rural areas [27]. The peri-urban space of Latin American cities has been connected to uncontrolled expansion, rural–urban migration, illegal land markets, and urban precariousness [14,28], whose settlements are built on at-risk or undevelopable land as well as on land suitable for agriculture [27].

Agricultural areas within the urban limits usually produce, in addition to food and/or non-food crops, other ecosystem services that are important for urban resilience, although their proximity to urban land and the speculation of more profitable land use threaten their permanence [27,29]. This leaves landholders who live off agriculture unprotected, which in turn undermines the possibilities of an urban development that is environmentally sustainable and climate resilient [30,31].

This research analyses the relevance of food markets and free fairs as contributors for a climate-resilient urban planning of a medium-sized city in southern Ecuador. Specifically, it aims (a) to describe the current dynamic of the network of markets and free fairs, (b) to analyse the public’s satisfaction with these places, (b) to develop a spatial analysis regarding access to and distribution of markets and free fairs, and (c) to outline potential scenarios for climate-resilient urban planning. The evidence gathered indicates a strong and intertwined presence of both markets and free fairs to satisfy the demand for basic foodstuffs, as well as a considerable public satisfaction with shopping at these places. Both public food structures prove to be strategic for enhancing food sovereignty and climate adaptation.

2. Methodology

2.1. Study Area

Canton Loja is located in southern Ecuador and belongs to the province of the same name (Figure 1). It is administratively divided into 13 rural and 6 urban parishes, with an area of 1928 km² and a population of 214,855 inhabitants [32], of which the majority (47%) live in the capital city Loja, being the ninth most populated city in Ecuador. According to the Municipality of Loja, the main productive activities of the economically active population include commerce (18.7%) and agriculture (12.2%), sectors that converge within the city in the commercialisation of products from peri-urban and rural parishes and neighbouring provinces [33].

Markets and free fairs provide food for 46% of the population and are the livelihoods of 3% of the inhabitants [34]. According to the Municipality, free fairs receive farmers from the 13 parishes of the canton Loja, from which 70% are direct producers and 30% are traders. In the city of Loja, free fairs take place mainly in covered courts located in different neighbourhoods. The medium size of the city, coupled with the high dependence of the population on markets and free fairs for food, make the city of Loja a good place to analyse the spatial and commercial dynamics of these places with citizens, and their incorporation into climate-resilient city planning.

2.2. Methods

Data were collected over three time periods: September 2019–March 2020 (pre-pandemic), May–August 2021 (pandemic), and February–May 2022 (post-pandemic). Different methods were used in each period. During the first period, data were collected on different research questions for the purposes of complementarity (after Newing, 2012) by using quantitative and qualitative approaches, this included semi-structured interviews, surveys, and direct observation. Due to mobility restrictions, in the second period data were collected through semi-structured interviews and direct observation. During the third period, data were also collected by direct observation and semi-structured interviews.

2.2.1. Survey

A structured questionnaire was used to fulfil the second research objective in order to find out the perspective of markets’ and free fairs’ visitors regarding their consumption patterns, such as markets and free fairs visited, frequency of visiting, additional shopping places visited, as well as their perception on accessibility, hygiene, safety, quality and variety of products, and infrastructure of markets and free fairs. Demographic questions, as well as queries on produce purchased in these places, were included. As explained previously, this method was applied only during the first time period. Ten participants were randomly selected in each market and free fair identified from 2019–2020 to achieve the internal validity necessary to make inferences. Thus, the final sample consisted of 150 participants. A systematic sampling was applied, selecting one participant every 10 shoppers in each of the markets and free fairs. The sample size is justified as it has the minimum number of people necessary (60–150) to make statistical inferences [35]. The surveys were mutually exclusive in terms of participants. To ensure this, respondents were initially asked to indicate if they had participated in the survey before.

