An Introduction to Local Food Systems Bailey Peryman & Shane Orchard November 2012 Contents 1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................................ 1 2. Local Food Systems ............................................................................................................................. 3 A .............................................................................................................................................................. 3 Allotments ........................................................................................................................................... 3 Aquaponics .......................................................................................................................................... 3 B .............................................................................................................................................................. 3 Bioregion ............................................................................................................................................. 3 Blitz models ......................................................................................................................................... 4 C .............................................................................................................................................................. 4 City Farms ........................................................................................................................................... 4 Commercial Kitchen (shared-use for community) .............................................................................. 4 Community garden/community gardening ........................................................................................ 4 Community Orchard ........................................................................................................................... 5 Community-supported Agriculture (CSA) ........................................................................................... 5 E .............................................................................................................................................................. 6 Ecosystems thinking ............................................................................................................................ 6 Edible Landscapes/Streetscapes (see also ‘verge gardens’) ............................................................... 6 F ............................................................................................................................................................... 6 Food Commons ................................................................................................................................... 6 Food Hub ............................................................................................................................................. 6 Foodshed ............................................................................................................................................. 7 Foraging (see ‘wild harvest’) ............................................................................................................... 7 Forest gardens / Food forests ............................................................................................................. 7 G .............................................................................................................................................................. 7 Guerrilla gardening ............................................................................................................................. 7 H .............................................................................................................................................................. 8 Home gardens ..................................................................................................................................... 8 K .............................................................................................................................................................. 8 Kids Edible Gardens............................................................................................................................. 8 L ............................................................................................................................................................... 8 Local Food Systems ............................................................................................................................. 8 M ............................................................................................................................................................. 9 Mahinga kai ......................................................................................................................................... 9 N .............................................................................................................................................................. 9 Nurseries ............................................................................................................................................. 9 P ............................................................................................................................................................ 10 Permaculture .................................................................................................................................... 10 Public Park Foraging .......................................................................................................................... 10 R ............................................................................................................................................................ 11 Resource Pool ................................................................................................................................... 11 S ............................................................................................................................................................. 11 School Gardens (see also ‘Kids Edible Gardens’) .............................................................................. 11 Seed banks ........................................................................................................................................ 11 Seed Library ...................................................................................................................................... 11 Seed Swaps ....................................................................................................................................... 12 Sharefarming/shared animal husbandry/Sharemilking .................................................................... 12 U ............................................................................................................................................................ 12 Urban Agriculture (see also ‘City Farms’) ......................................................................................... 12 V ............................................................................................................................................................ 13 Verge Gardens .................................................................................................................................. 13 W ........................................................................................................................................................... 14 Wild harvest ...................................................................................................................................... 14 1 1. Introduction Local Food Systems include opportunities for improving local food production and mahinga kai values in a given area. There is now a substantial body of literature discussing the benefits of local food and related concepts. These concepts include ‘think global act local’ and localisation itself (for example as found in the Slow Cities movement, Transition movement, and the ‘re-localisation’ concept), various food production systems with a local focus, food security issues, and the connection between local food production and a range of health and well-being issues. Local Food Economies Localising our economy has been recognised as “local dollars, local sense”. Michael Shuman, research director for the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies, author of The SmallMart Revolution, Local Dollars, Local Sense and lead author of Community Food Enterprise: Local Success in a Global Marketplace has stated that “Local food is one of the fastest, most effective and affordable strategies for economic development”1. In a multi-year study on 24 community food enterprises in America, it was found that the appeal to the consumer of local food was not just about the proximity of production and short supply chains but the fact that their purchase contributed probably two to four times as many economic benefits than if they had purchased in a non-locally owned food business2. This also demonstrates the economic spin offs of a local food industry, which is experiencing significant growth in start-ups: There’s a global movement of entrepreneurs developing technologies that help preserve and reinvigorate local food systems.