To address the negative environmental, political, and social consequences of the dominant, industrialized global food system, communities around the world have developed goals and values underlying a sustainable food system. Conceptualizing food production, distribution, and consumption as systems helps clarify the ways food affects social and natural environments, with the distribution element as the critical juncture where the product reaches the consumer. Urban food systems are a particularly important environment in which to study movements toward sustainability. This paper focuses on the movement for a sustainable food system in Portland, Oregon, with particular focus on the city’s markets for food acquisition – food retail, farmers’ markets, community supported agriculture endeavors, restaurants, food service and distribution companies, institutional purchasing programs, and community gardens, as well as the organizations that support the work of these businesses and programs. Leaders in the field of sustainable food systems are now beginning to operate with a strategy for change that emphasizes incorporating sustainable food products and sustainable food system values into mainstream food markets instead of remaining in niche, alternative markets as has occurred in the past. This notion is supported by economic and social theories including the consumer information model, stakeholder theory, social movement theories of change, and network theories. This paper explores the extent to which Portland food distribution businesses, programs, and organizations attempt to fulfill the goals of a sustainable food system movement with moving from niche to mainstream in mind. The fact that the movement is in fact acting according to new strategies for change emphasizing the mainstream is indicated by the movement’s extensive consumer education and creative use of marketing, strong social and business networks, and organized local policy influences.

The distance between farms and cities and the limited access that some residents have to fresh foods can be detrimental to a city's capacity to feed people over time. This study addressed the under-studied topic of urban farming as a secondary food source, specifically by exploring the opportunities and limitations of urban farming in a large Northeastern city. Brundtland's food policy was the pivotal theory supporting food production to end global starvation, and was the link between environmental conservation and human survival. The research question for this study examined the potential food policy opportunities and limitations that assist urban farms as a supplemental food source. Twenty stakeholders from the public (6), nonprofit (7), private (3), and academic (4) sectors formed the purposeful snowball sample in this case study. Data were collected through open-ended interviews, which were then subjected to an iterative and inductive coding strategy. The significant finding of this study is that while food policy supported urban farms as a secondary food source in a way consistent with Brundtland's theory, local food alone was inadequate to feed its urban population. Other key findings revealed that food policies that influenced land use, food production, and procurement presented unique challenges in each sector. Existing food production policies such as zoning regulations, permitting processes, and public funding benefited one sector over another. The study contributes to social change by exploring food policies that encourage partnerships between sector stakeholders; urban, rural, and suburban farmers; and city residents that foster alternative and sustainable food production in the urban setting.