Governance and Innovations in Local Food System Development: A Bottom-Up Approach in North Carolina

Krystal Chojnacki,Nancy Creamer

doi:10.5304/jafscd.2019.091.034

Krystal Chojnacki, Nancy Creamer

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.5304/jafscd.2019.091.034

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Abstract

Governance is a collaborative and systemic approach to governing that fosters innovation and inclusiveness of a broad combination of actors, processes, and instruments (Jordan, Wurzel, & Zito, 2005). It draws from the energy, expertise, and resources of the collaborative to employ more sustainable, bottom-up policy solutions. The growth in popularity of local foods and community-based food systems as a pushback to the globalization of our food industry has given rise to a network of coalitions, institutions, and actors in North Carolina that are engaging in local food system development and governance to create a place-based local food economy in the state. The case reviews the Center for Environmental Farming Systems (CEFS), a transdisciplinary, interinstitutional collaboration between the state’s two land-grant institutions, (North Carolina State University and North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University), and the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Sciences, as an active and prominent stakeholder in the process of local food system governance. The Farm to Fork Initiative, now over 10 years in operation, is reviewed to provide both insight into and reflection of a bottom-up approach to creating a local food economy through governance, innovation, and the implementation of community-based food system initiatives.

Highlights

Governance is a collaborative and systemic approach to governing that fosters innovation and inclusiveness of a broad combination of actors, processes, and instruments (Jordan, Wurzel, & Zito, 2005)
Responding to identified challenges, such as addressing a lack of critical infrastructure, catalyzed observable growth in areas of the local food economy. This snapshot provides a preview of a forthcoming publication that enters a current and relevant conversation in the literature of universities’ roles in governance of food systems by introducing and reflecting on the case of North Carolina’s statewide Farm to Fork Initiative
The publication shares insight into how the NC local food system has implemented an initiative of governance as well as set and prioritized objectives

Summary

Introduction

Governance is a collaborative and systemic approach to governing that fosters innovation and inclusiveness of a broad combination of actors, processes, and instruments (Jordan, Wurzel, & Zito, 2005). Key Points This publication reviews the case, including lessons learned, of how North Carolina’s land-grant universities were involved as active stakeholders in an initiative of governance developing the North Carolina local food system. Critical to the initiative’s success was the use of professional facilitation services to support the a * Krystal M.

Results

Conclusion