Imagining Sustainable Food Systems

264 Pages·2010·4.01 MB·English

by  Alison Blay-palmer

Imagining Sustainable
Food Systems
Theory and Practice

Edited by
Alison Blay-Palmer
ImagInIng SuStaInable Food SyStemS
To our families,
friends
and
communities of food
with thanks
Imagining Sustainable
Food Systems
theory and Practice
Edited by
alISon blay-Palmer
Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada
© alison blay-Palmer 2010
all rights reserved. no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.
alison blay-Palmer has asserted her right under the Copyright, designs and Patents act,
1988, to be identified as the editor of this work.
Published by
ashgate Publishing limited ashgate Publishing Company
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union road 101 Cherry Street
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Imagining sustainable food systems : theory and practice.
1. Food supply. 2. nutrition policy. 3. Food industry and
trade--moral and ethical aspects. 4. Sustainable
agriculture. 5. Food supply--Case studies.
I. blay-Palmer, alison, 1961-
338.1'9-dc22
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
blay-Palmer, alison, 1961-
Imagining sustainable food systems : theory and practice / by alison blay-Palmer.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 978-0-7546-7816-8 (hardback) -- ISBN 978-0-7546-9609-4 (ebook)
1. Sustainable agriculture. 2. Food supply--International cooperation. 3. Food
security. I. title.
S494.5.S86b587 2010
630--dc22
2010015520
ISBN 9780754678168 (hbk)
ISBN 9780754696094 (ebk)
Contents
List of Figures vii
Notes on Contributors ix
Acknowledgements xi
PArT 1: InTerrogATIng SuSTAInABLe FooD SySTemS
1 Imagining Sustainable Food Systems 3
Alison Blay-Palmer
2 Conceptualizing and Creating Sustainable Food Systems:
How Interdisciplinarity can Help 17
Clare Hinrichs
3 Sustainability: a tool for Food System reform? 37
Mustafa Koc
PArT 2: InCLuSIon AnD exCLuSIon In SuSTAInABLe FooD
SySTemS
4 greening the realm: Sustainable Food Chains and the Public Plate 49
Kevin Morgan
5 Thinking About Labour in Alternative Food Systems 71
Yael Levitte
6 the urban F ood desert:
Spatial Inequality or opportunity for Change? 87
Ellen Desjardins
PArT 3: The CASe For SuSTAInABLe FooD SySTemS
7 Food Systems Planning and Sustainable Cities and regions:
the role of the Firm in Sustainable Food Capitalism 115
Betsy Donald
vi Imagining Sustainable Food Systems
8 the nexus between alternative Food Systems and
entrepreneurism: three local Stories 135
Hélène St. Jacques
9 Scaling up: bringing Public Institutions and
Food Service Corporations into the Project for a
local, Sustainable Food System in ontario 157
Harriet Friedmann
10 Food Policy encounters of a third Kind:
How the toronto Food Policy Council Socializes for
Sustain-ability 173
Wayne Roberts
11 Food Insecurity in the land of Plenty:
the Windermere Valley Paradox 201
Alison Bell
12 Imagining Sustainable Food Systems:
the Path to regenerative Food Systems 223
Alison Blay-Palmer and Mustafa Koc
Index 247
list of Figures
4.1 Commonly cited barriers to sustainable procurement 63
8.1 onFC warehouse 138
8.2 mapletons’ logo 142
8.3 mapleton sales sheet 143
8.4 arwa hillside 144
8.5 Inside the mapleton’s store 145
8.6 Wagon ride 148
8.7 tractor ride 149
8.8 long Point regional Conservation authority tour 152
8.9 Prairie grass 153
8.10 bee in a bore hole 154
12.1 Policy, socio-communal, economic and environmental spaces
through a Sustainable Food Systems lens 225
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notes on Contributors
Alison Bell, Chef training teacher and Program Co-ordinator at the david
thompson Secondary School, Invermere, british Columbia.
Alison Blay-Palmer, associate Professor in the department of geography and
environmental Studies at Wilfrid laurier university.
ellen Desjardins, Registered dietitian (R.D.) and Doctoral student in the
department of geography and environmental Studies, Wilfrid laurier
university.
Betsy Donald, associate Professor in the department of geography at Queen’s
university.
harriet Friedmann, Professor of Sociology at the university of toronto
mississauga and the Centre for International Studies, university of toronto.
Clare hinrichs, associate Professor of rural Sociology at the Pennsylvania
State university.
mustafa Koc, associate Professor in the department of Sociology, ryerson
university, toronto.
yael Levitte, executive director in the adVanCe Center at Cornell university.
Kevin morgan, Professor of governance and development in the School of
City and regional Planning at Cardiff university.

Wayne roberts, manager, toronto Food Policy Council, Public Health, City of
toronto.
hélène St. Jacques, M.Ed., President, Informa Market Research Co. Ltd.