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 six JAFSCD Partners: |
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The JAFSCD spring-summer issue contains a collection of commentaries that emerged from the U.S. Agroecology Summit 2023 held in Kansas City, Missouri, in May 2023. This collection provides insights into the dynamics of organizing in the U.S. toward agroecology, within research and outside of it. The guest editors are Karen Crespo Triveño, Ana Fochesatto, Catherine Horner, Ivette Perfecto, and Antonio Roman-Alcalá. |
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In a newly published JAFSCD commentary, authors Nicholas R. Jordan (U of Minnesota), Matt Liebman (Iowa State U), Mitch Hunter (U of Minnesota), and Colin Cureton (U of Minnesota) write about the challenges facing Upper Midwest agriculture. In their commentary, Broadscale diversification of Midwestern agriculture requires a diversification approach, they advocate for the diversification of regional agroecological systems to provide economically viable solutions to current environmental problems. They write, "We propose that Midwest academic agroecologists can play pivotal roles in collaborative efforts to overcome these scaling barriers, including building broad societal support for diversified systems." Read the entire commentary for free.
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| "Hairy pods" in Naperville, Illinois, USA. from Flickr user risingthermals.
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"Amber waves of grain" by Flickr user Don O'Brian |
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In a newly published JAFSCD commentary, author Timothy E. Crews (The Land Institute) writes that the shrinkage of land and farms in the U.S. is a trend that brought about "the simplification of farming systems in which practices like fertility-generating rotations have been replaced with lower-diversity monocultures maintained by applications of fossil fuel–based fertilizers and pesticides. Between fossil fuel–powered mechanization and fossil fuel–based input intensification, the energy used by farmers to grow maize [for example] in the state of Nebraska is 99.7% from fossil fuels and 0.3% human labor." Read more about this topic in the commentary Grain agriculture and the end of the fossil fuel era for free.
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News from JAFSCD's Partners |
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The Carolina Hunger Initiative of JAFSCD Partner University of North Carolina Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention is supporting innovations that help schools and community organizations put food directly in the hands of North Carolinians who need it. It uses programming, applied research, and compelling communications to support policy, systems, and environmental changes that more readily connect people with the food they need.
Learn more about the initiative's research and programming here. |
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A project of JAFSCD Partner Center for Environmental Farming Systems, EmPOWERing Mountain Food Systems (EMFS) launched in 2019 to focus on expanded opportunities and capacity for food and farm businesses across western North Carolina. In 2024, a new program phase was launched in 12 regional counties and with the Qualla Boundary of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. A regional supply chain assessment led by Appalachian State University provides the structure to enhance the regional food supply chain, focusing on food hubs, farmers markets, commercial kitchens, and commissaries. The assessment will inform infrastructure and training programs for stakeholders throughout the region. Learn more about this project and CEFS here.
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JAFSCD is seeking additional partners to support our open-access publishing of evidence-based food systems research through an annual contribution. Contact Editor-in-Chief Duncan Hilchey for details!
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