2.2.2. Direct Observation

During the survey application, direct observations were made of markets’ and free fairs’ locations, as well as on the structure, products for sale, and visitors. In addition, for the purpose of fulfilling the third and fourth research objectives, spatial data were obtained in order to calculate commuting time to these places. This was the only method that was replicated over the three time periods due to changes identified in the number of active markets and free fairs, as will be explained in the Results.

2.2.3. Semi-Structured Interview

With the aim of addressing the second research objective and for complementing the spatial information obtained during visits to markets and free fairs, an interview guide was designed and applied to three municipal officials representing the following institutional departments: Popular Promotion, Economic and Social Inclusion, and Markets. These provided data on the origin of fresh food commercialised in both markets and free fairs, as well as on the number of vendors in each of these places and management difficulties. Likewise, through a reference sampling and based on the saturation principle suggested by Creswell [36], 45 vendors from the thirteen free fairs and 30 vendors from the seven markets were interviewed. A total of 75 people were interviewed during the first time period. Similar questions to those used with municipal officials were used, with some additional queries about the nature of their commercial activity—producers or intermediaries—the level of satisfaction with the municipal administration, and support received by officials. During the second time period, four vendors from a municipal market were added in 2020, and they were interviewed with the same question guide used in the previous year. During the third time period, one municipal officer was interviewed for updates on the number of trade fairs and markets, as well as the difficulties during the pandemic lockdown and after that.

2.2.4. Data Analysis

Data obtained from semi-structured interviews were analysed by following the coding process suggested by Hernández [37]. First, base units of analysis were determined (open or foreground coding), then the resulting base units were grouped into categories associated with the origin of fresh food, number of vendors and visitors, characteristics of these public spaces, management difficulties, and benefits and problems for vendors (axial or background coding). Finally, categories were refined in their definition to describe their properties (selective coding).

Data obtained from surveys were analysed with the statistical package SPSS v. 25 to obtain descriptive statistics and cross-tabulations regarding peoples’ satisfaction with quality, access, hygiene, safety, product variety, and customer service offered by markets and free fairs. Some statistics were also obtained on buying behaviour, including the number of free fairs or markets visited per week according to age or sex, and type of products.

From direct observation, it was possible to obtain photographic and spatial data. The former were analysed qualitatively to identify the characteristics of the markets and free fairs, which included: structures, products for sale, and the number of buyers. The analysis of spatial data started by identifying the access time to markets and free fairs to later identify the number of households according to their access to these places. QGIS v3.22 (QGIS Development Team, 2021) was used to generate three friction surfaces from the street layer of the city. The generation of friction surfaces required calculation of the travel time through each cell (one meter) considering speeds according to the congestion and slope characteristics of the roads, namely: walking (3 km/h), by bus (with speeds of 15 to 50 km/5 h on bus routes and 3 km/h on other routes), and by private vehicle (with speeds of 15 to 70 km/h in areas with vehicular access and 2 km/h for stairways). Once the friction surfaces were obtained, the r.cost tool was used to calculate the commuting time from each cell to the markets layer and to the markets and free fairs layer. These data were the starting point for identifying households according to the following characteristics:

• Walking access: all households with a travel time of 10 min or less on foot.
• Bus access: all households with a travel time of 10 min or less using bus and more than 10 min on foot.
• Car access: all households with a travel time of 10 min or less using a private car and more than 10 min walking or by bus.
• Difficult access: all households with a travel time of more than 10 min by any of the three means of transport.

With these data, the percentage of households in each category was calculated.

With the aim of identifying an ideal commuting scenario to markets and free fairs for the majority of the population (10 min), a distribution of these places was calculated in order to guarantee walking access. Applying the “r.cost” tool in QGIS, the commuting time from each pixel to the city’s markets was calculated. To avoid overlapping the free fairs’ influence area, the accessibility raster was reclassified by identifying the areas that were 20 min or less from the markets. The 20 min threshold was determined by considering 10 min time to one free fair and 10 min to another free fair. At these zones’ limits, the existent free fairs were identified in order to, based on them, identify other fairs with the same location criteria (20 min). As several points were identified in sparsely populated areas, a summary was additionally generated identifying for each potential free fair the number of dwellings at this threshold.

