Problems with food insecurity, such as a lack of access to healthy and affordable food in low-income neighborhoods, has been an ongoing challenge in New Orleans. The damages inflicted by Hurricane Katrina and subsequent citywide flooding on the local food system reduced the numerical count of operational full-service supermarkets and grocery stores throughout the city. The result has been a widespread presence of food deserts and grocery gaps, particularly in low-income neighborhoods. This thesis explores the emergence of food localism practices by food advocacy professionals as a capacity-building tool for New Orleans residents to increase community food security and develop a sustainable local food economy. This paper finds although alternative agro-food networks have increased the availability of healthy and locally produced foods in New Orleans, it provide evidence demonstrating their limited capacity to regularly provide healthy or affordable food in a similar manner to grocery stores in low-income neighborhoods.

L'agriculture périurbaine (AP) est devenue un thème central dans la recherche, impliquant un débat scientifique multidisciplinaire. L'agriculture effectuée dans les zones périurbaines est mobilisée afin d'avoir un développement territorial et donner aux agriculteurs une chance de maintenir leur activité. En Italie, l'analyse sur la AP ont été axés sur les villes métropolitaines, alors que peu d'études ont évalué AP sous l'influence des villes moyennes, qui sont le plus touchés par l'urbanisation. Le récent débat sur la sécurité alimentaire a surgi réflexions sur la contribution potentielle de la AP dans l'alimentation des consommateurs urbains, même dans les pays développés. La connexion entre l'AP et le système alimentaire local (SAL) a été mobilisé par plusieurs organisations et chercheurs, en soulignant les avantages environnementaux, économiques et sociaux de la production "proximale". Néanmoins plusieurs auteurs ont demandé des analyse plus spécifiques sur la participation effective des agriculteurs dans SAL. Peu d'études ont porté sur les pratiques mises en place au niveau territorial par les agriculteurs périurbains, afin d'évaluer comment les stratégies productives des agriculteurs sont intégrés avec le SAL. Pour cette raison, une analyse agronomique au niveau territorial est exigée. Le but de cette recherche est de développer une méthodologie pour l'évaluation de la production potentielle fournie par AP au SAL. Pour faire ça la recherche réponds à trois questions: Quelle production alimentaire est mis en place actuellement dans les espaces périurbains? Comment les agriculteurs produisent pour le SAL? Dans quelles conditions l'AP peut produire pour le SAL? L'analyse est basée sur l'interaction de deux approches: le système de production et les approches du système alimentaire. Le cas d'étude est l’AP de Pise, une ville moyenne en Toscane (Italie). La zone périurbaine se compose de six municipalités, caractérisée par un étalement urbain récent et représentatif du système agricole en Méditerranée. L'analyse est basée sur des entretiens aux agriculteurs et aux acheteurs locaux de leurs productions. L'analyse montre que la AP a une composition hétérogène d’exploitations en termes d'intensité, quantité et qualité des aliments produits. Il ya un haut degré d'hétérogénéité de la production de l'intensité qui est lié à l'hétérogénéité des choix commerciaux entre les chaînes alimentaires locales et globales. Le choix de circuit alimentaire semble être caractérisé par des indicateurs sur la gestion de l'exploitation et l'utilisation des terres, plutôt que indicateurs sociaux. En considérant la quantité de production alimentaire, la différence entre les indicateurs de capacité productives décrit la différence dans les estimations basées sur l'analyse statistique et territoriale, et il quantifie le manque entre ce qui est produite et ce qui est réellement disponible pour SAL. Ce manque reflète les stratégies des différents agriculteurs à participer dans les SAL: la plupart des agriculteurs coordonne stratégies hybrides de commercialisation entre le marché local et le marché global. L'analyse de réseau révèle que même dans le SAL, les agriculteurs hybrident différentes typologies de SAL; l'analyse parallèle des autres acteurs du SAL (transformateurs et commerçants) démontre la difficulté de s'approcher à l’AP impliquées dans ces stratégies commerciales hybridées. Les agriculteurs répondent que la capacité de production pour SAL est affectée par plusieurs contraintes liées principalement à la réglementation et aux réseaux commerciaux. Les agriculteurs périurbains sont adaptant aux nouvelles possibilités de la proximité géographique aux