What is a Food System?

Defined broadly, a Food System includes the foundations for food production, the social aspects of consumption, relevant governmental and other policies, as well as the actual growing, processing, and distribution of substances that results in foods that people consume. A Food System can be characterized as being local, regional, national, or global.  Unfortunately, a simple definition cannot capture the complexity of a Food System or the social structure (the mental templates or schema) that people carry in their minds and that shapes their social activities leading to what we eat in our society.

What is a Community or Regional Food System?

A Community Food System is that part of the larger food system that is geographically located in a community or region.  Obviously, in most communities in the U.S. today, very few Community Food Systems remain highly self-sufficient and independent of the larger food system. Community Food Systems can vary from being almost entirely self-reliant to ones in which all food is imported. At the same time, Community Food Systems may vary from being controlled by members of a community to being controlled by outsiders.

What Is A Sustainable Community Food System?

The word sustainable is often associated with the sustainable agriculture movement, which had its beginnings in North America in the 1980s. This period was characterized by a wave of bank foreclosures of farm operations, particularly small and family-owned farms. Many were unable to compete with the large national and international farming corporations and were forced to sell their farms and go out of business. Globalization, through international trade agreements, were also viewed by some in the agriculture community as another reason for the demise of many small and family-owned farms.

Misuse and overuse of chemical fertilizers and pesticides contributed heavily to the degradation of many farms and waterways throughout the United States, Canada, and other developing countries. Out of this "farm crisis" came national and international institutions and organizations of concerned citizens, producers, community organizations, business like the Edibles Advocate Alliance, and environmental groups. We advocate for the creation of policies and laws that supported new environmentally safe approaches to producing food that would ensure the livelihood of farmers, vibrant economically-sound communities, and local living economies. Thus, a Sustainable Community Food System is a self-reliant system that sustains people as well as the land.

Why Are Sustainable Community Food Systems Important?

A Sustainable Community Food System, whether it is local or regional, is a Local Food Web that brings food producers closer to consumers by producing fruits and vegetables or raising livestock or fish closer to the places they are sold.  Emily Brooks and the Edibles Advocate Alliance believe that when it comes to food security and economic development, the closer producers are to homes and neighborhoods, the greater the access to more nutritious and affordable food and the more we are able to steward and protect our environment.

A Sustainable Community Food System supports long-term connections between farmers and consumers while meeting the economic, social, health, and environmental needs of the communities within a region.