Finally, based on commuting time (10 min) calculations from homes to markets and free fairs, the amount of greenhouse gases, particularly CO₂, emitted by buses and light cars was estimated. This calculation was replicated for the identified potential commuting scenarios. For this calculation, the carbon emission factor formula suggested by Mancini et al. [38] was adapted to include the emission factor per vehicle type suggested by the IPCC’s sixth assessment report [39], and the speed limits stipulated in the Ecuadorian regulation. The formula applied is described below:

Gas emission = AC × EFV × SLA × TT

(1)

where AC = vehicle average capacity (number of passengers), EFV = emission factor per person by vehicle suggested in [39] (grams of CO₂/km: 100–150 in urban buses, and 50–100 in private light cars), SLA = speed limit allowed, and TT = commuting time required to access markets or free fairs (minutes).

3. Results

3.1. Current Dynamic of Markets and Free Fairs

The number of markets and fairs supplying food to the city of Loja varied over the three years sampled. From 2019–2020 (pre-pandemic) there were six markets and nine fairs. In 2020, during the pandemic lockdown, three fairs were cancelled, and one municipal market was added. Finally, in 2022, the seven markets were maintained, five fairs were added to cover more neighbourhoods, and two of the three cancelled fairs were reopened. In short, food supply in the city of Loja is mainly provided through seven markets (La Tebaida, San Sebastián, Nueva Granada, Gran Colombia, Pequeño Productor, Centro Comercial, Puerto Seco), and 13 free fairs (Celi Román, Héroes del Cenepa, La Tebaida, La Pradera, Época, La Banda, Clodoveo Jaramillo, Zamora Huayco, San Pedro, Miraflores, Obrapía, Nueva Granada, Ciudad Alegría) (Figure 2). Free fairs are organised by the Municipality, Neighbourhood Councils, and the Loja Agroecological Network (Red Agroecológica Loja). For clarifying purposes, San Sebastián was a market and a free fair, however, the free fair was cancelled permanently at the request of the neighbours who prefer the fair not to be held there, as it is in the city centre.

The majority of vendors interviewed were women, which indicates a central role of women in food trade. In terms of age, the most common group was 26–40 years old. Regarding the origin of the products traded, more than 70% of vendors are intermediaries; however, it is important to mention that in markets the ratio of intermediaries to producers is 90:10, while in free fairs it is 60:40 (

Table 1. Vendors’ demographic profile.

	Gender No.		Age No.			Type of Trader No.
	Female	Male	15–25	26–40	41–65	Intermediaries	Producers
Markets	41	8	1	32	17	45	5
Free fairs	25	6	2	20	8	18	12
Total	66	14	3	52	25	63	17

).

According to municipality officials and vendors, the market network has an estimated 88,000 weekly visitors and 3100 vendors. As for free fairs, the weekly number of visitors is 14,050, and there are 960 vendors, most of whom are smallholder farmers. In free fairs, about 40% of traders surveyed are producers, while 90% of market vendors are middlemen (intermediaries). On average, a municipal market vendor works with six producers, which means that in addition to the 3100 vendors, a further 18,000 people benefit.

The free fairs’ network helps both smallholders and visitors, particularly older visitors, to access food more easily as claimed by these informants:

“By supporting these fairs, the municipality helps us to offer our products, so people buy our products and we (families) earn money” Vendor, Free Fair Época.

“Having the free fair here [Celi Román] benefits us older adults since we no longer have as much strength to go out to the city centre” Visitor, Free Fair Celi Román.

After the social confinement, three free fairs (Pradera, San Pedro de Bellavista, and Nueva Granada) increased their occurrence frequency to two days, presumably in response to the consumption patterns that remained among citizens, who during the social confinement decreased their travel to closer food supply sites.

