scholarly journals Plant breeding for local food systems: A contextual review of end-use selection for small grains and dry beans in Western Washington

2015 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 172-184 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brook O. Brouwer ◽  
Kevin M. Murphy ◽  
Stephen S. Jones
Keyword(s):  
Plant Breeding ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Food System ◽  
Local Food ◽  
Food Culture ◽  
Regional Differentiation ◽  
Western Washington ◽  
Selection For ◽  
End Use ◽  
Selection Of

AbstractThe rapid growth and co-option of the local agriculture movement highlights a need to deepen connections to place-based culture. Selection of plant varieties specifically adapted to regional production and end-use is an important component of building a resilient food system. Doing so will facilitate a defetishization of food systems by increasing the cultural connection to production and consumption. Today's dominant model of plant breeding relies on selection for centralized production and end-use, thereby limiting opportunity for regional differentiation. On the other hand, end-user-driven selection of heirloom varieties with strong cultural and culinary significance may limit productivity while failing to promote continued advances in end-use quality. Farmer-based selection may directly reflect local food culture; however, increasing genetic gains may require increased exchange of germplasm, and collaboration with trained plant breeders. Participatory farmer–breeder–chef collaborations are an emerging model for overcoming these limitations and adding the strength of culturally based plant breeding to the alternative food movement. These models of variety selection are examined within the context of small grain and dry bean production in Western Washington.

Disruptive innovation and operationalization in local and sustainable food systems: Examining the University of Toronto-Local Food Plus partnership

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 120-139
Author(s):  
Lori Stahlbrand
Keyword(s):  
Food Systems ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Food System ◽  
Local Food ◽  
Disruptive Innovation ◽  
Government Support ◽  
Sustainable Food ◽  
University Of Toronto ◽  
The University

This paper traces the partnership between the University of Toronto and the non-profit Local Food Plus (LFP) to bring local sustainable food to its St. George campus. At its launch, the partnership represented the largest purchase of local sustainable food at a Canadian university, as well as LFP’s first foray into supporting institutional procurement of local sustainable food. LFP was founded in 2005 with a vision to foster sustainable local food economies. To this end, LFP developed a certification system and a marketing program that matched certified farmers and processors to buyers. LFP emphasized large-scale purchases by public institutions. Using information from in-depth semi-structured key informant interviews, this paper argues that the LFP project was a disruptive innovation that posed a challenge to many dimensions of the established food system. The LFP case study reveals structural obstacles to operationalizing a local and sustainable food system. These include a lack of mid-sized infrastructure serving local farmers, the domination of a rebate system of purchasing controlled by an oligopolistic foodservice sector, and embedded government support of export agriculture. This case study is an example of praxis, as the author was the founder of LFP, as well as an academic researcher and analyst.

scholarly journals The Small World of the Alternative Food Network

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 2921 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine Brinkley
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Food System ◽  
Local Food ◽  
Small World ◽  
Alternative Food ◽  
Term Survival ◽  
Food Network ◽  
Robust Network Design ◽  
Alternative Food Network

This research offers the first use of graph theory mathematics in social network analysis to explore relationships built through an alternative food network. The local food system is visualized using geo-social data from 110 farms and 224 markets around Baltimore County, Maryland, with 699 connections between them. Network behavior is explored through policy document review and interviews. The findings revealed a small-world architecture, with system resiliency built-in by diversified marketing practices at central nodes. This robust network design helps to explain the long-term survival of local food systems despite the meteoric rise of global industrial food supply chains. Modern alternative food networks are an example of a movement that seeks to reorient economic power structures in response to a variety of food system-related issues not limited to consumer health but including environmental impacts. Uncovering the underlying network architecture of this sustainability-oriented social movement helps reveal how it weaves systemic change more broadly. The methods used in this study demonstrate how social values, social networks, markets, and governance systems embed to transform both physical landscapes and human bodies. Network actors crafted informal policy reports, which were directly incorporated in state and local official land-use and economic planning documents. Community governance over land-use policy suggests a powerful mechanism for further localizing food systems.

scholarly journals Framing a Sustainable Local Food System—How Smaller Cities in Southern Germany Are Facing a New Policy Issue