zones urbaines, mais un effort de coordonner ces initiatives individuelles est nécessaire. Cette coordination doit intégrer la dimension territoriale qui affecte la production alimentaire périurbaine, afin de mieux répondre aux besoins de développement territorial. / Periurban agriculture (PA) is becoming a central topic in research, involving debates from different disciplines. Agriculture performed in periurban areas is conceived as a tool to have territorial development and to give farmers a chance to maintain their activity. In Italy, analysis on PA have been especially done for metropolitan areas, while few studies have assessed PA under the influence of medium-sized cities, which are the most affected by the recent urbanization. While the debate has started in valorizing the PA’s multifunctionality, the recent claims on food security have arisen reflections on its potential contribution in feeding urban consumers, even in developed countries. The connection between PA and local food system (LFS) has been mobilized by several organizations and researchers, highlighting the environmental, economical and social benefits of such “proximal” production. Nevertheless several authors have claimed for in-depth analysis about the effective participation of farmers in LFS. Moreover, few studies have been focused on the practices put in place at territorial level by periurban farmers, in order to assess how productive strategies are integrated with farmers’ local commercial strategies. For this reason an agronomic analysis at territorial level is required. The overall purpose of this research is to develop a methodology for the assessment of the food production provided by PA and how it is integrated to LFS. To do so, the research answers to three questions: What current food production is performed by PA? How do farmers produce for the LFS? Under which conditions PA can produce for the LFS? The analysis is based on the interaction of two approaches: the farming system and the food system approaches. The case study is the PA around the city of Pisa, a medium-sized city located in Tuscany (Italy). The periurban area’s border consists of six municipalities, characterized by a recent urban sprawl and representative of Mediterranean coastal farming systems evolution. The analysis is based on interviews to farmers and the local buyers of their productions. The analysis shows that PA is composed by an heterogeneous composition of farms in terms of intensity, quantity, and quality of food production. There’s a high degree of heterogeneity of intensity’s production which is linked to heterogeneity of commercial choices between local and global food chains. This choice seems to be characterized mainly by indicators on farm management and land use, more than indicators on social characters of farmer, as age or formation. Considering the quantity of food production, the difference among potential, effective and real food capacity outlines the difference in estimates based on statistical and territorial analysis; it also quantifies the lack between what is effectively produced and what is really available for the LFS. This lack reflects different farmers’ strategies in participating in alternative and local food chains; especially most of the farmers coordinate hybrid strategies between alternative/local and conventional/global food chains. The network analysis highlights that even in LFS, farmers hybrid different typologies of local food networks. The parallel analysis of other LFS’ actors (processors and final sellers) demonstrates the difficulty in approaching a PA involved in such hybrid commercial strategies. If local buyers principally asserts that not all the production produced in periurban area is available for LFS, farmers reply that the capacity of producing for LFS is affected by several constraints mainly linked to regulation and commercial networks. Periurban farmers are thus adapting to the new opportunities of the geographical proximity to urban area, but an effort in coordinate such individual initiatives is needed. This coordination should integrate the territorial dimension that affects periurban food production, in order to better address issues on territorial development of such areas.

This thesis uses an efficiency analysis of agricultural systems to assert that, in lieu of rising prices of fossil fuel, people need to come into more direct contact with their food systems. With a switch to smaller, more efficient farms that rely less on fossil fuel and are connected with the communities they supply for, we can avoid an energy crisis turning into a famine. These smaller-scale systems can help create self-contained, carbon-neutral communities.