Interestingly, the Municipality provide to market vendors child development centres, as indicated by this informant: “The Municipality have child-care centres in each of the markets to stimulate and teach vendors’ children while complying with the regulations of avoiding to keeping infants and young children in the stalls due to health risk posed by the workplaces” Municipal official.

An issue mentioned by both municipal officials and vendors was the presence of street vendors, mainly next to wholesale markets. According to our informants, this situation has been recurrent for decades, and for which, in the words of their administrators: “The Municipality has not been able to do more than apply patchy solutions (...) such as relocated them on the terrace of the Shopping Centre or assigned them to free fairs”. Vendors in free fairs also recognise this situation as part of those relocated and as displaced by the arrival of the new traders.

Likewise, drawing on municipal officials and vendors’ testimonies, three geographical clusters were identified to represent the origin of fresh food sold in markets and free fairs (Figure 3). The first cluster brings together food from other cities and cantons of the province of Loja, the second cluster agglomerates food from rural parishes from the canton Loja, and the third cluster brings together food from peri-urban areas.

3.2. Visitors’ Satisfaction with Markets and Free Fairs

Most respondents were female (62%), thus reflecting a high percentage of women involved in buying household food. Respondents’ ages were nearly evenly distributed between 26–40 years old (38%) and 41–65 years old (37%). A smaller 19% were 15–25 years old and 6% were over 66 years old (

Table 2. Visitors’ demographic profile.

	Gender No.		Age No.
	Female	Male	15–25	26–40	41–65	+66
Markets	37	23	12	23	22	3
Free fairs	56	34	17	34	34	5
Total	93	57	29	57	56	8

). Most of the respondents (80%) tend to visit between one to two markets or free fairs on a weekly basis. The most commonly bought foods in markets and fairs are fruit and vegetables (99%), beef (85%), dairy products (74%), herbs and medicinal plants (44%), and cooked food (33%).

There is a marked tendency regarding public satisfaction in terms of access, service, variety, and quality of products offered by markets and free fairs (

Table 3. Public satisfaction with markets and free fairs regarding quality and variety of products, access, hygiene, safety, and customer service.

	Not At All Satisfied	Dissatisfied	Moderately Satisfied	Satisfied	Very Satisfied
Product quality	0	7	21	42	30
Access	0	6	11	63	21
Hygiene	0	10	48	38	4
Safety	1	16	34	38	13
Variety of products	3	2	23	52	20
Customer service	3	6	10	48	33

). Conversely, hygiene and safety are the features with which they are least satisfied. The feeling of a lack of safety was strongest among respondents who visit markets located in the city centre (80% in Gran Colombia, 60% Centro Comercial). Assaults, drug use, or fights between street vendors were reported by participants as common problems at these places. It is noteworthy that the options “not at all satisfied” or “dissatisfied” were rarely selected, including safety and hygiene.

Likewise, most respondents are satisfied (63%) with the time taken to access the markets and free fairs they attend (

Table 4. Public satisfaction with access time to markets and free fairs.

Satisfaction Scale	Access Time
	1–5 Min	5–10 Min	10–15 Min	+15 Min	Total	%
Very satisfied	4	15	13	0	31	21
Satisfied	3	27	45	18	90	63
Moderely satisfed	0	5	5	3	16	11
Dissatisfied	0	4	6	2	13	9
Total	7	51	69	23	150	100

). Half of these respondents are satisfied with 10–15 min distance. A smaller group of respondents (21%) are very satisfied with the time taken to access the markets and free fairs they attend, of which 47% are very satisfied with a 5–10 min distance, while 41% are very satisfied with a 10–15 min distance.

