Creating a local food procurement community of practice: The Alberta Flavour Learning Lab

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 155-169 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary Anne Beckie ◽  
Leanne Hedberg ◽  
Jessie Radies
Keyword(s):  
Community Of Practice ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Food System ◽  
Local Food ◽  
Provincial Government ◽  
Local Foods ◽  
Social Infrastructure ◽  
City Region ◽  
Physical Scale ◽  
Common Framework

In order for local food initiatives (LFIs) to have a transformative effect on the larger food system, greater levels of economic, organizational and physical scale are needed. One way for LFIs to reach the scale necessary to generate a more significant impact is through increased institutional procurement of local foods. But how do people and organizations come together to generate the social infrastructure required to shift food purchasing practices and processes? This field report shares the story of an innovative community of practice consisting of institutional food buyers, large-scale distributors, regional retailers, processors, producers, researchers, municipal and provincial government representatives within the Edmonton city-region that formed for the express purpose of “creating a positive community impact by getting more local foods on more local plates”. In describing the formation and first three years of the Alberta Flavour Learning Lab we examine the unique characteristics of this community of practice that has aided the development of a common framework for learning, understanding and joint action. In addition to the accomplishments to date, we also discuss the challenges faced by the Learning Lab and the strategies used to overcome them.  

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 It’s All in the SKU: Getting Food from Somewhere from the Field to the Dinner Plate while Using a Large Scale Retailer

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 892 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carolyn Haythorn ◽  
Daniel Knudsen ◽  
James Farmer ◽  
Carmen Antreasian ◽  
Megan Betz
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Food System ◽  
Local Food ◽  
Economic Viability ◽  
Local Food Movement ◽  
Sustainable Food ◽  
Good System ◽  
Food Retailers ◽  
Food Movement

The local food movement provides sustainable food, but often suffers from a lack of economic viability. We examine the need for concerned consumers, qualified growers, and responsible retailers. Concerned consumers are individuals who desire food from somewhere, but must shop at food retailers. Qualified growers sell sustainable food from somewhere, and must be able to set their own prices. Responsible retailers provide consumers with food from somewhere. Taken together, currently there is no good system in place to allow for large scale purchases and long term sales of food from somewhere for a retailer. To solve this, we propose a benevolent wholesaler model, in which stock keeping unit (SKU) numbers are given to each type of product from each farm. This enables tracking of the origin of the produce by retail customers and individual consumers, while retaining the attributes of a food system that allow for large scale purchases and long term sales. Such systems are no less sustainable, but potentially provide enhanced economic viability for producers.

scholarly journals Digitalisation in a local food system: Emphasis on Finnish Lapland

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 496-508
Author(s):  
Dele Raheem
Keyword(s):  
Digital Technology ◽  
Food Processing ◽  
Food System ◽  
Local Food ◽  
Local Foods ◽  
Food Sector ◽  
Local Food System ◽  
Finnish Lapland ◽  
Current Trends ◽  
And Storage

AbstractThe positive adoption of digital technology within the food sector can boost sustainable development in Finnish Lapland. There is a need for a food system in the region to respond to current trends from consumers and ensure a better supply of local foods that are processed efficiently with minimal waste. In this article, a review of the literature on the benefits of digitalisation as a tool amongst food processors was carried out. The opportunities offered by digital technology are expected to make local food business operators more transparent, efficient and sustainable. Digitalisation can help to minimise the environmental impacts of food processing and ultimately improve sustainability. In meeting the demand of local consumers, distributed and localised manufacturing will help to add value to local food crops, lower transportation and storage costs. The adoption of food digitalisation will open up market accessibility for the locally produced food products in local communities. In the future, digitalisation is likely to have major impacts in the local food system of the Lapland region.

scholarly journals Marketing locally produced foods: Consumer and farmer opinions in Washington County, Nebraska

2005 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 252-260 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mindi L. Schneider ◽  
Charles A. Francis
Keyword(s):  
Food System ◽  
Local Food ◽  
Farmers Markets ◽  
Grocery Stores ◽  
Local Foods ◽  
Purchase Decisions ◽  
Washington County ◽  
Local Food System ◽  
Survey Results ◽  
High Level

