Local Food Systems
Food system refers to how food is produced and reaches consumers, and consumer food choices. It subsumes the terms ‘food chain’ and ‘food economy’, which are both too narrowly linear and/or economic. The food system can be broken down to three basic components: biological, economic/political, and social/cultural. The biological refers to the organic processes of food production; the economic/political refers to institutional moderation of different group's participation in and control of the system, and the social/cultural refers to the "personal relations, community values, and cultural relations which affect peoples use of food."
Local food systems are an alternative to the global corporate models where producers and consumers are separated through a chain of processors/manufacturers, shippers and retailers. They "are complex networks of relationships between actors including producers, distributors, retailers and consumers grounded in a particular place. These systems are the unit of measure by which participants in local food movements are working to increase food security and ensure the economic, ecological and social sustainability of communities."
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Famous quotes containing the words local, food and/or systems:
“Civility, which is a disposition to accommodate and oblige others, is essentially the same in every country; but good breeding, as it is called, which is the manner of exerting that disposition, is different in almost every country, and merely local; and every man of sense imitates and conforms to that local good breeding of the place which he is at.”
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