3.3. Access Time to Markets and Free Fairs

Taking, as a reference, 10 min as the optimal time to reach markets and free fairs, which is also the time with which the majority of the surveyed population feels satisfied, Figure 4 shows the spatial coverage of markets (3a) and markets together with fairs (3b). The map was created by considering a 10 min journey by walking, by bus, or by vehicle, as well as those areas considered difficult to access because they exceed 10 min by any of the access means analysed.

The results indicate that only 10% of the city’s households have less than 10 min walking access to markets, while with the presence of free fairs, the percentage with walking access increases to 29%. Similarly, 59% of the households have less than 10 min bus access, which increases to 84% with the presence of free fairs. Finally, 98% of households have less than 10 min car access to markets, which increases to 99% of households with free fairs.

3.4. Potential Scenarios

The analysis of the potential location of free fairs in the city identified 73 sites (Figure 5). These identified sites would benefit at least 68% of the households which would have access to free fairs within a 10 min walk, and 92% would have access to free fairs within a 15 min walk. However, as can be observed in the figure, not all the fairs have the same number of potential buyers, in that 40% of the sites identified have a potential population within a 10 min walk that does not exceed 200 households, and 27% have between 200 and 400 people, which may affect the affluence of visitors, making it difficult for these spaces to remain in place over time. However, it is also observed that 33% of the fairs have more than 400 dwellings within a 10 min walk, having a high potential for the establishment of permanent free fairs.

Finally, the results of the analysis of CO₂ emissions indicate that urban buses, which are essentially heavy-duty diesel vehicles, emit 100 to 150 g of CO₂/km per passenger they carry [39]. Considering that buses in Loja have an average capacity of 40 passengers, it can be presumed that 6 kg of CO₂ are emitted per kilometre travelled. In addition, the speed limit allowed for urban buses is 40 km/h, and this means that a 10 min journey by bus (approximately 6.66 km), emits 40 kg CO₂ into the air. Similarly, light cars, which generate 50 to 100 g of CO₂/km per passenger [39], transporting 5 people will emit 0.5 kg of CO₂ per kilometer travelled, that is, a total of 5 kg in a 10 min journey.

According to the markets access model (Figure 4a), bus trips from areas within 10 min to markets would emit up to 11,394 kg of CO₂ per day, while trips from areas within 10 min by light cars would produce up to 38,952 kg of CO₂ per day. By incorporating free fairs to the current network of markets (Figure 4b), it is observed that bus CO₂ emissions slightly decrease (10,036 kg CO₂ per day), whereas light car emissions are reduced significantly (14,032 kg CO₂).

By expanding the network of free fairs (Figure 5), access on foot increases from 29% to 52%, significantly removing CO₂ emissions. In addition, households with bus access will reduce CO₂ emission up to 2940 kg CO2, that is, 70% lower emissions, whereas light cars would reduce up to 2350 kg CO₂, that is, 83% lower emissions than the current network of the markets and free fairs.

4. Discussion

It is well known that climate change will have far-reaching impacts on food systems, which are subjected to social, economic, and political constraints that require infrastructural and non-infrastructural controls for farmers to offer their produce and for consumers to have access to the food they eat [8]. In this research, we strive to understand how a system of urban markets and free fairs may reduce the effects of climate change on food access and stability. In this context, we evaluate the distribution and access to markets and free fairs in the city of Loja in southern Ecuador, the number of local producers and intermediaries offering their produce at these spaces, as well as the frequency of usage of these public spaces by the public and their satisfaction with them. Based on these results and on concepts of sustainable development and urban planning, we propose potential scenarios for building a network of free fairs that help cities to reduce climate vulnerabilities associated with food access and stability as well as with CO₂ reduction, thus enhancing their resilience.

