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 (free) 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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| In From the Vault, we share earlier JAFSCD articles that are worth another look. Today's article from the vault is the article Planning for a resilient urban food system: a case study from Baltimore City, Maryland, published in October 2018 (volume 8, supplement 2). This special issue was sponsored by |
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Climate change is causing unprecedented shifts in natural systems and threatens global food security. Reduced agricultural productivity, crop damage, disrupted supply chains, and food price spikes are expected to occur more frequently in the coming years. Non-natural hazards such as civil unrest or cyberterrorism also can disrupt food systems. In urban areas, food system disruptions could substantially affect large populations already struggling to access food. Feeding cities despite such challenges requires planning for stable systems that support food security before, during, and after crises. In other words, urban food systems need to become more resilient. This reflective essay presents a participant-observer case study of the authors’ collaborative efforts to assess and plan for improved resilience in the food system of one United States city.
There has been relatively little research focused on resilience in food systems supporting urban food security. The authors reviewed city, county, and regional food system planning documents from 2001 to 2017 and found a small but increasing reference over time to resilience as a planning goal. To their knowledge at the time of their researech, no urban food system resilience planning processes were documented in the academic literature. In
Planning for a resilient urban food system: A case study from Baltimore City, Maryland,
the authors describe one attempt to improve urban food supply resilience in ways that enhance residents’ short- and long-term food security. This reflective case study shares the context, motivation, process, and lessons learned throughout a food resilience planning project in Baltimore City, Maryland. The authors conceptualize Baltimore City’s food system as the people, places, and processes involved in ensuring urban food access, availability, and acceptability. This article appeared in the 2018 supplemental issue of JAFSCD focused on urban food systems.
KEY POINTS -
Food system resilience is a nascent field for urban planners and researchers alike, so all of the collaborators faced a steep learning curve. By learning from interviews, drawing on their diverse backgrounds, and leveraging resources, they developed a report that sets the stage for a strong effort to increase food system resilience in Baltimore.
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Universities are well positioned to support food system planning efforts and have many resources that can enrich municipal efforts. Likewise, working with local governments and community leaders provides a pragmatic avenue for research, keeps researchers grounded in their own communities, and connects students with practical experiences.
Although the assessment provided some data on the type, origin, and distribution of food entering the city, it did not yield robust results. Limitations included double-counting flows of some food types, a low response rate among businesses surveyed, and the inability to quantify temporal variations in food flow. Getting a more accurate picture requires extensive interviews with food retailers, but this would have constituted a more time-intensive research process than was feasible in these circumstances.
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR POLICY, PRACTICE, AND RESEARCH -
Recognize ongoing food insecurity. Many people live with chronic food insecurity. While disasters can further exacerbate conditions for them, and can increase inequities, resilience planning should never lose sight of this ongoing trauma.
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Integrate food systems into other planning efforts. Cities will inevitably experience some emergency that threatens the food supply. That said, not all cities or universities have staff or initiatives working on food resilience, nor do they have the resources and established relationships from which we benefited.
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Consider the whole food system. Some research on food system resilience, including these researchers' early work, focuses primarily on local food production; however, they argue for a broader conceptualization. Resilience depends on having diverse food sources. In most cities, including Baltimore, local food production and processing are not sufficient to supply adequate food for all residents. Developing local and regional food production and the supply chains to support it is one way for planners to support food system resilience.
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Image above: Figure 2 from this article, "Baltimore’s Short-term Plan for Food Access During Incidents and Disasters."
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