BCFN Young Earth Solutions YES! Using food-systems thinking to identify innovations that connect local production-consumption for healthy communities, people, and environment Abstract: Intro. Across United States communities are taking action to ‘relocalize’ through new focus on linking production and consumption of local food systems. The benefits of linking food production and consumption locally range from improved 1. Social and health—nutrition, and access to food by diverse populations; 2. Economic—greater local economic development and control, and 3. Environment— reduced transport cost, lower heat-island effect, and improved waste management. Problem. Given localities dependence on the global food systems, linking local production and consumption presents a big challenge for planners. For example, while the City of Sacramento (CA, USA) is currently producing 3.4 MT of food and consuming 2.2 MT, only 2 percent of production is consumed locally. There are similar examples all across US Solutions. The main idea of this project is to use food-systems innovations to solve discrepancies in local/ regional production and consumption by focusing on the totality of food-systems through identifying central forces, pressure points, and contradictions within the system. Food-systems innovations successfully link components of the local food chain through tools, practices and initiatives in urban-rural connections, agricultural infrastructure, meeting local demands, and increasing scale of local food available for schools, hospitals and other local institutions.
Author
Saleh Azizi Fardkhales
Using food-systems thinking to identify innovations that connect local production-consumption for healthy communities, people, and environment Sustainable Food Systems Planning. Across United States communities are taking action to ‘relocalize’ through new focus on linking production and consumption of local food systems. A food system can be described as processes that produce agricultural commodities on farms, transform these into food in the marketing sector, and sell the food to consumers to satisfy nutritional as well as esthetic and social needsi. A view that considers the totality of the food-system helps (1) assure stakeholders that all of the major dynamics are in view, which may lead to more effective action, (2) by identifying central forces, pressure points, and contradictions within the system, local foods initiatives can more effectively meet strategic priorities, (3) better understand how the system may resist efforts to change, and (4) better estimate how actions in one arena might impact stakeholders and issues in anotherii. The benefits of linking food production and consumption locally range from improved: 1) Social and health—nutrition, and access to food by diverse populations; 2) Economic—greater local economic development and control, and 3) Environment— reduced transport cost, lower heat-island effect, and improved waste management. Reinvigorating local sustainable food systems represents a potentially powerful form of community building, and a way to profoundly strengthen and revive our collective commitments to the landscape and the community that ultimately sustainsiii. Urban and community planners play an important role in local food-systems planning through frameworks for sustainable community food systems. Community food systems as distinguished from global food systems stress the following parameters: 1) food security- access to affordable and nutritious food, 2) proximity- distance between various components of the food system, 3) self-reliance- the degree to which the community meets its own needs, and 4) environmental sustainability- harmful chemicals and non-renewable inputs into farming systems are reducediv. Research Problem, Concept, and Data Collection. Given localities dependence on the global food systems, linking local production and consumption presents a big challenge for plannersv. For example, while the City of Sacramento (CA, USA) is currently producing 3.4 MT of food and consuming 2.2 MT, only 2 percent of production is consumed locallyvi. There are similar examples all across US. This project aims to highlight policy-ready and economically feasible innovations that communities are adopting across U.S. to localize their food system through food Across United States, localities grow more food than they eat. produced foods are rarely consumed locally. Foodsecurity, proximity, self-reliance, and Yet systems innovations can solve this discrepancy and provide more jobs, healthier diets, and cleaner local environments.
environmental sustainability. The main idea is to use food-systems innovations to solve discrepancies in local/ regional production and consumption by focusing on the totality of food-systems through identifying central forces, pressure points, and contradictions within the system. Food-systems innovations successfully link components of the local food chain through tools, practices and initiatives in urban-rural connections, agricultural infrastructure, meeting local demands, and increasing scale of local food available for schools, hospitals and other institutions. These innovations (tools, practices, initiatives, and programs) will be grouped into four community food-systems themes: 1) Improved public health, access and reducing hunger— innovations that address food security through access to healthy, nutritious and affordable food by marginalized populations 2) Increased local economic viability through clustering— innovations that address proximity through aggregation, storage, processing, distribution, and/or marketing of locally and regionally produced foods 3) Improved local control- innovations that address self-reliance through meeting local population demands and land availability/ suitability 4) Maximized environmental benefits— innovations that respond to environmental sustainability through reduction of chemical use, transportation, and other harmful practiced while catalyzing positive environmental effects and restoring local environment This project will be prepared through surveying current literature and case studies of local/ community/ regional systems efforts and initiatives of sustainable urban and community planning in United States. Case studies will include Pacific Northwest region, the Hawaiian Islands, California, Ney York, and New England, A summary of innovations will be provided as well as an evaluation of innovations across the four themes. Proposed solutions and feasibility of solutions. This project offers a novel idea to utilize food-systems innovations to transform local/regional production and consumption connections. The feasibility of each food-systems innovation/ solution will be assessed over its contribution to the four priority areas mentioned above. Local and community innovations (tools, practices, initiatives, and programs) speaks to a wide spectrum of stakeholders and disciplines as it looks across economic and sustainability sciences, health and nutrition sciences, and real examples of contemporary society at policy-ready and economically feasible solutions. These are innovations that are already taking place in at least one locality and can be of benefit to communities that are faced with the challenge of linking local production and consumption of food.
i
Timner, Falcon, and Pearson. (1983) Food Systems Analysis. International Bank of Reconstruction and Development: Washington DC, USA ii Meter, K. (2011, November). Seventeen reasons to do food system assessments. Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development, 2(1), 7–9. http://dx.doi.org/10.5304/jafscd.2011.021.014 iii Beatley, T. quoted in Mendez and Nasr (2011) Preparing future Food Systems Planning Professionals and Scholar: reflections on teaching experiences. Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development: Volume 2, Issue 1 iv Wilkins and Eames-Sheavly (2003) Discovering the Food System- An experimental learning program for young and inquiring minds. Cornell University retrieved from www.discoverfoodsys.cornell.edu/pdfs/foodsys.pdf (4/9/2012) v After production stage, the average food product is handled 33 times before reaching the final consumer See Kantor, L. Lipton, K. Manchester, A. and Oliveira, V. (1997) Estimating and addressing America’s Food Losses. Food Review Jan, 1997: http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/foodreview/jan1997/jan97a.pdf vi Shabazian, D. (na) Rural-urban Connection Strategy. Senior Planner, Sacramento Area Council of Governments. [Webinar] American Farmland Trust: Planning for Food and Agriculture: Taking a Systems Approach. Retrieved from http://www.farmland.org/programs/localfood/planningforagriculture/planning-for-foodand-agriculture.asp (8/6/2012)