Local Food Initiatives Research Articles

Making locals through local agriculture: citizenship and urban gardens in Rock Island, Illinois, 1913-2018

ABSTRACT Our research explores the historical continuities and changes in urban gardening through a case study of a small post-industrial city in the Midwest. We argue that although the recent interest in urban gardening is unique in some ways, it follows previous garden initiatives in many of its approaches and goals. While urban agriculture was most visible during political and economic crises in the early and mid-20th century, it has been a constant presence in the city even as the location of gardens and farms have shifted. Settlement house gardens, Victory Gardens, and community gardens today all share a common logic that promotes solutions to poverty by expanding access to healthy foods and green spaces while seeking to improve individual behaviors in marginalized neighborhoods. At the same time, local food movements have always been shaped by understandings of community and citizenship at scales beyond the local. While gardening programs have often failed to acknowledge the deep-seated factors that produce food insecurity, we suggest that present-day local food initiatives offer the possibility of a more inclusive food system based on embodied relationships with agriculture and place, both in the city and beyond.

Local food beyond fixed scales and values: The scalar politics of Japan's jidori chicken mosaics

Abstract Local food is often explained by drawing on fixed ideas of scale or value, but such fixed notions of local food inevitably oversimplify the diversity of situated local food mosaics. This paper develops the application of scalar politics to strengthen analysis of the situated initiatives, institutions, discourses, and practices that shape scalar impacts and aspects of local food. I develop this approach through a case study of jidori chicken, a prominent symbol of local food in Japan. Through archival research and semi-structured interviews with key actors, I analyze the emergence of jidori as a category of artisan chicken linked to notions of local food. The national government introduced a standard that set minimum levels for the commercial use of jidori and made jidori legible to industrial and corporate approaches. Even though I trace the material and discursive construction of jidori from a municipality in Akita prefecture to jidori's recognition in international haute cuisine, I argue that the mosaic of local food initiatives linked through jidori defies simple hierarchical relationships. This case study of jidori from a non-Western context helps to destabilize common assumptions of local food's scale and political orientation in the Anglophone literature. This article has two main contributions. First, the application of scalar politics to local food better recognizes the mosaic-like spatial entanglements of local food. Second, in moving beyond fixed notions of scale or values, this paper encourages a broader exploration of local food in non-Western contexts.

Growing Resistance to Systems of Oppression: An Exploration of the Transformative Power of Urban Agriculture

Abstract Today the relationship between food and cities is revitalizing urban areas, as food production practices transform locales one block and one neighborhood at a time. The key catalysts of this transformation include the commitment to address the root causes of inequalities within food systems and the desire to increase local control over food systems that have been increasingly industrialized and globalized. These goals, encapsulated by the terms “food justice” and “food sovereignty,” play major roles in guiding local food initiatives in cities today. This study explores how justice-oriented urban agriculture projects transform city contexts in ways that reduce regulatory barriers – barriers that, when left in place, could perpetuate systems of oppression. The study ends with the argument that, by removing regulatory barriers, urban agriculture projects are transforming cityscapes in ways that cultivate justice at the system level.

Citizen participation in food systems policy making: a case study of a citizens' assembly

In this article, we offer a contribution to the emerging debate on the role of citizen participation in food system policy making. A key driver is a recognition that solutions to complex challenges in the food system need the active participation of citizens to drive positive change. To achieve this, it is crucial to give citizens the agency in processes of designing policy interventions. This requires authentic and reflective engagement with citizens who are affected by collective decisions. One such participatory approach is citizen assemblies, which have been used to deliberate a number of key issues, including climate change by the UK Parliament's House of Commons. Here, we have undertaken analysis of a citizen food assembly organized in the City of York (United Kingdom). This assembly was a way of hearing about a range of local food initiatives in Yorkshire, whose aim is to both relocalise food supply and production, and tackle food waste. These innovative community-based business models, known as “food hubs”, are increasing the diversity of food supply, particularly in disadvantaged communities. Among other things, the assembly found that the process of design and sortation of the assembly is aided by the involvement of local stakeholders in the planning of the assembly. It also identified the potential for public procurement at the city level, to drive a more sustainable sourcing of food provision in the region. Furthermore, this citizen assembly has resulted in a galvanizing of individual agency with participants proactively seeking opportunities to create prosocial and environmental change in the food system.

