Rooted in Place: Local Food Communities

Rooted in Place: How Local Food Strengthens Communities and Climate

Food miles are now unsustainably long with the average meal travelling 1500 miles. Giant global food corporations dominate. This transnational dominance of our food supply disempowers both consumers and local producers. Food insecurity is a real threat. Global food systems are dependent on fossil fuel, the policies of large food corporations and the political stability within the countries of origin of food.
The term "foodshed" refers to a holistic union between place, environment and people living within a local area, or foodshed. It encourages people to act responsibly towards their land and towards those growing food. This cooperative system ensures a local independent food supply.
Consumers are often understandably focused on acquiring more and paying less. However, behind attractive cheap prices lurks dark truths. Consumers may be buying food, produced by underpaid and overworked people who have been forced from their own small piece of land to work for multinational corporations.  

It is wise to support people who produce food sustainably and organically. In buying locally produced food consumers know who produced the food and how it was produced. Local food production systems reduce transport and lessen the need for protective packaging. Green waste can be composted and used to grow fruit and vegetables.

Community Supported Agriculture, where there is a beneficial reciprocal relationship between producers and consumers, fits very well into the foodshed concept. In this model the consumers commit to supporting the growers financially while the producer commits to supplying the consumers with seasonal produce. 

Other local food systems within the foodshed are allotments, community gardens and home gardens all of which help to ensure a sustainable local food supply.  Allotments and gardens often contain old, non-commercial varieties of fruit and vegetables. This biodiversity is more conducive to the well-being of bees and wildlife than mono-cultural stretches of large agricultural areas.

Within cities, where more than 50% of the people of the world live, resources from source to sink often pass through in an unsustainable linear way. Food and other products are transported in, with cities using 75% of the world’s resources. Waste is transported out. Allotments, community gardens and home gardens all fit well within an urban local food model.

The availability of cheap convenient food all year round has detached consumers from seasonality. Within a foodshed various foods are available at their appropriate seasons and consumers are encouraged to adjust their culinary habits to coincide with natural seasonal cycles. The fact that public policy is not driven by immediate food scarcity is obstacle to incentives being available for local growers. Declining knowledge about food-growing is also a disadvantage.

The concept of a foodshed and its practical application instils a deep awareness regarding our food sources. It also instils a sense of justice. If our food is being produced and transported from distant places, especially from developing countries significant questions must be asked:

Are we contributing to the pollution of our common atmosphere?

Are we supporting slave labour?

Are we depleting the foodsheds of other communities?

Empathy and collective responsibility are paramount in our foodsheds. We need to put people at the centre of our food systems and be able to shake the hands of those who produce our food.

Fran Brady