Week 5 Reflection

It is curious that a profession which intends to "enhance the livability of human settlements" (Pothukuchi & Kaufman, 2000) has, up until recently, omitted the issue of food. It is curious also how food, which (like air and water) is necessary for survival is not considered a public good. Granted, food production requires land, and with the loss of the commons agriculture requires the private ownership of that land, not to mention the heavy investment of labor (one might argue that arable land, rather than food, ought to be a public good, but that would threaten the entire structure of our society). So, unlike the public goods of air and water, food has been an element that planners have left to be dealt with by market forces.

Pothukuchi and Kaufman identified multiple other barriers between planning professionals and the food system, including jurisdiction issues, budget limitations, and a lack of understanding of the problem to name a few. Luckily, it seems that in the past decade some of these barriers have been eliminated, at least in terms of the lack of understanding. The American Planning Association's Policy Guide on Community and Regional Food Planning appeared seven years after Pothukuchi and Kaufman article questioned the lack of food systems in the realm of planning. According to the APA, the interest in food systems planning has sprung from the rising awareness of the scope and importance of the food system to issues of the economy, land use, environmental sustainability, food security, and the health and quality of life of various communities. It has now been recognized that planners are in a position to comprehensively plan these systems and support them in ways that benefit various groups and economies, both through the creation and support of alternative food systems and the encouragement of industrial food systems to better meet the needs of local areas.

Though perhaps a bit off topic, the brief discussion of loss of farmland and aging farmers hit me on a very personal level. I'm typing up this post from a coffee shop in Grinnell, Iowa. I flew up last week when I got the news of my grandfather's passing. It looks like this will be the last time I see the 150 acre family farm. For the past 20 years my uncle had been working the farm for my aging grandfather, but he will be 74 this year and with none of the younger generation possessing the skills or desire to take over, the decision has been made to sell the farm. The neighboring land has already been bought up by a large, single buyer, and I imagine they will buy this plot too. I have certainly noticed a change in Jasper and Poweshiek counties from when I was a young child to now. Driving down the gravel roads you see a lot of old farmhouses empty and in disrepair. The family farms are disappearing, replaced by extensive agriculture operations with newer, larger machinery, and it is clear that the rich rural community that my father grew up in no longer exists here.