​A Personal Introduction

 

I like to talk about food. So, it’s not surprising that my favorite part of last summer was discussing with over 75 individuals on five continents their motives for, trials of, and successes in creating, studying, and participating in local food systems. More often than not, at some point during our discussion, my interviewee would flip one of my favorite interview questions back at me and ask, why am I interested in local food?

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I grew up in Los Angeles and New York City. Throughout my childhood I developed an affinity towards big city life, the natural environment, and… eating. I have known since middle school that I wanted to pursue my undergraduate degree in Environmental Sciences—like us all, I wanted to change the world. However, until recently, I did not know exactly how I wanted to do that. My first year at Northwestern, I joined a “real food”-centered student group, interned at Northwestern’s dining halls, and realized that my love of nature and cities could be combined into one practical passion—local food.

 

I discovered that I could connect with the natural world simply by thinking more about my food and about the path it took to get to my plate. Since then, I’ve discovered how studying food systems provides practical grounds to learn about predominant socioeconomic and environmental challenges, learn about sustainable solutions, and practice those solutions –by eating. Eating consciously, that is. Eating food that’s been produced through socially and environmentally sustainable methods, creating demand for this sustainability-sourced food, and helping sustainable food systems develop.

 

In popular discourse—in the news, in Michael Pollan books, and in my humanities class discussions—local food systems are often exalted as exemplary production and distribution systems that fuel positive social and environmental change. Yet many local food narratives in my own life are exclusive: they often involve upscale restaurants that serve twenty-dollar-a-dish farm-to-table vegetables served on rustic, farm-style tables. I am inspired by Northwestern student activists who successfully campaigned to get more local and sustainable food served on campus. I am also inspired by Chicago urban farmers who incite community revitalization. However, I have also seen the spreadsheets that detail how Northwestern Dining’s provision of more sustainable food seriously challenges their budget—Northwestern Dining’s budget—, and I’ve learned that food sales of prominent urban farms in Chicago make up fewer than one-third of their operating costs.

 

I often spend a few extra dollars at a grocery store or restaurant to support a food system that I believe in. Yet to achieve sustainable global development, to solve pressing challenges of nutrition and food security, food systems leaders—politicians, corporations, and community members—must ensure that all people can afford high quality, nutritious food. I question the extent to which local food organizations—such as community gardens, urban farms, and consumer cooperatives—can do that. Nonetheless, I’ve spent most of my life in a few U.S. cities, and so my viewpoint in limited. During past travel, I’ve become aware of innumerous narratives on the meaning and realization of healthy, sustainable, and accessible food. The Circumnavigators Travel-Study Grant provided me an unparalleled opportunity to explore how local food systems can contribute to sustainable socioeconomic development worldwide.

 

Research Background

 

Since 2008, most of the world’s population has resided in urban areas. By 2030, sixty percent will live in cities.[1] Increasing urbanization closely correlates with urban poverty and food insecurity; however, to date, the study of urban food security has been largely neglected in the Global North; most existing food system and food security research focuses on the rural poor.[2] This is true even as cities in developing and developed countries alike experience increasing food security threats caused by long supply chains, economic instability, and cultural disconnection from agricultural practices.

 

Furthermore, large cities rarely have high self-provisioning capacities but instead rely on trade to achieve food security.[3] Long national and international supply chains are essential to cities’ food infrastructure, and their disruption can leave urban areas highly vulnerable to food insecurity. Accordingly, many researchers have identified local food supply chains as a means to increase the reliability of food availability and nutritional diversity.[4] However, food systems researchers also recognize that food chain research currently suffers from a lack of reliable and widespread data. Other researchers have identified a range of social, environmental, and health benefits from urban food production, which can increase urban food security, yet these claims lack empirical precision. Thus, these widely regarded benefits, such as the increased consumption of fresh foods, strengthened communities, and heightened awareness of food supply chains, largely persist as statements of the possible.[5]

 

Cities worldwide are increasingly confronting the problem of urban food insecurity, yet policymakers, researchers, and urban residents lack a crucial understanding of the subject. Local food systems (LFS), such as urban farms and gardens, consumer cooperatives, and other rural-urban food networks are widely regarded as means to increase food security; however, existing studies lack the comprehensive, detailed data necessary to maximize the effectiveness of LFS. The greatest threats to urban food security have yet to come.

 

Research Intent & Methodology

 

Studying LFS in cities that have made recent financial, social, and political investments into LFS and/or food security adds a key narrative to the existing body of literature on the topic at hand. Over the course of twelve weeks, I would visit six cities on five continents: Kampala, Uganda; Milan, Italy; Budapest, Hungary; Tokyo, Japan; Singapore, Singapore; and Brisbane, Australia. In each city, I sought to find best-case practices of LFS, which would one, reveal the social, political, and economic factors that are necessary to create and maintain sustainable LFS and two, provide insight into how LFS can best foster urban food security. My key research questions included the following (see Appendix A for detailed research questions):

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• How can LFS foster urban food security?

• How can LFS ensure urban residents’ food security during sociopolitical, economic, and environmental shocks?

• How can LFS that foster food security become and remain a sustainable fixture in urban communities?

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I hypothesized that LFS in urban areas can enhance residents’ quality of life while mitigating environmental and social harms caused by many longer food supply chains. However, without proper planning, leadership, and execution, I hypothesized that LFS might remain vulnerable to environmental, economic, political, and cultural shocks; threaten to compromise efficient natural and human resource allocation; and exclude broad demographics of urban demographics (see Appendix A for my detailed hypothesis).

 

In each city, I focused my research on one type local food organization or network: community gardens, urban farms, or consumer purchasing groups. My 75 total interviewees fit into three main categories: researchers, local food system organizers, and local food system participants. Most researchers interviewed were based at government-sponsored research institutions or private universities. They studied a range of topics involving the sociopolitical, economic, cultural, and environmental aspects of food systems and cities’ food security. LFS organizers interviewed included managers, employees, and volunteers at established local food organizations. Local food participants interviewed included average consumers, members of consumer cooperatives, people with garden plots at community gardens, and others who have their own home gardens. (See Appendix B for a detailed list of interview questions and sample interview guides created prior to the trip.) To complement data collected from my interviews, I conducted participant-observation research at urban farms, community gardens, consumer cooperative meetings, farmers markets, and agricultural resource centers. I also conducted an extensive literature review on my study cities’ economic, cultural, and political contexts; local food movements, organizations, distribution networks that exist worldwide; and existing methodology to quantify and qualify LFS and urban food security.

 

[1] Dumaresq, D., Dyball, R., Porter, J. R., Deutsch, L., & Matsuda, H. (2014). Feeding capitals: Urban food security and self-provisioning in Canberra, Copenhagen and Tokyo. Global Food Security, 3, 1-7. Retrieved from ScienceDirect database.

[2] Morgan, K. (2015). Nourishing the city: The rise of the urban food question in the Global North. Urban Studies, 52, 1379-1394. Retrieved from SAGE Journals Online database.

[3] Burton, P, Lyons, K., Richards, C., Amati, M., Rose, N., Des Fours, L., Pires, V. & Barclay, R. (2013). Urban Food Security, Urban Resilience and Climate Change. National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility.

[4] Marsden, T., Banks, J., & Bristow, G. (2000). Food supply chain approaches: Exploring their role in rural development. Sociologia Ruralis, 40(4), 424-438. Retrieved from Wiley Online Library database.

[5] Benedek, Z., & Balázs, B. (2016). Current status and future prospect of local food production in Hungary: A spatial analysis. European Planning Studies, 23(4). Retrieved from Taylor & Francis Online database.