The urban farming, local food movement, which started as a trend, has sharply increased since the recession in 2008. Financial, nutritional and community-based benefits accompany this movement along with a sense of control over one's own food. Texas has the potential to be the country's model state when looking at this new way of life and food consumption. Local food production is much more sustainable than the current food system the U.S. has in place and it is the direction the U.S. is moving. / text

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Local food production movements have claimed a central role in proposals to mitigate some of the negative effects of economic globalization. Although not meant to be a panacea for the ills of the neoliberal order, local food production is advocated as a sustainable solution to a portion of the environmental degradation caused by global capitalism, and as a mechanism by which to rebuild community networks undermined by the globalization of commerce and culture and create the type of sustainable development necessary to restore and preserve the carrying capacity of the planet. This study seeks to develop a conceptual framework for assessing the potential for communities to create and sustain local food production by addressing three major factors that influence a community's ability to localize its food system: the physical capacity of the region or locality to produce enough food to feed its inhabitants, successful policy and trade adjustments by governments to create and enable the survival of local food production systems, and the willingness of consumers to participate in a localized food production system, which includes the community's willingness and ability to bear the costs of instituting and maintaining the local system. / Master of Arts

There is growing consumer interest in locally produced food and farmers and retailers play an important part in this growing niche market. Up-to-date and reliable data are necessary to create efficient distribution lines, but there is currently a dearth of aggregate data available to assess the distribution channels of local foods. The research questions for this thesis are motivated by the potential for growth in the local food market, and a need to investigate the role of consumer co-ops in achieving that potential. In Article 1, results from 67 surveys by consumer co-op managers and memberworkers from the American Northeast are reported. A conservative estimate for the Northeast co-ops’ contribution to the local food market is $21,253,750 annually, an average of 17.2% of co-ops’ expenditure being spent on local food. Article 1 identifies the consistency with which various food categories are sourced locally by co-op, and identifies the reasons for and barriers to sourcing locally. An ordinary least squares model reveals that the average percent locally sourced by co-ops whose mission includes sourcing locally is 12.7-percent higher than those whose mission does not include sourcing locally. No difference in percent locally sourced is found between co-ops from different settings (urban, suburban, rural), or Cooperative Grocer ranking (large, medium, small). Article 2 reports on the follow-up unstructured interviews with 58 co-op managers and member-workers. The five principal barriers to sourcing locally – locating local producers, co-op cooperation, organic certification, competition, and distribution – are discussed and various solutions that co-op managers have implemented are described. It is argued that co-ops act as local food hubs in the local food market, providing local producers with a year-round outlet for their products. Alleviating the specific barriers to sourcing locally will allow co-ops to achieve their potential in that role. Overall, improved communication among co-ops and between co-ops and farmers can begin to address some barriers to sourcing locally. Further, other groups such as NOFA, regional localvore groups, state agricultural extension agencies, and others can continue to facilitate communication and share pertinent information. It further suggests that filling some of the gaps can contribute to alleviating barriers identified by co-op managers and member workers. If co-ops are interested in sourcing more of what they sell from local producers, using percent of expenditure locally sourced as a marker can be useful for setting specific goals, while addressing the barriers to sourcing locally can help co-ops and producers meet these goals.

The purpose of this qualitative study is to explore a local food movement from the perspectives of small-scale, sustainable farmers in rural Jackson and Union Counties in Southern Illinois. This research applies three tenets of bioregionalism: (1) bioregional place identity, (2) foodshed ecology, and (3) community resilience as a thematic framework to examine the dimensions of a local food movement. Nine self-identified sustainable local food producers were individually interviewed and guided by four primary research questions derived from the bioregional thematic framework. The researcher seeks to understand the farmers’ perceptions of the (1) drivers, barriers, and limitations of the southern Illinois local food movement, (2) bioregional place identity and characteristics of the southern Illinois foodshed, (3) ecological integrity of the local food movement, and (4) local food access and community resiliency within the farmers’ bioregion. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed using qualitative data methodologies. Key findings emerge from the data that respond to the four primary research questions: (1a) Farmers are driven by ecological and social values, as well as personal fulfillment to provide an alternative food system; (1b) Farmers face a barrage of economic, political, social, and ecological barriers that challenge the local food movement; (1c) The market-based, profit-driven economic system is the cause of most barriers and limitations in the southern Illinois food movement; (2) The farmers’ sense of place and the bioregion’s terrier indicate a strong and cohesive bioregional place identity for the farmers within the southern Illinois local food movement; (3) Farmers do not conflate scale with sustainability and are critical of the ecological impact of their work; (4) Farmers acknowledge bioregional food to be largely inaccessible in their bioregion, however, this consideration extends beyond most farmers’ capabilities. The significance of these findings indicate that the where of food matters beyond the conflation that scale determines the ecological and social integrity of food production. This further suggests that bioregionalism is a useful paradigm to analyze the dimensions of local food movements, to deepen the understanding of the place of local food.