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 1712 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jana Baldy
Keyword(s):  
Food Systems ◽  
Food System ◽  
Local Food ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Policy Issue ◽  
Local Food Systems ◽  
System Transformation ◽  
Agenda 21 ◽  
Southern Germany ◽  
Local Food System

Since Agenda 21, the local level has become important in terms of facing global challenges through local action. One of these is ensuring the sustainability of the food system. In German politics, this is a relatively new issue even at the local level. Nevertheless, two smaller cities in southern Germany have decided to change their local food systems towards sustainability. Hence, this paper deals with questions of how local actors are framing the food system and what this means for increasing sustainability. The analysis of qualitative interviews and participant observations based on frame analysis provides deeper insights into understandings of local food systems by actors. This paper aims to explore how framings of problems, solutions and motivations provide or restrict opportunities to increase local food system sustainability. Terms like sustainability or awareness are framed differently. Using the same term to mean different things can have negative effects on the acceptance of policymaking referring to food system transformation. Besides, this paper shows that omissions within the framing counteract the development of sustainable local food policy. Hence, it is important to reflect the political implications of absent framings as well to facilitate mutual understanding and consequently, food system change.

Social enterprise, sustainability and community in post-earthquake Christchurch

2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 149-165 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tracy Berno
Keyword(s):  
Food Systems ◽  
Food System ◽  
Local Food ◽  
Community Resilience ◽  
Social Entrepreneurs ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Local Food System ◽  
Building Community ◽  
Post Disaster

Purpose Since 4 September 2010, the greater Christchurch region has endured a series of destructive earthquakes. As a result, food resilience, as a component of community resilience, has become highly relevant. This paper aims to explore the role of social entrepreneurs and the local food system in building community resilience. Design/methodology/approach Using a quasi-case study method, four social enterprise food initiatives are presented to illustrate conceptually how these local food systems contribute to community resilience in the post-earthquake context in Christchurch. Findings The results suggest that a generation of social entrepreneurs have emerged, giving rise to networked local food system initiatives that share the common goals of building multiple and unique forms of capital (human, social, natural, financial and physical). In doing so, they have contributed to creating conditions that support community resilience as both a process and an outcome in post-earthquake Christchurch. Research limitations/implications This research included only four enterprises as the case study, all located in central Christchurch. As such, the results are indicative and may not represent those found in other contexts. Practical implications The research suggests that social entrepreneurs make a significant contribution to both enhancing food security and building community resilience post-disaster. How policy infrastructure can empower and enable entrepreneurs’ post-disaster warrants further consideration. Social implications Collectively, the four enterprises included in the research were found to have created local solutions in response to local problems. This embeddedness with and responsiveness to the community is a characteristic of resilient communities. Originality/value Post-earthquake Christchurch is a living laboratory in relation to understanding community resilience. The processes by which it is occurring, how it is sustained over time and the shapes it will take in the future in such a dynamic environment are not yet understood. This paper contributes to understanding local food systems as part of this process.

scholarly journals Are Local Food Systems Vectors of Sustainable Choices?

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (3) ◽  
pp. 73-82
Author(s):  
Corina Ene ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Food Systems ◽  
Food System ◽  
Systems Approach ◽  
Local Food ◽  
Special Kind ◽  
Local Food Systems ◽  
Determining Factors ◽  
Nutritional Needs ◽  
Global And Local ◽  
The Way

In the last few years, but even more so given the context the COVID-19 pandemic, a large series of global and local changes have occurred in all areas of life, including the way food is perceived and procured. The orientation towards local food as a preferred choice has gained more followers which are interested in economic, social and environmental effects of the way the world uses all kinds of resources to meet its nutritional needs. Local food involves a special kind of food systems approach in terms of determining factors and resulting implications for all actors involved. The paper deals with emphasizing different aspects of local food systems, including both agri-food producers and consumer’s drivers together with the effects of rethinking the way people choose to procure their food. The link to sustainable development is clearly highlighted using the multiple implications of this agri-food system upon different sectors and dimensions.

