Abstract
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.
Highlights
How Alternative Is a Local Food System Network?A growing body of literature and practice draws ties between local food systems and building sustainable futures for human health [1,2,3,4], education [5], land management [6,7], and economies [4,8,9]
A review of spatial crop data, population census information, and agricultural census information showed that the county is typical of other counties in America’s northeast corridor in that it is heavily involved in direct marketing, close to major urban areas, and farming comprises diverse production practices with a long history of direct marketing to cities
The survey found that more than 80% of all direct market food sales occurred within 100 miles of the farm, with the majority of farms selling to consumers who were less than 20 miles away [49]
Summary
How Alternative Is a Local Food System Network?. A growing body of literature and practice draws ties between local food systems and building sustainable futures for human health [1,2,3,4], education [5], land management [6,7], and economies [4,8,9]. In AFNs, transparent edges between producers and consumers are emphasized as important to tighten feedback loops between diets, consumer demand, land management, and economic investment in sustainable practices, as trust is re-discovered between producers and consumers [15,16,17]. The proclaimed benefits to future generations are manifold, from healthy diets impacting epigenetics over several generations [2,3,5,12,15] to land-use that guides compact urban development while protecting long-term soil health with more agroecological farming practices [6,7,12]
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