Place-Based Food Systems: Making the Case, Making it Happen

Kent Mullinix, Naomi Robert, Rebecca Harbut
2019 Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development  
Volume 9, Supplement 1 / Fall 2019 3 • What policy and governance structures are critical to advancing place-based food systems? • How can we increase the capacity of place-based food systems? Additionally, 14 community-focused projects were showcased via poster presentations. Eight invited plenary session speakers reflected these themes with presentations distributed throughout the conference. In the spirit of the conference, we sought to pair civic leaders with those from academic
more » ... to highlight how complementary research, extension, and community action can incite transformative food system collaborations. We had the goal of creating an exchange that lived the place-based values it was aiming to advance. From minimizing waste, to the careful sourcing of venue and materials, to reducing barriers to participation by providing small grants-our hope was to have an event that was as sustainable and inclusive as possible. Some of these undertakings were easy, like foregoing conference swag. Others were more involved, like adopting a 100% local procurement policy for catering (with the important exceptions of coffee and tea). These efforts were not perfect, and we learned a great deal in the process. Much like the conference itself, we hope that the effort here is another step toward sustainability, inclusion, and the creation of communities that are better connected to place. We believe that efforts big and small all add up. We are grateful to all who presented and participated for making this such an enriching exchange. We are also grateful to the conference planning committee members: Civic Agriculture and Food Systems (publisher of the Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development). We are exceedingly proud and pleased to have partnered with the Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development to publish these conference proceedings. All conference presenters were invited to submit a paper for the proceeding. Herein you will find 30 submissions covering the breadth of conference themes, including eight manuscripts from plenary speakers, nine peer-reviewed papers, 12 'snapshot' papers, and one viewpoint paper. Our hope in producing these proceedings is, of course, to further the utility of the conference and support collaborative research, extension, and community action toward place-based food systems that nurture people, community, and Mother Earth. Ultimately our challenge is to reconnect people to each other, to the earth, to deeply meaningful purpose, and to place. Toward this, our food systems offer a perfect path forward.
doi:10.5304/jafscd.2019.09a.002 fatcat:l2zlwy7vlfbqxcfumfk5z4kzvy