Citizen participation in food systems policy making: A case study of a citizens’ assembly

In this article, we offer a contribution to the emerging debate on the role of citizen participation in food system policy making. A key driver is a recognition that solutions to complex challenges in the food system need the active participation of citizens to drive positive change. To achieve this, it is crucial to give citizens the agency in processes of designing policy interventions. This requires authentic and reflective engagement with citizens who are affected by collective decisions. One such participatory approach is citizen assemblies, which have been used to deliberate a number of key issues, including climate change by the UK Parliament’s House of Commons (House of Commons., 2019). Here, we have undertaken analysis of a citizen food assembly organized in the City of York (United Kingdom). This assembly was a way of hearing about a range of local food initiatives in Yorkshire, whose aim is to both relocalise food supply and production, and tackle food waste. These innovative community-based business models, known as ‘food hubs’, are increasing the diversity of food supply, particularly in disadvantaged communities. Among other things, the assembly found that the process of design and sortation of the assembly is aided by the involvement of local stakeholders in the planning of the assembly. It also identified the potential for public procurement at the city level, to drive a more sustainable sourcing of food provision in the region. Furthermore, this citizen assembly has resulted in a galvanizing of individual agency with participants proactively seeking opportunities to create prosocial and environmental change in the food system.

Creating value(s) by integrating local and extra-local resources in cereal production in the Swiss Alps.

This paper explores the long-term prospect of alternative, local food initiatives, taking a particular interest in the development of the embedded local values, understood as economic as well as cultural values. Analysing the case of a cooperative of mountain cereal farmers in Switzerland, we show that sustaining local values-based quality is a dynamic process of linking local and extra-local resources. Our results first show the importance of both proximity and place in constructing the ‘local’ by the cooperative. Second, product flow, knowledge and information exchange, quality control, and innovation are governed by both horizontal and vertical relationships between local and extra-local resources, and these multiple relationships build trust in the network and beyond. This, thirdly, enables the cooperative to continuously reproduce its values by weaving them into a cycle of quality creation. We conclude that we need to understand the characteristic values-based quality of the cooperative’s products as the result of a recurring cycle of local and extra-local knowledge creation and resource exchange.

Local food 2.0: How do regional, intermediated, food value chains affect stakeholder learning? A case study of a community-supported fishery (CSF) program

Local and regional food initiatives—new ways of connecting food suppliers with nearby consumers—have proliferated in recent decades in the USA and beyond. One manifestation of this local food movement is the emergence of community-supported fishery (CSF) programs: alternative seafood distribution arrangements with shortened, traceable supply chains. Such alternative food value chains are seen as having the potential to benefit multiple stakeholders, including suppliers, customers, and intermediaries; however, the nature of those benefits—and the degree to which they foster connection among stakeholders—needs to be better understood. In particular, regional, intermediated value chains are less well understood than those that involve direct sales from harvester to consumer. This case study examines an intermediated, regional CSF (Fishadelphia) intentionally designed to connect culturally dissimilar stakeholders: New Jersey seafood suppliers and diverse consumers in Philadelphia. The project is coordinated by high school students from the Philadelphia neighborhoods served by the project. The paper examines the perspectives of three participant groups—suppliers, students, and customers—and compares motivations for taking part, values derived from doing so, and awareness of/interest in other stakeholders. Input was solicited from all active members of each participant group. Data were collected at multiple points during Fishadelphia’s first year of operations using a combination of surveys and individual/group interviews. We found that views of other stakeholders in this value chain varied widely within and across groups; these views showed some evidence of being affected by direct face-to-face contact. Our findings suggest that interplay among three types of values—self-interested, altruistic, and relational—may be important in motivating stakeholders to initiate and sustain participation in alternative value chains. This analysis furthers understanding of varied benefits that alternative food value chains can yield for different stakeholders, and illuminates opportunities for, and limitations to, the development of connection among value chain stakeholders.

