from the Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development |
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JAFSCD is the world's only community-supported journal. JAFSCD content is open access thanks to the generous support of our shareholders: the JAFSCD Shareholder Consortium, Library Shareholders, a growing number of Individual Shareholders, and our seven JAFSCD Partners: |
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Collaboration results in new Food Resilience Toolkit
JAFSCD peer-reviewed article by David Conner (U of Vermont [UVM]), Claire Whitehouse (UVM), Neishaly Serrano-Cortés (U of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez [UPRM]), Robinson Rodríguez-Pérez (UPRM), Naomi Cunningham (Vermont Agency of Commerce & Community Development), Travis Reynolds (UVM), Kerry Daigle (UVM), Valery Desravins (UPRM), and Jane Kolodinsky (UVM, now at Western Colorado U)
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Food systems scholars and practitioners are increasingly prioritizing food system resilience (FSR) as a conceptual framework. FSR has been the guiding topic of an ongoing partnership between the University of Vermont (UVM) and the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez (UPRM) that involves faculty, graduate students, and community partners from both regions to collaborate on research, education, and outreach. The first major output of the UVM-UPRM partnership is a Food Resilience Toolkit, developed by faculty and graduate students at both universities available in written and video formats in both English and Spanish.
A new JAFSCD article, “Food Resilience Toolkit in action,” provides the results of an application of one component of the toolkit: an asset mapping exercise held with stakeholders at a statewide food systems gathering in Vermont. To highlight areas of strength and areas in need of investment, they posed this prompt and questions to participants:
As a northern inland state, Vermont is positioned to be insulated from the most dramatic effects of the climate crisis, and is likely to receive an influx of climate refugees from both inside and outside the U.S. A large influx of refugees would require our small state to increase capacity on many fronts: housing, health care, and of course, food.
In the event of rapid population growth caused by climate crisis, -
What assets could Vermont mobilize to “provide sufficient, appropriate and accessible food to all” (Tendall et al., 2015, p. 19)?
- Where are there gaps?
KEY FINDINGS
Authors David Conner and colleagues analyzed the results of the workshop by sorting participant suggestions into the seven community capitals: natural, cultural, human, social, political, financial, and built. The greatest number of both identified assets and gaps named by participants fell under the built capital category; these assets included distribution, transportation and energy infrastructure. Participants also named a large number of human capital assets and gaps, including labor, knowledge and expertise. Respondents named fewer assets and no gaps in other capitals (social and especially political and cultural), which are less familiar and harder to quantify.
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR POLICY, PRACTICE, AND RESEARCH -
Invest in workforce development and infrastructure for local and regional production, processing, and distribution.
- Improve working conditions and wages to make food jobs more desirable and less precarious.
- Maintain farmland and preserve water resources.
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Future research can focus on repeating the exercise in other regions, as well as testing the effects of prompts of assets within capital categories not identified in early rounds.
Corresponding author David Conner can be contacted at david.conner@uvm.edu. SHARE ON YOUR SOCIALS
What assets exist in your community that could help ensure continued access to food during a crisis? A new research brief introduces a Food Resilience Toolkit created by scholars at the University of Vermont and the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez and explores its application at a Vermont food systems gathering. Read the @JAFSCD article for free: https://doi.org/10.5304/jafscd.2023.131.014
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JAFSCD's Wicked Problems in Food Systems workshop, "Achieving Circularity in Local and Regional Food Systems Development," was a big success!
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The first JAFSCD Wicked Problems in Food Systems workshop, “Achieving Circularity in Local and Regional Food Systems Development,” was held on November 16, 2023. Over 500 people worldwide registered to attend! The presentations were excellent and attendees were engaged — the chat was lively with questions and comments. |
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We are happy to share the following materials:
We extend our thanks to the workshop contributors: - Presenter: Felipe Cozim Melges — PhD Candidate, Farming Systems Ecology group, Wageningen University, Netherlands
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Presenter:
María Alonso Martínez — Junior Officer, Circular Development, ICLEI—Local Governments for Sustainability, Germany
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Presenter: Michael Kotutwa
Johnson (Hopi) — Assistant Specialist, Indigenous Resiliency Center, University of Arizona, USA)
- Facilitator:
Jacob Park — Associate Professor, College of Business, Vermont State University (Castleton) University, USA; Visiting Professor of the Faculty of Business & Economics at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa; and co-chair of the JAFSCD Shareholder Consortium
- Host:
Duncan Hilchey — JAFSCD Editor-in-Chief; duncan@lysoncenter.org
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The workshop was co-sponsored by JAFSCD's sister program, the North American Food Systems Network (NAFSN), which offers the Finding Your Future in Food Systems webinars and podcasts.
NAFSN is a professional association of people working together to strengthen local & regional food systems. |
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