Feed Northampton: FIRST STEPS TOWARD A LOCAL FOOD SYSTEM

Responding Innovatively to Challenges

UNDERSTANDING FOOD AS A

SYSTEM

Components of a food system

Scales of foOD SYSTEMS:

3. National

4. Global

1. Local

2. Regional

The Global Foodshed •  A foodshed is the area between where food is

produced and where food is consumed, including: -  where food is grown -  where food travels on distribution routes -  where it is processed and packaged -  where it’s sold and consumed

On average, food consumed in the United States

travels over 1,500 miles and changes hands half a

dozen times before it even reaches the table

A D V A N T A G E S o f l a r g e - s c a l e s y s t e m s

•  Access to wide varieties of food from distant lands and warmer climates

•  Food is available year-round

•  Food is produced and sold at low costs, making it more accessible to food insecure

W E A K N E S S E S of large-scale s y s t e m s

•  The reliance on fossil fuels makes the system vulnerable, due fuel availability and fluctuating costs

•  Massive waste stream pollutes the environment and fails to capitalize on potential opportunities

•  Centralized processing plants are susceptible to contamination affecting people nation-wide

•  Less economic trickle down to local economy

PLANNING A LOCAL FOOD SYSTEM:

a proactive response to the vulnerabilities of large-scale food systems for securing our food

ADDITIONAL BENEFITS

  Stimulates local economy

  Reduces environmental impacts

  Enhances community

UNREALIZED OPPORTUNITIES... • A local food system planned at the municipal level has

the potential to provide food security and support job growth

•  Individuals, businesses, and local governments can realize that there is an opportunity to plan a local food system that can foster:

  entrepreneurial endeavors

  educational opportunities

  community assets

  food abundance

CHALLENGES to be overcome:

...However, there are constraints and limitations to local food cultivation

•  Land is prohibitively expensive

•  Diminishing agricultural land

•  Voids in infrastructure

•  Legal barriers and zoning restrictions

•  Short growing season

Responding Innovatively to Challenges

FEED NORTHAMPTON: First steps Towards a Local Food System

A process for developing a

LOCAL FOOD SYSTEM

1.  Land Assessment

2.  Appropriate Strategies

3.  Assembling a Whole System

Context: Northampton lies in the fertile

Pioneer Valley

Some of the richest agricultural soils in the

world: Winooski/Hadley Loam

1) LAND ASSESSMENT

0‐3%3‐8%8‐15%15‐25%25+%

Slope Analysis

Legend

soils

Density & grocery stores

COMPOSITE ANALYSIS ←  Slopes

←  Land Use

←  Impervious Surfaces

←  Hydrology

←  Soils

←  Transportation

←  Conservation Areas

←  Farmland

TRANSECT

SUMMARY ANALYSIS

A A’

A A’

TRANSECT

SUMMARY ANALYSIS

Rural

Suburban

Agricultural

Urban

•  Apply site-specific cultivation strategies appropriate to each district’s characteristics

•  Each District has unique opportunities and constraints to food cultivation

DISTRICTS

2) APPROPRIATE STRATEGIES

• How can we apply the best management practices and food cultivation strategies from around the world to each district?

• Permaculture offers some solutions… • Coupled with case studies of regions with similar

growing conditions to Western Massachusetts

AGRICULTURAL DISTRICT

Greenhouse: Four-season Farming

Organic Farming

AGRICULTURAL DISTRICT

RURAL DISTRICT

Pond Construction Water Storage Earthworks

Two-storey Grazing Chicken/Duck “Tractors”

RURAL DISTRICT

Perennial Polycultures

RURAL DISTRICT

SUBURBAN DISTRICT

Edible Front Yards

Site Plan: East Lake Commons, GA

Subdivision CSA

SUBURBAN DISTRICT

URBAN DISTRICT

Asphalt Removal

Community Gardens

Roof-top Gardening

URBAN DISTRICT

MUNICIPAL STRATEGIES

•  Policy Recommendations •  Municipal Programs

Legend

Prototype

Start-up Farm

Local Food System Concept: Implementing Cultivation Strategies

•  Four other components -processing -distribution -waste management -education

•  A food system is more than cultivation

3) ASSEMBLING A WHOLE SYSTEM

ASSEMBLING A WHOLE SYSTEM KEY QUESTIONS for tying all of the components

of a food system together:

• What assets of a food system already exist?

• What are the voids in the system?

• What are appropriate types of infrastructure that fulfill case-specific functions of a local food system?

• Strategize: where should efforts be focused first for the greatest returns and community benefits?

POST-CULTIVATION HUB FACILITIES

Hub CASE STUDY: Healthy City Intiative @ Intervale--Burlington, VT

Gleaning produce to share

Hands-on agricultural training

Community-building

Youth-run farm markets

Legend

Food Hub

Prototype

Food flow

Food feeding Northampton

Start-up Farm

Local Food System Concept: Assembling a Whole System

Change on a Town-by-Town Basis

Municipal food systems in New England working in conjunction with larger-scale food systems

LIMITATIONS & OBSTACLES

•  Lack of central coordination or organizing body for a local food system

•  Outside economic forces affect the local economy

•  Resistance to changing the “business as usual” model

•  Using innovative responses to meet the challenges posed to beginning a local food system…

•  City departments, non-profit organizations, and food and farming businesses can work together in a coordinated effort to create:

–  entrepreneurial endeavors –  employment opportunities –  community assets –  food abundance!

A COMMON EFFORT

Intro to food systems @ Greenfield Community College