2015 Conference

Full Presentation Panel

Difficult-to-predict shocks or disturbances could disrupt food production or distribution severely enough to set in motion a breakdown of food supply. The risk of serious shortfalls, whether on a local or larger scale, shorter or longer period, is of genuine concern. Cities are particularly vulnerable. It’s difficult to get a clear grip on this topic because the food system is so complex, and failure could take forms never seen before, but the stakes are high. A collection of articles in JESS is framing this issue to clarify what environmental scientists and teachers can do through research, education, or community action to contribute to a more resilient food system. This session will summarize conclusions from the articles and explore:

• What are the potential and limitations of local and regional food systems as a line of defense against disruption in food supply?
• What is already being done by civil society and the private sector to reduce the risks?

A block of time will be reserved for discussion among everyone present about strategies for improving food system resilience and what we should do next to move forward on implementing those strategies.

Laura Lengnick, Metropolitan food webs: A resilient solution to the climate change challenge?

A transformation of the U.S. food system to a nationally integrated system of sustainable metropolitan food webs is a resilient solution to the climate change challenge. A review of food systems research based on Dr. Lengnick’s recent book “Resilient Agriculture: Cultivating Food Systems for a Changing Climate,” converges on two key changes that together would enhance the resilience of U.S. food supply to climate change and other 21st century challenges. We must transform production methods (from industrial to sustainable) and geography (from regional specialization to regional diversity). Leading sustainable farmers and ranchers around the country offer proof of concept – they remain successful despite lack of government support and intense concentration and consolidation of the food system, manage impressive diversity, and sell high quality foods into direct local and regional markets. For more than 40 years, these farmers and ranchers have been busy weaving a resilient U.S. food web with the help of sustainable agriculture researchers and educators, food activists and consumers. The New American Food System is a web of regional sustainable food systems oriented around major metropolitan areas with numerous and strong local linkages within the region, some or moderate interregional linkages, and few or weak national and international linkages. To cultivate this new food system, we have the benefit of the existing knowledge bases in agroecology, sustainable food systems, adaptive management and adaptive governance. We can begin now to build on the existing physical and social capital generated by the sustainable food movement, cultivating sustainability and resilience through the redirection of existing federal programs of farm support and regional economic development.

Nancy Creamer, The local food movement, public-private partnerships, and food system resiliency

This paper addresses the question of what can be done to make the mainstream food system more resilient to shocks that can disrupt food supplies. We suggest that the interest and energy connected to the local food movement extant in a wide-ranging set of public and private groups, as well as among a widening base of consumers, creates a unique opportunity to strengthen food system resiliency. We specifically focus on the supply and distribution systems of supermarket retailers and consider the opportunities and challenges associated with localization of food procurement and distribution. We discuss actions to address these opportunities and challenges in the context of the work of the Center for Environmental Farming Systems, providing examples of how public and private entities that hold shared interests in local agriculture can partner as part of a holistic approach to diversifying and strengthening the food system.

Gerry Marten, An overview of results from the JESS special issue on food resilience and their implications for ways to leverage improvement

Articles in the JESS special issue cover a broad range of perspectives on the food system, highlighting the significance of each perspective for food resilience. Two common themes are (a) the role of diversity and adaptive capacity and (b) the potential of local and regional self-sufficiency and alternative food systems to compensate for deficiencies in the current mainstream food system. Some articles relate what environmental and food-system professionals are already doing with farmers and food supply chain corporations in the mainstream system to increase local and regional self-sufficiency or improve the sustainability of food production. A noteworthy example is use of the leveraging power of institutional food procurement to impose specifications on the way food is produced or distributed. Innovative procurement policies typically focus on purchasing from local food sources and may also address sustainability in other ways. Enormous opportunity and challenge exist for environmental and food-system professionals to work as facilitators at all levels of food supply chains to improve resilience.