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Assessing Sustainability of Food Systems

Consumer interest in "eating local" has increased sharply in recent years, although locally grown food still accounts for a small share of food sales. Professors Miguel Gomez (AEM), Huaizhu Gao (CEE), Dennis Miller (FDSC), Ardyth Gillespie (NS), and Jonathan Russell-Anelli (CSS) are leading a two-part project that will yield a method for assessing the sustainability of local and conventional food systems.

The group will develop an assessment model through a series of seminars and workshops, and then apply it in a study comparing the sustainability of one local and one conventional supply chain for fruits and vegetables.

Multidisciplinary Approach to Sustainable Food Systems

With the support from the CCSF Academic Venture Fund (AVF), we iniciated a university-wide, trans-disciplinary research program on Sustainable Food Systems (SFS) that will contribute to grow sustainable food systems movement and provide students and the community with a unique blend of social awareness and scientific grounding, as well as a common platform for knowledge sharing about SFS. 

Our objetive is to develop a common methodological framework for assessing multiple dimensions of SFS and to apply this framework to specific, relevant problems. 

As a team, we are organized in six modules:

• Nutrition
• Agricultureal Systems
• Supply Chain and Economics
• Social and Community Dimension
• Ecosystems and the Environment
• Animal Welfare and Livestock

Applied Study to Assess Sustainability of Food Systems in Tompkins County

Demand for locally produced food has increased sharply in recent years. Consumers may seek out local foods to satisfy product quality demands or support local farmers and the local economy, or because local foods represent a desirable set of production and distribution practices. Interest also extends to Federal, state, and community policymakers who seek to allocate significant resources to support local food systems. Local foods are increasingly incorporated in programs to reduce food insecurity, support small farmers and rural economies, improve healthy eating habits, and foster closer connections between farmers and consumers. 

Whether local food systems can satisfy consumer, policy, and programmatic demands depends on how food supply chains move products from farms to consumers. Specifically, it depends on on their ability to compete with existing production-distribution systems. In addition to having preferences about the characteristics of food products, consumers and the public may care about how, where, and by whom those products were produced.  

The SFS group has iniciated an inter-diosciplinary study to assess multiple dimmesions of Sustainability of Local Food Systems in the Tompkins County Area.

 

Ithaca Local Food Systems from HabitatSeven on Vimeo.

 

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