Globalization and industrial agriculture have enabled consumers in Sweden and other countries in the Western world to enjoy foodstuffs from many parts of the world at very affordable monetary prices, but at the same time involving a lot of external costs in the form of environmental degradation, and a high dependency on foreign agricultural ecosystems as well as on oil and other non-renewable inputs, thus degrading sustainability and resilience in the food system. Accelerated climate change and the upcoming peak oil crisis call for a reorientation and a transition to a more locally-based system. The prospects for a re-localized food system have been investigated in a case study of Uppsala Municipality, Sweden. The results consist of a study of the current primary food production in Uppsala, also including an allotment garden survey, a study of how much additional food may be produced on idle land, and an analysis of opportunities and challenges for a re-localized food system in Uppsala. The allotment garden survey revealed that c. ten percent of the total area of plots containing cottage houses was used for food production, while the figure for plots without cottages was several times higher, c. 65 percent. The total estimated yield for allotment gardens in Uppsala Municipality was about 90 tons of vegetables and 48 tons of fruits and berries. Quantitative calculations on the yield produced by local farmers, horticulturists and leisure gardeners were made for the five categories grain, dairy products, eggs, meat, and vegetables, fruits and berries, together constituting about 85 percent of the total Swedish food consumption. The estimated balance of supply and demand differed a lot between food categories, ranging from 400 percent for grain to 20 percent for meat as well as for vegetables, fruits and berries. Due to empirical uncertainty, the latter figure should be interpreted with caution. For eggs and dairy products the balance of supply and demand was 67 percent and 50 percent respectively. A quantitative estimation for idle land showed that the greatest potential for an increased food production is within leisure gardening, which could be increased by 3.5 to 6 times. A transition to full self-sufficiency would, however, require drastically altered consumer habits towards seasonal vegetables and fruits and less beef in favor of vegetarian proteins. The qualitative analysis of possibilities and obstacles concluded that the greatest assets for a re-localized food production were the large production capacity within rural agriculture, the abundance of mostly unutilized private garden land, the increased interest for urban agriculture among the population, positive attitudes among consumers towards local food, and a relatively high general awareness of climate change and the need for a more sustainable society. Among the challenges were found lacking economic viability and access to suitable farmland, the centralized food industry, an imbalanced agricultural output, unsustainable consumer habits, the tendency among Swedish municipal planners to support exploitation of fertile soil, and a low awareness among both the population and decision makers regarding peak oil and social resilience generally. / Globaliseringen och det industriella jordbruket har möjliggjort för konsumenter i Sverige och andra västländer att få tillgång till matvaror till låga priser och från många olika delar av världen. Samtidigt har detta medfört ett högt pris i form av miljöförsämringar och ett stort beroende av utländsk jordbruksproduktion, samt av olja och andra råvaror som inte är förnybara. Resultatet har blivit ett livsmedelssystem med urholkad hållbarhet och ökad sårbarhet. Accelererande klimatförändringar och den kommande krisen i samband med oljetoppen manar till nyorientering och en övergång till ett mer lokalbaserat system. Denna fallstudie av Uppsala kommun har undersökt utsikterna att återknyta matproduktionen till lokala system. Resultaten omfattar både en studie av den nuvarande matproduktionen i Uppsala, vilken även inkluderade en enkätundersökning av kolonilotter, en studie av potentialen att öka matproduktionen på mark som idag inte används aktivt för det ändamålet, samt en analys av möjligheter och utmaningar för en lokal matproduktion i Uppsala. Enkätundersökningen visade att på kolonilotter med stugor användes ca tio procent av den totala ytan för matproduktion, medan motsvarande siffra för kolonilotter utan stugor var flera gånger högre, ca 65 procent. Den totala skörden för alla kommunala kolonilotter i Uppsala uppskattades till 90 ton grönsaker och 48 ton frukt och bär. För den totala matproduktionen från jordbruket, trädgårdsnäringen och fritidsodlingen gjordes beräkningar för fem olika kategorier: Spannmål, mejeriprodukter, ägg, kött samt grönsaker, frukt och bär, som tillsammans utgör ca 85 procent av den totala svenska matkonsumtionen. Den uppskattade försörjningsbalansen varierade starkt mellan olika kategorier, från 400 procent för spannmål till 20 procent för kött samt för grönsaker, frukt och bär. Osäkerheten kring det vetenskapliga underlaget gällande fritidsodlingen är dock stort, vilket gör att siffrorna för grönsaker, frukt och bär bör tolkas försiktigt. För ägg och mejeriprodukter var försörjningsbalansen 67 procent respektive 50 procent. Studien av obrukad mark visade att den största potentialen för en ökad matproduktion finns inom fritidsodlingen, som beräknades skulle kunna öka med 3.5 till 6 gånger. En övergång till full självförsörjning skulle dock kräva drastiska förändringar i konsumtionsvanorna mot säsongsbetonade grönsaker och frukt samt mindre nötkött till förmån för mer vegetabiliskt protein. Analysen av möjligheter och utmaningar för en återgång till en mer lokal matproduktion pekade på att de största fördelarna är den stora produktionskapaciteten inom jordbruket, den stora sammanlagda arealen privat trädgårdsmark som till stor del är outnyttjad för matproduktion, det ökande intresset för stadsodling bland befolkningen, positiva attityder till lokal mat bland konsumenter, och en relativt hög medvetenhet kring klimatförändringar och behovet av ett mer hållbart samhälle. Bland de viktigaste utmaningarna fanns den bristande ekonomiska lönsamheten inom yrkesodlingen, den centraliserade livsmedelsindustrin, obalansen inom jordbruksproduktionen, med överskott på spannmål och underskott på andra livsmedelsråvaror, ohållbara konsumtionsvanor, tendenser hos svenska kommunala tjänstemän att stödja exploatering av bördig mark, samt den låga graden av medvetenhet hos både befolkningen och beslutsfattarna kring oljetoppen och samhällets sårbarhet generellt.