Our data indicate that food markets and free fairs contribute to climate-resilient urban planning in two main branches: food sovereignty and transport. Although we have limitations to indicate the percentage of food that comes from peri-urban agriculture and from other rural parishes in the province of Loja, it was possible to determine through the interview data that food sold in markets, and especially in free fairs, directly benefits small- and medium-scale local production, thus contributing to food sovereignty as claimed in previous studies [5]. Food sovereignty stands out for the independence from large corporations and the strategic localisation of urban food systems, especially for the reduction in the distance between producer and consumer [40]. Our results indeed show that there is a large public attendance at these spaces, as well as indicate that the distances to be travelled are reduced by the presence of the free fairs. Likewise, our results show that markets and free fairs provide a space where producers/intermediaries and consumers set up buying and selling deals in accordance with their social, economic, and cultural realities, which is fundamental to food sovereignty [5].

Markets and free fairs significantly reduce the use of pesticides and the effects derived from practices such as monoculture [41]. Socially, these places contribute to the concept of popular and solidarity economy due to their type of organisation and associated values such as solidarity, cooperation, or equity [41]. Economically, they are relevant in the short term as markets and fairs are a means of resilience when the food is grown for self-consumption, in the medium term, they are a moderate source of income, and in the long term they improve the living conditions of an entire family [42]. The functioning of food markets is especially significant in defining access to marketing channels for producers and food for consumers. This was highlighted during the pandemic lockdown, where family and peasant farming proved to be the cornerstone of food supply [43]. Therefore, attaining long-term food sovereignty means understanding the dynamics of trade as well as the governance and functioning of domestic food markets [7]. Yet, our data indicate that markets by themselves may not satisfy the public food needs, with free fairs being a good complement to expand the network coverage of food systems. Therefore, free fairs need to be incorporated in the urban planning, particularly if they take place in the streets, as they spatially compete with markets and may be rejected by residents of the neighbourhoods where they are developed.

The second branch in which food markets and free fairs contribute to climate-resilient urban planning is transport, which operates in two ways. First, the consumption of local food reduces the distance farmers need to travel to sell their produce, at the same time reducing CO₂ emissions derived from transport. Second, free fairs reduce the distance the public has to travel to fetch their food. This is important considering that vehicles are responsible for at least 60% of CO₂, Pb, and NOx global emissions [44]. Previous studies indicate that the optimal distance in time that a person should travel to reduce greenhouse gas emissions derived from transport is between 10 and 15 min [38,45,46]. According to our results, 59% of the households can access markets in less than 10 min by bus, and the percentage increases to 84% with the presence of free fairs. As for light cars, 98% of households have access to markets in less than 10 min, which increases to 99% of households by including free fairs. Our results further indicate that CO₂ emissions from light cars decrease significantly with the presence of free fairs in both the current and potential scenario. In this context, the decentralisation of food supply centres to neighbourhoods contributes to reducing CO₂ emissions derived from transport.

Furthermore, our results indicate a high public satisfaction with markets and free fairs in terms of quality and variety of the products, access to markets and free fairs, and customer service. Aspects of hygiene and safety were less well rated as moderately satisfied. To our knowledge, no previous studies have evaluated the public satisfaction with these places, particularly with free fairs. The existent studies mention some narrative complaints from residents in Chile [16] and Brazil [17] regarding poor management of organic waste, obstruction of vehicular and pedestrian flows, road and noise pollution, and lack of adequate infrastructure. Such complaints are linked to the space occupied by free fairs that usually take place in the streets. Our case study is unusual in that it presents a pre-pandemic and a post-pandemic scenario. Before the pandemic, two free fairs (the larger ones) also took place on the streets, but after the pandemic, one of them was cancelled because of similar disputes to that mentioned in Chile with neighbourhood residents [16]. The other fair still takes place in the streets but its space was reduced. More importantly, the rest of the free fairs are held in covered courts, with the fairs having spread to other neighbourhoods in the city after the social lockdown. These results highlight the need to allocate free fairs their own space, as well as the good judgement of local authorities to continue expanding the network of free fairs.