AbstractLocal food system potentials were studied in Washington County, Nebraska. As a departure from most studies of locally based systems, farmers were surveyed in addition to consumers for potential participation. Data about the current food system and opinions and preferences for local production, marketing, and purchasing of food were collected using self-administered mail questionnaires. The response rate was 35% for the farmer survey and 37% for the consumer survey. Results indicated that, on the farming side of the food system, conventional corn and soybean production and marketing predominated in Washington County, and farmer interest in producing for local markets was low. Consumers reported a high level of interest in purchasing food from farmers' markets, local grocery stores, local restaurants and directly from farms, and indicated a willingness to pay a price premium for local foods. They also reported that quality and taste were the most important factors in food purchase decisions, but environmentally friendly production and support for local farmers were also important. We conclude that there is tremendous potential for local marketing of farm products, but that there is a large gap between consumer demand and willingness of farmers to meet this demand. Further study of motivations and opinions of farmers is needed, in addition to determining production thresholds for the number of farms and farmers needed to meet local food demands.

scholarly journals Local versus organic: A turn in consumer preferences and willingness-to-pay

2010 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 331-341 ◽  
Author(s):  
Damian C. Adams ◽  
Matthew J. Salois
Keyword(s):  
Food System ◽  
Local Food ◽  
Consumer Preferences ◽  
Organic Food ◽  
Community Support ◽  
Local Foods ◽  
The Past ◽  
Food Standards ◽  
The Us ◽  
Food Market

AbstractDemand for local food in the US has significantly increased over the past decade. In an attempt to understand the drivers of this demand and how they have changed over time, we investigate the literature on organic and local foods over the past few decades. We focus our review on studies that allow comparison of characteristics now associated with both local and organic food. We summarize the major findings of these studies and their implications for understanding drivers of local food demand. Prior to the late 1990s, most studies failed to consider factors now associated with local food, and the few that included these factors found very little support for them. In many cases, the lines between local and organic were blurred. Coincident with the development of federal organic food standards, studies began to find comparatively more support for local food as distinct and separate from organic food. Our review uncovers a distinct turn in the demand for local and organic food. Before the federal organic standards, organic food was linked to small farms, animal welfare, deep sustainability, community support and many other factors that are not associated with most organic foods today. Based on our review, we argue that demand for local food arose largely in response to corporate co-optation of the organic food market and the arrival of ‘organic lite’. This important shift in consumer preferences away from organic and toward local food has broad implications for the environment and society. If these patterns of consumer preferences prove to be sustainable, producers, activists and others should be aware of the implications that these trends have for the food system at large.

scholarly journals The dilemma of scaling up local food initiatives: Is social infrastructure the essential ingredient?

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 49-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean Connelly ◽  
Mary Beckie
Keyword(s):  
Food System ◽  
Local Food ◽  
Scale Up ◽  
Scaling Up ◽  
Social Infrastructure ◽  
Farmers Market ◽  
The Status ◽  
Comparative Case Studies ◽  
Infrastructure Investments ◽  
The City

The purpose of this paper is to reflect on and compare two responses to the challenge of scaling up local food initiatives.  Comparative case studies of the Good Food Box in the City of Edmonton and the Rimbey farmers’ market are used to examine the different strategies used to scale up their impacts as a means of providing a meaningful alternative to the status quo.  Our findings suggest that investments in social infrastructure are crucial for maintaining the values and integrity of local food initiatives and also to highlight the challenges of doing so while in competition with the mainstream food system.  Our research identifies how social infrastructure investments for local food initiatives can support radical and strategic incremental changes by managing the risk associated with transformative local food activities and provides opportunities for a reflexive approach to scale by identifying the levers and catalysts for broader change to ensure that investments in food system infrastructure are not made merely for the sake of scaling-up.    Social infrastructure is identified as critical for building support for, and attention to, opportunities to scale out and develop connections, networks and partnerships for change beyond food.

Small, Slow, and Local: Essays on Building a More Sustainable and Local Food System

2011 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 353
Author(s):  
Mary Jane Angelo ◽  
Amelia Timbers ◽  
Matthew J. Walker ◽  
Joshua B. Donabedian ◽  
Devon Van Noble ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Food System ◽  
Local Food ◽  
Local Food System

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.

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