Spotlight
Community Food Systems
A viable community food system provides people with more than food; it fosters gainful employment, fellowship, celebration, and overall security.
Around the world, work is being done to improve community food security; but increasingly, challenges such as climate change are scaling-up the problem, centring the discussion on global issues and actions. Nevertheless, many of the opportunities we have to make our food systems more sustainable, climate resilient, and socially just, require action at the community level. Re-focusing the lens of food security on the community can empower people to collectively enact change.
What is a food system?
A food system encompasses everything to do with the production, distribution, and consumption of food (including jobs, the environment, health, transportation, infrastructure, social justice, politics, and culture).
Kaiser, M. 2017. “Redefining Food Security in a Community Context: An Exploration of Community Food Security Indicators and Social Worker Roles in Community Food Strategies.” Journal of Community Practice, 25(2). https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10705422 .2017.1308897
Special Thanks
Thank you to the attendees of the two workshops who helped form and edit the discussion paper.
We would like to extend special thanks to the Wilton Consulting Group and Dr. Erin Pratley of Pratley Consulting. Thank you as well to Alice Raine, Elizabeth Shantz, Alysa JK Loring, and the University of Guelph for administrative support. The Spotlight projects have been developed with the Research Innovation Office at the University of Guelph.
Featured Video
Community Food Systems: A Story from Ireland’s Burren
Dr. Philip Loring shares a story about how community food systems can answer social, economic and ecological dilemmas.
Podcast
Coastal Routes Radio
Listen to the Coastal Routes Radio, a podcast examining sustainable livelihoods in coastal regions.