The latter is important in that only 10% of the city’s households have less than 10 min walking access to markets and 29% to free fairs. A growing body of geography and planning researchers advocate accessibility rather than mobility, seeking agglomeration rather than congestion [21]. Some studies further show that facilitating accessibility to free fairs by walking increases the likelihood of citizens’ attendance at free fairs, having established optimal distances at 500 m [20], 600 m, equivalent to a 10 min walk [19], or a time between 9 and 11 min [18]. These time distances coincide with those with which the public surveyed in our study is satisfied. In short, the existence of free fairs promotes a walkable and sustainable city in terms of commuting, which reduces CO₂ emissions from transport at the same time.

The legacy of automobile-dependent urban planning has outlined unequal and unsustainable cities [47]. Therefore, improving and encouraging public transport, making cities walkable, and distributing urban facilities in a more balanced way have been proposed over recent decades to design less centralised cities oriented towards “chrono-urbanism” [38]. As identified in our study case, movement and agglomeration limitations caused by the pandemic led to new ways of thinking about cities, especially in terms of accessing food. Our results provide evidence of the importance of bringing food supply centres to the neighbourhoods to ensure food access and stability, thus reducing climate vulnerabilities. In this context, food supply planning in cities motivates transformations in the logic of food distribution, changing the paradigm from centralised systems to distributed systems. The supply market system must be organised based on fixed facilities (markets) and temporary marketing spaces (free fairs) that respond to population needs in closer coverage areas and according to production volumes of farmers settled in peri-urban spaces [48].

Based on participants’ visiting patterns to markets and free fairs, we propose the extension of the free fairs network in order to access them within a 10 min walk. This analysis identified 73 potential locations for free fairs. However, only 24 of them are located in consolidated areas with access by at least 400 households within 10 min, which could agglomerate 42% of the households in the city of Loja. The other 49 locations are in developing areas that could be activated as more remote sectors of the city consolidate. The extension of the free fairs network that we recommend should follow the results presented, thus avoiding the same person having 10 min access to two free fairs, since one of them would be weakened by the other. This extension also needs a commercial competitive advantage over the large supermarket chains, in addition to those already identified in terms of fresh agricultural products at low prices [49], in order to motivate the use of these public spaces. Moreover, the territorial extension of free fairs provides an opportunity to allocate stalls for street vendors, as well as to reduce the distances women have to travel to fetch their food, as they are the ones who are mostly responsible for household food shopping. Thinking about this type of distribution promotes spatial justice, understood as “the fair and equitable distribution in space of socially valued resources and opportunities to use them” [50].

Finally, we propose some recommendations for further research based on previous studies that recognise that food markets may alleviate pressures on food price volatility [10]. We speculate that the free fairs regulate food prices in markets and supermarkets, so a study comparing prices in these three supply centres would benefit the debate. This is because, for some authors, it might be better to focus on removing the supply chain bottlenecks and supporting supply chain actors rather than attempt to enforce a cap on prices, and because food prices in urban areas put healthy diets largely out of reach for a majority of the urban poor [10]. Our questionnaire lacked some demographic questions that made it difficult to establish correlations between income level and preferred shopping locations. Research defining a demographic profile for shopping preferences between free fairs, markets, and supermarkets would shed light on this issue. This will also require using a larger population sample size.

5. Conclusions

This study provides a novel combination of three aspects for designing climate-resilient cities, namely: urban planning oriented to chrono-urbanism, climate change, and food sovereignty. Our data reveal a high public acceptance of markets and free fairs, as well as the need to expand the network of fairs in order to cover more urban and peri-urban territory where people can go without using private transport. The territorial expansion of these food spaces also benefits producers to offer their produce and prevent them from becoming street vendors. An expanded network of free fairs spread throughout the city contributes to the planning and design of climate-resilient cities by reducing the commuting time for farmers to sell and for citizens to buy, as well as by strengthening peri-urban agriculture that provides food for the immediate population. Drawing on our data, we propose urban planning that incorporates a network of markets and free fairs to ensure food access and sustainability, reduce CO₂ emissions, and meet food needs of producers and consumers.