Abstract

Local food systems (LFS) comprise the people, policies, infrastructure and practices of food production, distribution, and consumption in localized areas. LFS are becoming an increasingly important part of urban sustainable development and have recently gained significant traction in the urban planning and sustainable community spheres. Worldwide shocks to global food systems such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the Ukraine-Russia war have further elevated global interest in LFS, bringing local food to the forefront of many communities as they try to insulate themselves and their food supply from future risk. However, despite this growing interest in and policy momentum for local food systems, there are precious few resources for governments to draw from in understanding, characterizing, and deploying LFS planning actions. Permanent local food planning positions are relatively rare and currently food planning initiatives are often siloed in specific agencies, departments, or non-profit groups, leading to limited action on a narrow set of issues, limited policy outcomes, and a disconnect with the larger motivation of developing sustainable local food systems. This lack of resources for food system planning is even greater at local (i.e. town, city, county) and regional (i.e. state) levels as research on integrated or holistic food policy and planning has historically been focused on the national and international governance scales. This study aimed to further our understanding of local food planning and local food governance at different governance scales. It examined a total of 183 holistic food planning publications from both regional and local governments across the United States, developing 32 representative cases for analysis. The research utilized grounded theory analysis and constant comparison to identify key trends in local food planning at both the city and state levels. The research presents three central motivations for local food planning. The research further identifies eight broad categories of local food planning action and illustrates how those actions differ at the local and regional levels. Ultimately, the research concludes by presenting a conceptual framework outlining the interaction between regional and local food planning to serve as the foundation for future research and suggests that local food planning may look to emulate similar governance structures to those seen in other urban socio-techno systems such as urban transportation or water resource planning as local food planning continues to be institutionalized in local and regional governments.

Degree

College and Department

Ira A. Fulton College of Engineering; Civil and Environmental Engineering

Rights

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