To assess what factors are driving the exponential growth of farmers’ markets in Kentucky, geospatial and statistical analysis of a database of 121 farmers’ markets was conducted. A statewide survey of market leaders and a case study of a single farmers’ market both identified reasons for growing support of farmers’ markets in Kentucky. Market distribution, vendor levels, and gross sales were mapped against a backdrop of county urban classification, median household income, and education levels. Kruskal-Wallace analysis was used to identify if Kentucky’s rural, micropolitan, and metropolitan markets differ significantly in terms of their age, number of vendors, and market sales. Geospatial analysis indicates that farmers’ markets are more concentrated in metropolitan areas of the Commonwealth. However, statistical analysis reveals that farmers’ markets have been established longer in micropolitan areas of the state. Markets across urban classes have significantly different ages and gross sales, but all markets tend to sustain a similar number of vendors. Population levels appear to have the strongest correlation with the variables studied, although education and household median income also may play a role in farmers' market strength. Market stakeholders believe that markets are gaining popularity as consumers become more aware of food safety and environmental problems in the mass market system. Farmers’ markets are considered an important tool for strengthening the local economy, connecting farmers with consumers, and increasing local availability of fresh and nutritious foods.

In recent years, studies have linked various structural and environmental factors to disproportionately increased rates of morbidity, mortality, and adverse health outcomes in low-income racial and ethnic minority neighborhoods. Among the adverse health outcomes, is the constraint on the ability to access and afford a healthy diet. While local food systems play a significant role in influencing urban health and well-being outcomes, they also present an opportunity to develop community-based assets and resilience. By identifying limitations and successes in current food system literature and practice, this report examines how a more comprehensive approach to equitable community health and wellness can be achieved and sustained. Effective disparity reduction relies on cross-sectoral partnerships that not only promote food equity, but also provide participatory social, economic, and educational opportunities to marginalized communities. / text

Media and consumer attention has propelled local food to prominence, and a significant price premium has signaled its potential as a value-added option for family farms looking to transition from commodity production. Many of these farms –entering an unfamiliar market– have been selling local food in groups, to share risks and investments. This strategy has introduced a scale of production and operations to the marketplace that could challenge some of the basic premises of the local food contract. This research project was premised on the notion that the local food movement –dominated by small-scale production and direct marketing– appears to be governed by a set of principles that would be tested by the introduction of farms and farm groups of increasing scale. To understand the implications –for these farm families, local food marketing groups, and growing local food systems– this research sought to address whether these groups would adopt a more conventional approach to meet their needs, and fit their scale, or change their approach and practices to conform to the requirements and expectations established by the principles of governance that characterize local food systems. ‘Local beef’ chains from across Ontario were selected to capture a range of operational and geographic scale. Interviews with farmers and coordinators investigated the extent to which scale –at farm and group level– affected motivations, as well as group governance decisions. The research found that increased group scale limits the range of options available, and magnifies pressures towards conventionalization. Transition to larger scale favours governance based on surveillance and discipline, and suffers from lack of infrastructure that would facilitate mid-scale aggregation, distribution, and the development of bridging capital. Farmers who had direct input into decisions invested more time and effort, but also identified more strongly with their group. Farmers who marketed through larger-scale intermediary-led groups faced fewer costs, but were treated as commodity input suppliers, and were less engaged in the group’s success. Most farmers did not see these intermediary-led groups as a long-term solution, and looked instead to policy solutions, or other alternative marketing models – including smaller-scale regional intermediaries.

