from the Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development |
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In From the Vault, we share earlier JAFSCD articles that are worth another look!
Today's featured article appeared in the 2018 special issue supplement, Local government in food systems work (vol 8., suppl. 2), sponsored by Growing Food Connections.
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It is time to shift the trajectory of how local governments engage in communities’ food systems. The involvement of local and regional government (LRG) in food systems is essential and welcome, of course. However, recent experiences, as well as what is on the horizon, suggest that practitioners and scholars must reimagine the roles local governments play and how they play them. Failure to reflect and correct course on public policy measures to strengthen community food systems will be judged as short-sighted by historians, much the same way that urban renewal policies are critiqued today.
Thus it is critical to ask: How are LRGs engaging in the food system, and how are they reflecting on this engagement? How is this engagement advancing or impeding the planning, policy, and creation of inclusive, equitable, and just food systems? How is this progress being monitored and measured? And, more importantly, how should local governments be changing the nature of their engagement to ensure equitable and just outcomes? These are the key questions tackled in this special issue of JAFSCD. Elements of this inquiry can be found in this From the Vault article from 2018, Reflexive and inclusive: Reimagining local government engagement in food systems.
KEY POINTS -
New Governance Issues: Governance takes us beyond ‘government’ in at least two ways. First, it acknowledges that more than just the public sector is involved in decision-making and bringing resources to the table. For example, many nonprofits are involved in social-service provisioning. Second, collective public decision-making and problem-solving benefit from greater engagement from nongovernmental actors. Broad-based engagement in governance processes can be more effective at achieving shared, public objectives than governments acting alone.
- Development and adoption of local government policies and plans: A key way in which local governments are strengthening community food systems is by undertaking comprehensive planning linked to food systems. The authors in this special issue illustrate the many ways in which such planning and comprehensive engagement by local governments are unfolding.
- Implementation of policies and plans: Efforts to implement policies and plans to strengthen community food systems are well underway. Lessons from across the U.S. and Canada suggest that implementation is a complicated process, with some successes but also many challenges.
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR POLICY, PRACTICE, AND RESEARCH
Food systems are intricately linked to other systems that make communities work: transportation systems, ecological systems, economic systems, etc. As LRGs deepen their work in community food systems, they run the risk of creating a food system silo where community food systems work is disconnected from other local government work. As community food systems activities become a legitimate domain of a particular agency or department, we run the risk of slowing innovation. Inclusive and equitable governance arrangements that focus on the process of stewarding community food systems are the way forward. Stewards must engage in reflexive practice, reflecting and readjusting both on processes used, and on resulting policies, in addition to their own role in governance, while continually attending to inclusive and equitable engagement. The way forward for local governments should be about reflecting inward, reaching outward, and perhaps reimagining how our food system, as a civil commons, can best serve all community members.
SHARE ON SOCIALS
How are local governments engaging in the food system? Who are they engaging with, and who are they leaving out? Read more in this JAFSCD From the Vault article focusing on local government in food systems work. #FoodSystems #Planning #FoodPolicy Read for free @JAFSCD: https://doi.org/10.5304/jafscd.2018.08B.013
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Image above: This is a figure from the article, titled "Figure 1. Inclusive planning and policy processes for strengthening community food systems." |
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NEWS FROM OUR SISTER PROGRAM |
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In this popular and free webinar series from JAFSCD's sister program NAFSN, panelists share connections and insights to help attendees identify possibilities for their careers. The spring 2024 series highlights job creators across the food systems profession.
Join the next Finding Your Future in Food Systems webinar with Marion Mosby (Tennessee State U), David Gianino (Virginia Dept. of Agriculture), Raghela Scavuzzo (Illinois Farm Bureau), Wednesday, March 20, 6:00-7:00 pm ET
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