Governing at Scale: Successful Local Food Initiatives in the World’s Cities

To introduce the special issue on local food initiatives in the world’s cities, this editorial examines the role of scale and the governance of local food initiatives in cities. The seven papers in this issue focus variously on food system governance at the scales of metropolitan regions, neighborhoods, households, and individual consumers. Although local food initiatives must work to overcome structural challenges operating at global and national scales, as delineated in key literature on food systems, taken together, the seven articles suggest that more sustainable outcomes are possible if local initiatives embrace change across multiple scales.

Exploring the Unique Aspects of the Northern Social Economy of Food through a Complexity Lens

First published advance online December 16, 2019This article explores our observations on the ways that a social economy of food emerges out of context and place in Northwestern Ontario. We use a theoretical approach that draws on concepts from complexity science to better understand how the diversity inherent in context and place enables the unique social, ecological, and economic features of four case study initiatives. Our analysis of these social economy of food case studies reveals areas where the social economy appears to function differently in Northwestern Ontario, and this divergence from the literature is the focus of the article. We suggest three unique processes: first, a blending of social and capitalist economies; second, limitations of the capitalist economy in this northern setting; and third, the impact of connections with the unique landscape of Northwestern Ontario. We see people in pursuit of livelihood and well-being who are connecting and interacting as complex systems, thereby adapting dynamically through feedback loops to their total ecosystem (social/economic and biophysical), and producing diverse economic and social benefits. The resulting diversity and innovation build well-being, adaptation, and resilience in Northwestern Ontario communities as local food initiatives are strengthened.

Empowering People—Democratising the Food System? Exploring the Democratic Potential of Food-Related Empowerment Forms

The current food system, characterised by considerable concentrations of economic and political power, is widely regarded as undemocratic and in many respects unsustainable in its outcomes. To address the democratic deficits in the food system, empowerment has become a central claim and point of reference for actors seeking to transform the system. In fact, numerous venues and practices have emerged in recent years to develop people’s capacities to engage with food issues. These range from local food initiatives and health-food movements to food policy councils and government education policies. This article takes a closer look at the theory and practice of democratic empowerment in the food system. It explores whether and how different forms of food-related empowerment have the potential to improve the democratic quality of the food system. Based on a broad analytical understanding of empowerment that is combined with a notion of power-based complex democracy, it is argued that different forms of food-related empowerment promote the development of different types of power, which in turn are constitutive for different functions of the democratic process. From this perspective, the challenge of democratising the food system lies in linking different complementary empowerment practices into functioning configurations of complex democratic governance.

Making Place for Local Food: Reflections on Institutional Procurement and the Alberta Flavour Learning Lab

Part case study, part reflective essay, this paper examines questions of place and scale in relation­ship to local food initiatives and, in particular, institutional procurement. A recent emphasis on “place-based” rather than “local” food systems presents an opportunity to ask, What would local food look like here? The Canadian province of Alberta is a unique place defined by a set of geographical, historical, and cultural relationships and connections around food. Through the case of the Alberta Flavour Learning Lab (Alberta Flavour), an institutional procurement initiative focused on “scaling-up” local food, we discuss how an increased emphasis on context and place acti­vates strategic directions for thinking about food system change. We consider Alberta Flavour as a site of strategic localism that involves actively craft­ing a scale of local food that functions within a particular context. Rather than reinforcing divides between conventional and alternative food systems, Alberta Flavour interfaces between the broader values of the local food movement and the current realities of Alberta’s agri-food landscape and cul­ture. We argue that the initiative’s hybrid and prag­matic approach to “getting more local food on more local plates,” while not radical, nonetheless contributes to positive food system change through “transformative incrementalism” (Buchan, Cloutier, & Friedman, in press).

Participation in local food projects is associated with better psychological well-being: evidence from the East of England.

