Local Food: Its a Trap!

The literature for this week brings to light the many ways planners can incorporate food planning into their agenda. Throughout the semester we have analyzed multiple facets of the food system including urban agriculture, distribution techniques, and the industrialization of food over time. All of these themes play active roles in how we engage our food system--are we Trader Joes or Walmart people? Do we go to the farmers' market on Saturdays? are we locavores? Do we even have access to any of the above? As food is central to both the urban and rural environment, planners can (and maybe should) incorporate food related research into their job description--even if it doesn't stem from a "local" lens.

I will admit, I have drank the local food system tea. I believe in the power of uniting communities (scale word) through local (also a scale word) collards and cornbread. As I proudly drive my (as some would call pretentious) prius, I boast bumper stickers such as "iGrow Your Grandma's Greens" "Eat Local" and Trump 2016 (just kidding), Born and Purcell (2006) and Delind (2011) challenge me think outside of my "local"box. As most factors that we try to tabulate --race, gender, and in case local food, are social constructs (Born and Purcell, 2011). That being said, if "local"is simply a question of scale, then there is nothing inherent about the term. Therefore, planners must  be very to carry out research that insinuates that local is better, but rather focus on the actual goal that is wished to be achieve--empowerment, security, safety..etc. Additionally, Born and Purcell further that local is both fluid and fixed, and relational--communities are not synonymous with local. DeLind (2011) contributes to the scale debate by framing local (locavores specifically) as a term that is decisive and manipulative to the food movement as "there is little to the term that appeals to the whole person, peoples as residents, poets, bus drivers, grandmothers, and neighborhood activists--as people who must practice the complex art of living with each other. Its a me term, rather than a we term." I thought this was insightful and challenging, so often do I forget how exclusive my vocabulary can become. Due to the abstract nature of the term local, locally driven food systems it can be used as a strategy, rather than an outcome for promoting the good food movement. 

Campbell (2004), Raja et al (2008) and Hodgson (2011) speak specifically to the planners role at a local level within his or her community. Through trying to understand the needs of community stakeholders, Campbell found that although there is a lack of a unified agenda. However, there were overlapping needs including, public participation; social, economic and environmental justice; and the importance of local knowledge. Through these lenses, stakeholders wish to challenge today's "anti-democratic food system" into a legitimate food democracy. In order to do this, Raja et al (2008) bring up many of the tools to "promote social, cultural, and intergenerational exchange in a community" that we have discussed in class: community gardens, farmers markets, CSAs, farm to school programs, food policy councils, food charters (I thought this was really neat) and incorporating food into comprehensive plans. 

I'm sorry for the scattered-ness of this post. I'm overwhelmed with information, and unsure what to do with it!