Category: Food Justice

Food Policy Is Not Just an Urban Issue

This past weekend I attended the sold-out first-ever national conference on local and state food policy organized by the Community Food Security Coalition. I came hoping to find ideas to bring back into my own rural community about food justice, food security, and food sovereignty issues.

Keeping Food Dollars at Home. What’s Behind the Local Multiplier?

Intuitively, the benefit of spending food dollars locally is fairly obvious – right? More dollars circulating locally means greater support to local businesses for a healthier community economy. Simple enough, but in explaining the local multiplier to local food advocates and policy-makers, things can get complicated fast.

Can Big Food Be Local Food?

So can local be big? Before I answer that question, it might be a good idea to revisit what we mean by local. Some good food policy advocates (including me) are substituting the term “community-based” for “local” to signify that local food systems are based on relationships rooted in place.

The Right Price for Good Food – Part 3: From the Consumer’s Perspective

In The Right Price for Good Food – Part 1, I proposed that the right price for good food depends on whom you’re asking, which may possibly explain why discussions around food prices are so lively. In The Right Price for Good Food – Part 2, I looked at the issue from the farmer’s perspective; today I examine it from the consumer’s perspective.

The Right Price for Good Food – Part 1

Whether the price is right depends on whom you’re asking, which may possibly explain why discussions around food prices are so lively. It’s almost gotten to the point that we have a tug of war going on between food producers and consumers around what should dictate price, especially now that prices are rising.

Are Food Hubs the Next Big Thing?

The need for aggregating and marketing services is especially great with new and transition farmers. New farmers are challenged to learn the business side of farming while dealing with setting up farm systems. Mid-sized farmers who would like to transition to local markets deal in greater volumes than are typical of direct sales markets. Food hubs can serve these needs.

Local Food and the Paradox of Choice

How fundamental is choice to growing a sustainable food economy? In fact, fewer product choices make local alternatives to industrial production viable. Choice at one level of a system might result in less choice at other levels.