Les productions alimentaires régionales, dites « de terroir » ou « localisées » se sont remarquablement développées à partir du tournant des années 80, selon des modes de valorisation variés allant du petit producteur à l’industriel labélisé. A l’aune d’une enquête de terrain portant sur la diversité des modalités de valorisation des nombreuses productions du département de la Drôme, nous nous sommes rendus compte que la diversité des modes de valorisation sur ce territoire n’était pas seulement de nature organisationnelle et stratégique. En effet, le terrain nous a conduit à supposer l’existence d’une diversité de significations sociales associées à la production localisée. Cette diversité s’incarnait dans le fait que la référence à la tradition n’était plus le seul vecteur de légitimation pour une production localisée. C’est ainsi que nous avons cherché à analyser la diversité organisationnelle mais aussi symbolique des différents processus de valorisation. Au vu de la fonction sociale d’aliment identifié dans un contexte industrialisé qu’ont les productions localisées, nous avons alors compris, qu’un nouveau sens social associé à la production locale serait signifiant d’un rapport nouveau au besoin d’identification de l’alimentation dans un contexte industrialisé et mondialisé. Pour analyser cette diversité organisationnelle et symbolique, nous avons pensé les processus de valorisation comme des systèmes de domination, au sens où l’entend Max Weber. Ainsi, le système et la stratégie de valorisation ont été mis au jour, de même que la forme de la légitimation sur laquelle repose la signification sociale de la production. Dans ce cadre, nous avons analysé six variations de localisation par référence à la tradition ainsi qu’une manière de localiser émergente. Dans cette dernière, l’ancrage local de la production s’effectue par le fait d’avoir été produite, transformée et vendue localement par le petit fermier local, souvent néo-rural, selon des savoirs et des savoir-faire de production, de transformation et d’organisation de vente construits à travers les réseaux de partage et de vente existants entre ces exploitants. Ces réseaux, formels et informels, sont créés soit par le biais du monde associatif agricole soit en toute autonomie. Dans ce cadre, chaque exploitant a pour objectif de produire et de vendre mais aussi de « faire groupe » tout en gardant son indépendance face à ses pairs et face aux acteurs institutionnels. Ainsi, ces producteurs, dans leur rapport à la production et au groupe, permettent l’émergence de savoirs et de savoir-faire de production localisée ancrés dans un « ici et maintenant » culturel associé à leur figure de petits fermiers locaux. / This research emanates from a field survey we conducted in the Department of Drôme, France, which deals with the analysis of a variety of valorization methods of local food productions we sought to explain. Local food productions are a traditional production rooted in time and space, regardless the organizational and strategic variety of valorization methods. In the Drôme territory, we found a variety of productions and a variety of organizational and strategic valorization methods. But those patterns are not sufficient to explain what we observed in the field. We observed also another form of reference to location of these productions than only the reference to tradition. From there, in addition to the analysis of the organizational diversity of valorization methods of local food production in Drôme, the characterization of a new form of reference to location of production we spotted is the main issue of this research. To analyze the organizational and symbolic diversity, we conceptualize the valorization methods as systems of domination (in the sense of Max Weber). Indeed, the system and the strategy of valorization are pointed out as well as the shape of the legitimacy on which the social significance of the production is expressed. In this framework, we analyzed six variations of localization types by reference to tradition and one emergent way of localizing productions. This last is assessed through the fact that productions are produced, processed and sold locally by small local farmers, often neo-rural, according to production knowledge and expertise, processing and selling organization built through sharing and selling networks constructed among these farmers. These networks, either formal or informal, are either created through agricultural associations, or either were built autonomously. In this framework, each farmer aims to produce and sell, but also to “build a community” while keeping its independence from peers and institutional actors. Therefore, these farmers, through their relationships to the production and to their community, induce the emergence of knowledge and know-how rooted in “here and now” cultural bedrock crystallized in the representation of the small local farmer