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Community farms are a relatively new type of local food initiative, defined by working landscapes that integrate producers into a supportive social environment in order to facilitate the long-term development of sustainable local food systems. In Ontario, the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA) is the first, and presently the only, conservation authority providing public lands to community farms. In this case study of the TRCA, the conditions for the establishment of community farms on public conservation lands in Ontario are examined, and the implications for local food systems are discussed. Two of the four community farms based on TRCA lands are closely investigated, revealing that one focussed on supporting new farmers by developing an incubator farm, while the other developed a multi-functional project with food at the centre of a place-based community initiative.

The local food movement has been offered as an alternative to the conventional food system. This thesis identifies the barriers that are constraining the local food movement using the case study of Ontario, Canada, by performing qualitative analysis of informal interview responses. In addition to generating a comprehensive account of the barriers constraining local food, barriers to local food procurement in the institutional context are also identified. Findings suggest that the barriers to the local food movement can be related to a lack of access, lack of resources, poor governance structures, poor information sharing and uncooperative relationships between local food actors. I argue that these barriers are reflective of the broader challenges associated with attempting to create food systems change from within the dominant system. Daunting as they may be, they can be overcome in an incremental, pragmatic way. Nineteen recommendations are made to this end.

The local food movement has been offered as an alternative to the conventional food system. This thesis identifies the barriers that are constraining the local food movement using the case study of Ontario, Canada, by performing qualitative analysis of informal interview responses. In addition to generating a comprehensive account of the barriers constraining local food, barriers to local food procurement in the institutional context are also identified. Findings suggest that the barriers to the local food movement can be related to a lack of access, lack of resources, poor governance structures, poor information sharing and uncooperative relationships between local food actors. I argue that these barriers are reflective of the broader challenges associated with attempting to create food systems change from within the dominant system. Daunting as they may be, they can be overcome in an incremental, pragmatic way. Nineteen recommendations are made to this end.

Increasing globalization of the food system has led to a loss of food sovereignty and security in communities throughout the world. This globalized system has adopted industrial techniques of standardization and specialization as the solution to producing an abundant cheap food supply. Over time this system has become concentrated in the hands of a few transnational corporations that increasingly control every step of production from farm inputs, to distributing and processing. As a result, we have experienced the emergence of a counter movement to the corporate controlled and globally sourced dominant food system we have today. The rise of local food systems in industrialized countries developed to help solve the issues created by the current food system. This study provides insight into the barriers and opportunities to the development of local food systems, as well as the universality of these barriers. To achieve this, a multi-case study was conducted in Nelson, British Columbia; Lethbridge, Alberta; and Waterloo, Ontario. In each of these locations information was consolidated from food 'experts' or key informants, consumers, farmers, and supermarket owners/managers. Research methods included semi-structured interviews, a consumer survey, interpretation of government documents, and study site observation. Results from this study add to the empirical work on local food systems in Canada and offer a multi-stakeholder perspective of the barriers and opportunities to localization efforts. Findings suggest that the barriers to the development of local food systems are largely universal and are supportive of other empirical and theoretical works. Barriers included issues such as federal agricultural policy, health and safety regulations, consolidation of food retailing, and a demand for cheap food. The opportunities for a local food system, although more diverse and different between regions, can all for the most part be universally applied. While many opportunities exist for municipalities to enhance local food in their region, barriers created by government and industry will ultimately limit any notable movement toward a more localized food system without more significant policy changes from above. This study supports the idea that local food systems will require government assistance in order for changes from the grassroots to make significant strides in becoming less dependent on food imports.