Tag: local food movement
CED through Local and Regional Food Systems: The Latest Resources
In the past year, activity around local food systems increased dramatically. Government has been involved in supporting food systems for decades, but primarily through programs adopted at the federal level to both promote food production and protect the health of consumers. But having government wor … Read more
Mapping North Carolina’s Local Food Infrastructure
Strengthening local food economies can be viewed as an important part of a holistic approach to community development. Local food can be a positive contributor to social capital, public health, environmental preservation, and overall quality of life. It also can be an important component of local ec … Read more
Is Your Local Community Partner Ready To Go?
In July 2013, I wrote a blog proposing a four-part framework for understanding if specific local organizations have the capacity to implement CED programs. How well does this framework hold up when actually used? We answer this question using interviews with 31 local partners, over the past two yea … Read more
Community Food Strategies: Food System Network Building in NC
As I have written about before, I see local food organizing as a powerful community building enterprise. Because everyone eats, local food efforts literally can have an impact on entire communities. And because local food organizing touches upon all aspects of community capital (social, environmenta … Read more
Capacity Matters For CED, Part 2: News For the NC Food Industry and Farmers
Food is in the news, and CED professionals should look below the surface images and arguments to a fundamental question raised about local capacity issues important to the NC farm and food industry. In honor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Food for All all-university 2015-2017 aca … Read more
A Gathering of NC Food Councils
Last week (December 4-5) I attended a remarkable event, perhaps the first of it’s kind. It was a gathering of people involved in local food system work from all across North Carolina, as well as some representatives from South Carolina and Virginia. The title of the event was “Connecting for the Fut … Read more
Community Food Councils: Questions and Answers
On April 17, 2014 a webinar was held by UNC School of Government, the Center for Environmental Farming Systems (CEFS) and the NC Community Transformation Grant (CTG) on food councils. Community and regional food councils (sometimes called food policy councils) are rapidly emerging as important mecha … Read more
Councils, Common Purpose, and Collaboration
I read a terrific blog post at Harvard Business Review (HBR) the other day about collaboration. The author explained that “purpose is collaboration’s most unacknowledged determinant.” Community collaboration has never been more important as today’s challenges are too complex and interconnected for a … Read more
Local Foods as Community Development, Some Questions and Answers
Earlier in this Fall I reported on a webinar co-sponsored by the UNC School of Government and the Center for Environmental Farming System (CEFS) on local food and local government. The purpose of the webinar was to educate local government officials about how the local food movement can be an import … Read more
Why Local Governments Should be Thinking About Local Food Systems
Last month I hosted a webinar here at the School of Government, in partnership with the Center for Environmental Farming Systems (or CEFS for short), on the topic of local foods and local government. I was fortunate enough to have with me a who’s who of local foods experts to talk about different a … Read more