Face à une marginalisation historique, les paysanneries andines ont développé diverses stratégies d’adaptation et de résistance, les nouveaux circuits alimentaires de proximité (CIALP) en constituant une forme récente. Ces derniers interrogent sur de nouvelles relations entre les paysans et les marchés, la société et les territoires. Ils émergent dans de nouveaux contextes sociopolitiques dans lesquels sont mis à l’agenda la souveraineté alimentaire, l’agriculture paysanne, l’économie solidaire et l’agroécologie, et s’inscrivent dans de nouvelles dynamiques socio-spatiales associant des paysans et une diversité d’autres acteurs. La thèse défendue est celle d’une contribution des CIALP à la reconnaissance des paysanneries andines. À travers une approche géographique, en mobilisant des sources et des données de terrain nombreuses et diverses, nous analysons, d’une part, les paysanneries, les sociétés andines et les CIALP dans leur environnement global et à l’échelle du temps long, et, d’autre part, les trajectoires d’émergence et de développement des CIALP sur la base études de cas dans trois territoires en Équateur, au Pérou et en Bolivie. En analysant les dynamiques d’activation et de construction de proximités géographiques et socio-économiques, nous montrons par quels processus les CIALP contribuent à la requalification positive du rôle et de la place des paysanneries dans l’espace et la société. Les paysans sont reconnus progressivement, par eux-mêmes, par la société et par les pouvoirs publics, comme des acteurs de systèmes alimentaires territorialisés et durables, et / Faced with historical marginalization, Andean peasantries have developed various adaptation and resistance strategies, recently including new local food systems (LFS). These LFS raise questions about new relations between peasants and markets, society and territories. They are developed in new sociopolitical contexts that now take into account concerns like food sovereignty, peasant agriculture, solidarity economy and agroecology, and they are part of new socio-spatial dynamics associating peasants with a diversity of stakeholders. We argue that these LFS contribute to recognition of Andean peasantries. Based on a geographical approach, we mobilize and cross-check various and numerous sources (scientific and grey literature) and field data (comprehensive interviews, ethnographic observations, written and audiovisual records, Internet social networks), first to analyze peasantries, Andean society and LFS in their global context and over the long-time scale, and second to study emergenceAndean territories in Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia. By analyzing the activation and construction of geographical (spatial), and socio-economic (cognitive, material, relational and mediation) proximities between peasants and other stakeholders, we identify the processes along the LFS trajectories contributing to positive reevaluation of the role and of the position of peasantries in Andean society and space. Peasants are being gradually recognized by themselves, by society and by public authorities, as key actors of sustainable and territorialized food systems, and as mediators of new proximitie

The Swedish alternative food networks landscape is underdeveloped compared to that of the US or the countries of Western Europe, however its development has sped up in recent years. The relationship between the farmer and the food hub is the first one to be built when an Alternative Food Network is being set up and therefore represents a valid starting point in the hitherto scarcely studied field of alternative food distribution in Sweden. The paper used a relationship-marketing framework with the addition of elements from Civic Food Networks conceptualization of Alternative Food Networks in order to explain the creation and maintenance, as a well as the quality and depth of supplier-distributor relationships in two cases of Swedish food hubs. Given the immaturity of the Swedish market, this paper tried to explore the possible variations existing in the landscape. In the case of student-led food cooperative Ultimat and its two studied suppliers, values and larger local food systems goals played the primary role in creating and maintaining the relationship, in spite of the poor economic performance of such a relationship in the eyes of the suppliers. The linkages forged between the two entities are strong due to shared values and common goals. In the case of Bygdens Saluhall, the values play a certain role, but the economic element remains crucial for the farmers. At the same time, the connection is closer and ownership of the project by the farmers more significant. Additionally, points of interest arose for future research, notably the diverging stance of Ultimat’s suppliers vs. Bygdens Saluhall’s suppliers in the question of pro-business food hubs and organization of alternative food networks in general.