Studies suggest that local food may contribute to well-being, but do not use standardized measures, or control groups. An online survey compared participants of local food initiatives (n = 302) with members of the general population (n = 157) in terms of scores on standardized measures of well-being and distress. Using hierarchical ordinary least squares regression models, we explored the relationship between participation and well-being via four mediators-nature connectedness, psychological need satisfaction, diet and physical activity. Participants scored higher than non-participants on life satisfaction (t(346) = 2.30, P = 0.02, ρr = 0.12) and the WEMWBS scale (t(335) = 2.12, P = 0.04, ρr = 0.10), but differences in psychological distress were insignificant. More actively engaged participants scored higher on positive well-being and longer duration participation was associated with higher life satisfaction and less psychological distress. Finally, we found that participation contributes to psychological need satisfaction, better diet and connection to nature, three known drivers of well-being. Well-being may be a co-benefit of local food initiatives beyond the physical and psychological benefits of growing food. Further research is needed to explore the mediators driving these effects, quantify benefits, and track impacts over time and across different social groups.

Infrastructures of taste: Rethinking local food histories in Lithuania

Lithuania hosts a diversity of places that offer consumers a taste of local food, which appear to mirror the recent popularity of local and alternative food initiatives globally. In this paper we show that the proliferation of local foods in the region is not a novel phenomenon, nor is it solely a manifestation of taste preferences or identities associated with food. Drawing on the growing scholarly work on the role of infrastructures in mediating social, economic and political relations, we conceptualize the taste for local food as embedded in broader networks and reproduced through material facilities. To advance this argument, our empirical analysis shows how the infrastructure for local food has been fostered, transformed, threatened, but never eradicated during: the Soviet policies that supported subsidiary agriculture and market infrastructures; neoliberal market reforms in the 1990s that made public markets into mainstays for farmers and consumers; and EU accession that brought more stringent regulations and subsidies. Our research demonstrates that today's taste for local foods in Lithuania is neither a local nor global phenomenon, but an outcome of historical processes that foregrounded the formation of smallholder agriculture, direct sales, and self-provisioning practices in the region. More broadly, our research shows how local food persists as an integral part of a broader agro-food infrastructure.

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

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.

Economic Challenges for Atlanta's Small Farmers: Creating a Financially Sustainable Local Food Supply

AbstractRecent decades have led to increased interest in geographically localized food production and consumption systems as a means of supplying healthy food and strengthening local economies. A major pillar of this economic-strengthening is the idea that more direct markets support the development of viable, small-scale farm businesses. However, literature has increasingly shown that even direct sales may prove challenging as an avenue to economic viability for small-scale farmers. This paper contributes to this literature through an examination of market perceptions and pricing strategies used by small-scale farmers engaged in direct sales opportunities. Interviews with nine farm owners and managers, as well as three leaders of local food initiatives, revealed the creative strategies that small-scale food producers use to mitigate costs, set prices and convey the value of their products. Though farmers employ these creative strategies to make ends meet, their ability to become viable businesses is limited by the scope of current opportunities available within Atlanta's local food system, primarily farmers’ markets and Community-Supported Agriculture. In order for local food production to provide viable livelihoods for small-scale farmers, Atlanta's local food infrastructure may need to support small-scale farmers’ access to more diverse direct-market opportunities.

Hoop House Gardening in the Wapekeka First Nation as an Extension of Land-Based Food Practices

Rural Indigenous communities in Canada’s North face many challenges getting regular access to nutritious foods, primarily because of the high cost of market food, restricted availability of nutritious foods, and lack of government support for nutritious food programs. The consequences of food insecurity in this context are expressed in high rates of diabetes, heart disease, and childhood obesity. Many Indigenous communities are responding to issues related to healthy food access by attempting to rebuild local food capacity in their specific regions. Important first steps have been taken in developing local food initiatives, yet whether these initiatives are improving northern food security remains to be seen. We explore this question by working with the Oji-Cree First Nation in the community of Wapekeka, northern Ontario, to construct a hoop house and develop a school-based community gardening program. Using a community-based participatory approach, we determined that hoop house and gardening initiatives in rural, northern settings have the potential to build up local food production, develop the skills and knowledge of community members, engage youth in growing local food, and align with land-based food teachings. We show that despite widespread and multidimensional community hardships, there was considerable community buy-in and support for the project, which gives hope for future development and provides important insight for those seeking to initiate similar gardening, hoop house, or greenhouse initiatives in northern Indigenous communities.