scholarly journals How to guarantee food supply during pandemics? Rethinking local food systems from peri-urban strategic agents’ behaviour: The case study of the Barcelona Metropolitan Region

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sònia Callau-Berenguer ◽  
Anna Roca-Torrent ◽  
Josep Montasell-Dorda ◽  
Sandra Ricart
Keyword(s):  
Food Supply ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Food System ◽  
Food Policy ◽  
Local Food ◽  
Metropolitan Region ◽  
Mutual Aid ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Strategic Agents ◽  
Agricultural Areas

The Covid-19 pandemic has acted as a warning for the world’s current food system, especially in urban contexts with global food dependence. This article aims to analyse the food system behaviour of the Barcelona Metropolitan Region (in the northeast of Spain) during the first stage of the pandemic by deepening the behaviour of different peri-urban agricultural areas in which local food supply is promoted. Semi-structured interviews to 11 entities and institutions located in the peri-urban area of the BMR based on its productive and management profile have been carried out from March to May 2020. The results obtained highlight the socio-economic, environmental, and health perspective of food supply during the pandemic. Main results show 1) shortcomings in the operation and logistics of the metropolitan food system; 2) the complicity between the local producer and the urban consumer through new sales and distribution initiatives, 3) the role of peri-urban agricultural areas for ensuring food supply and land preservation, and 4) the need to initiate cooperation and mutual aid activities between the different agents involved in the food system. Furthermore, agents underlined the need for rethinking the agroeconomic model to strengthening the producer-consumer nexus and promoting local food policy based on food sustainability, sovereignty, and governance.

scholarly journals A REPLICABLE MODEL FOR VALUING LOCAL FOOD SYSTEMS

2015 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 441-461 ◽  
Author(s):  
STEVEN R. MILLER ◽  
JOHN MANN ◽  
JUDITH BARRY ◽  
TOM KALCHIK ◽  
RICH PIROG ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Simulation Model ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Food System ◽  
Local Food ◽  
Economic Value ◽  
Local Food Systems ◽  
Processed Foods ◽  
Local Food System ◽  
Economic Contribution ◽  
Consistent Approach

AbstractWe use the underlying data of the IMPLAN Pro 3.0 regional economic simulation model to estimate the current economic contribution of Michigan's local food system and explore the chain of transactions giving rise to consumption of locally sourced goods from producer to processor to consumption. The proposed methodology includes both unprocessed and processed foods in the estimation of the local food system's economic value. The model also provides a replicable and consistent approach to estimating the value of local food systems within regional and state economies.

scholarly journals Practicing Fair and Sustainable Local Food Systems: Elements of Food Citizenship in the Simeto River Valley

Agriculture ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 56
Author(s):  
Gina Rico Mendez ◽  
Giusy Pappalardo ◽  
Bryan Farrell
Keyword(s):  
Action Research ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Food System ◽  
Local Food ◽  
Governance Structure ◽  
Shared Vision ◽  
River Valley ◽  
Local Food Systems ◽  
Food Citizenship

This paper examines a community-based food system which emerged recently around the Simeto River Valley Agreement (SRA) in Sicily (Italy) through the lens of food citizenship. The concept of food citizenship develops an understanding of how food systems function to ensure that individuals and communities have agency, access, and engagement with their food. It allows for comparative analysis between global/industrial and community/alternative systems. This paper follows a methodological integration between action research and a case study approach. The action research process produced a networked governance structure derived from multiple initiatives which are currently initiating many thematic projects—amongst them, a local food system. Results indicate that formalizing governance structures derived from self-organizing behavior have led to an inclusive platform with a shared vision and goals. The governing structures, however, require continued efforts and capacity to engage collaboratively in implementing their strategic plans. Findings suggest that actors developing a food citizenship-focused system should (1) consider how the governance organizational structure enables fluid communication among members and leads to building trust, (2) seek alternatives to engage youth (especially in rural areas) and promote citizen engagement, and (3) develop strategies to seek technical and programmatic support for initiatives. These three aspects are key features which may be adapted to other such efforts in sustainable and local food systems. The complex networked approach to governance presented here and the shared vision for sustainability are considered key elements in fostering a successful alternative food system with the fundamentals of food citizenship at its core.

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