“Conservative” ideology and the politics of local food

Analysis of conservative political participation in local food initiatives tends to be critical and dismissive, positing this participation as self-serving, individualistic, exclusionary, nativist, or reactionary. While there are nefarious aspects to certain forms of conservative local food politics, my research at three farmers’ markets in the Upper Midwest reveals that self-identified conservatives can and do hold more nuanced positions. Those with whom I met recognize the need for both local and broader change, are concerned about marginalized and struggling people, are troubled by the impacts of conventional agriculture on the health of farmers, consumers, and other species, and are humble and willing to listen to other perspectives. Most analyses of food systems miss these nuanced perspectives because they approach American political ideology through a rigid left–right binary. Using more fluid approaches to understanding political ideology can create room for recognizing the complexity and diversity of views pigeon-holed under the label of “conservatism.” Along with these different approaches, a politics of empathy and mutual respect across ideological difference can help reveal common values, concerns, and aspirations for changing the food system. Recognizing these commonalities can help build a broader base of support for food system transformation.

Hybrid governance tensions fuelling self-reflexivity in Alternative Food Networks: the case of the Brussels GASAP (solidarity purchasing groups for peasant agriculture)

ABSTRACTThis paper applies the concept of Hybrid Governance to the analysis of the GASAP (Groupe d’Achats Solidaires de l’Agriculture Paysanne), a solidarity-based producers–consumers network established in Brussels in 2006. The Hybrid Governance concept allows to capture the role of key governance tensions in driving the self-organisation, scaling out and self-reflexive dynamics of Alternative Food Networks (AFNs). The approach provides a multifaceted and sound socio-political account of the ways AFNs arise, self-organise, associate and build networks in the pursuit of their food allocation objectives, often facing a contradictory socio-institutional environment. Three types of governance tensions, i.e. organisational, resource, and institutional, as well as the interactions among them, are analysed throughout the life-course of the GASAP network. The analysis identifies three phases in the GASAP’s life-course, showing how governance tensions and their interrelations arise and play a critical role in conditioning the overall development of the organisation through time. The paper concludes with highlighting prospective values of the hybrid governance approach for the analysis of AFNs in general. These values relate to: the role of the hybrid approach in illuminating on key drivers behind the scaling out of AFNs; the hybrid governance as a tool to conceptualise and sustain the self-reflexive capacity of local food initiatives and the ways by which this approach unravels challenges to build cooperative alliances and networks among a diversity of agents in the food arena.

Local Food Initiatives and Fashion Change: Comparing Food and Clothes to Better Understand Fashion Localism

As a movement, local food is well developed and its principles and practices widely appreciated. By contrast, the concepts and activity of fashion localism are far less understood. This essay looks to transfer local food experiences to the fashion context by reviewing a number of food-related initiatives and deliberating about ways in which the insights they contain may lead to smaller scale and more diverse fashion practices. The article starts with a comparison of some of the similarities and differences between food and fashion and concludes with speculations about knowledge transfer about localism for both eating and dressing.

Moving towards ecologically sustainable diets: Lessons from an Italian box delivery scheme

AbstractConscious of the nutritional failings of the current food systems, there has been a call in the last decade or so to move beyond sustainable consumption and towards sustainable diets defined as healthy diets that also optimize the environment, food quality, socio‐cultural values, the economy and governance. Previous studies have shown how local food initiatives can lead to greater levels of sustainable consumption and healthier diets and have focused on the key role played by the conscious‐consumer. Analysing various types of local food initiatives—from community‐oriented to more private‐run activities—they have described the processes that local food initiatives set in motion to empower conscious‐consumers and to ultimately change habits and routines. Taking the specific case of a business‐oriented box delivery scheme in Italy, the article sheds further light on the mechanisms that enable clients to consume in more sustainable and healthier ways, with a central role played by learning, commitment and empowerment. Obstacles however exist in the form of the way people's everyday lives are structured, and the competing values that people draw upon in making their food choices. Support is therefore needed from public institutions to make it easier for people to choose healthier and more sustainable food provisioning systems.