Foodshed

Last updated April 21, 2024

A foodshed is the geographic region that produces the food for a particular population. The term is used to describe a region of food flows, from the area where it is produced, to the place where it is consumed, including: the land it grows on, the route it travels, the markets it passes through, and the tables it ends up on. "Foodshed" is described as a "socio-geographic space: human activity embedded in the natural integument of a particular place."^[1] A foodshed is analogous to a watershed in that foodsheds outline the flow of food feeding a particular population, whereas watersheds outline the flow of water draining to a particular location. Through drawing from the conceptual ideas of the watershed, foodsheds are perceived as hybrid social and natural constructs.^[1]

It can pertain to the area from which an individual or population receives a particular type of food, or the collective area from which an individual or population receives all of their food. The size of the foodshed can vary depending on the availability of year round foods and the variety of foods grown and processed. Variables such as micro-weather patterns, soil types, water availability, slope conditions, etc. play a role in determining the potential and risk of agriculture).^[1]

The modern United States foodshed, as an example, spans the entire world as the foods available in the typical supermarket have traveled from all over the globe, often long distances from where they were produced.

Origin

The term was coined in 1929 in the book How Great Cities Are Fed^[2] by W.P. Hedden,^[3] who was at the time Chief of the Bureau of Commerce for the Port of New York Authority.^[4] Hedden described a ‘foodshed’ in 1929 as the ‘dikes and dams’ guiding the flow of food from the producer to consumer.^[5] Hedden contrasts foodsheds with watersheds by noting that “the barriers which deflect raindrops into one river basin rather than into another are natural land elevations, while the barriers which guide and control movements of foodstuffs are more often economic than physical.” Hedden describes the economic forces that influence where foods are produced and how they are transported to the cities in which they are consumed.^[5] The term has more recently been reintroduced by permaculturist Arthur Getz, in his 1991 article “Urban Foodsheds” in “Permaculture Activist", to provide an image that helps people to understand how food systems work and that suggests food comes from a source that must be protected.^[5]

Foodsheds in American History

Eating within a local foodshed was once the only way in which families gained access to food. In the seventeenth or eighteenth century, most ingredients were drawn from an area of less than fifty acres. There was an interdependence of farming and what was cooked in the kitchen. Farmers gained a sensibility about the land—improved and well-tended land could yield a cornucopian spread and was regarded as a source of food and a sign of wealth. Envisioning and knowing a landscape as one's fount of food is different from what most of us know and experience when driving past fields in the countryside today. People ate food that was in season, when available, or that was preserved. Very few items came from afar, and if they did they came in small amounts, such as cinnamon and nutmeg. Growing, cooking, and eating food connected most people in preindustrial America to the land.^[6]

Methods of distributing food within a local foodshed

The “farm-to-table” movement is focused on producing food locally within a foodshed, and delivering it to local consumers. Direct farm-to-table in the United States tends to comprise only a very minor segment of the food distribution system in terms of size and importance, but is growing in popularity.^[7]

Farmers’ markets: centerpiece of alternative food distribution systems. The first certified farmers’ markets began appearing roughly 25 years ago and are a result of a long-standing desire to protect consumers from fraudulent behavior on the part of resellers. Certified markets are closely regulated by the various state legislators and are required to guarantee that the person selling the produce is actually the person grew the produce.
Roadside stands: Used by producers to sell fruits and vegetables directly to consumers. These stands help to reduce transportation costs for farmers by bringing the consumer to the produce.)^[7]
Pick-your-own: Farmers open their fields to consumers and allow them to personally select and harvest various types of produce. This method offers the greatest potential savings for both farmers and consumers, because consumers are able to pick produce of the highest quality, and farmers save costs associated with harvesting and marketing.^[7]
Entertainment farming: farmers have been able to use non-revenue-generating farm activities such as walking trails, hay-rides, and animal petting areas to attract consumers.^[7]
Subscription farming: enables consumers to purchase a share of a particular farm’s production output. Consumers typically pay a subscription fee for the right to purchase fresh produce during harvest time. Subscribers are then charged for the produce depending on the type and quantity.
Community-supported agriculture (CSA): allows consumers to purchase shares of a farm’s production output.

Nearly 5 percent of all farmers engage in some form of direct food marketing. Estimates of all farm-to-table sales within a foodshed range from roughly $550 million to $2 billion.^[7] Many local farms are family-run farms that are successful and do survive through poor economic conditions. Ecologists consider to be more adaptive and more likely to “reproduce” in highly variable and uncertain environments.^[8]

Local Foodshed Mapping

The internet can be used to locate foodshed maps of almost any area. Some maps are interactive, where sources in an area can be found for organic produce, microbreweries, farmers markets, orchards, cheese makers, or other specific categories within a 100-mile radius.^[9] A 100- mile radius is considered "local food" because it is large enough to reach beyond a big city, and small enough to feel truly local.^[10]

Foodsheds and Sustainability

Buying local food within a foodshed can be seen as a means to combat the modern food system, and the effects it has on the environment. It has been described as “a banner under which people attempt to counteract trends of economic concentration, social disempowerment and environmental degradation in the food and agricultural landscape.”^[5] Choosing to buy local produce improves the environmental stewardship of producers by reducing the amount of energy used in the transport of foods, as well as greenhouse gas emissions. Agriculture production alone contributes to 14% of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. The food system’s contribution of greenhouse gases contributes to the global issue of Climate change. More attention is being paid to possibilities for reducing emissions through more efficient transport and different patterns of consumption, specifically increased reliance on local foodsheds.^[5]

One common measure of "eating within a foodshed" is whether produce has traveled under 100 “food miles.” Food miles are a measure of how far food travels from the farm where it is produced to the table where it is consumed. In the United States, on average, food travels about 1,500 miles before it gets to a plate. Sale of locally grown food can pave the way for reduction of food miles, and increase in agricultural sustainability.^[11]

Notes

1 2 3 Feagan, R. (February 2007). "The place of food: mapping out the 'local' in local food systems" (PDF). Progress in Human Geography. 31 (1): 23–42. doi:10.1177/0309132507073527. S2CID 146722092. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2020-02-07.
↑ Walter P. Hedden (1929). How great cities are fed. Boston: D.C. Heath and Company. OCLC 3714302. OL 6736131M.
↑ "What is a Foodshed?" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 September 2011. Retrieved 6 April 2011.
↑ Knapp, Joseph G. (1930). "How Great Cities Are Fed. By W. P. Hedden. Boston: D. C. Health & Co, 1929, Pp. 285". The Journal of Business of the University of Chicago. 3 (2): 263–266. doi:10.1086/232115. JSTOR 2349347.
1 2 3 4 5 Peters, C.; Bills, N.; Fick, G. (2008). "Foodshed analysis and its relevance to sustainability". Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems. 24: 1–7. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.517.4300 . doi:10.1017/s1742170508002433. S2CID 53612885.
↑ Vileisis, A. (2008). Kitchen literacy: how we lost knowledge of where food comes from and why we need to get it back . Washington: Island Press/Shearwater Books.
1 2 3 4 5 Tippins, M. (2002). "An assessment of direct farm-to-table food marketing in the USA". International Journal of Retail and Distribution Management. 30 (7): 343–353. doi:10.1108/09590550210433329.
↑ Harper, C.; Beau, B. L. (2003). Food, Society and Environment. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
↑ Hayward, G. (2010). "Eat Your Foodshed". Organic Gardening. 57 (2): 26–29.
↑ DeWeerdt, S (2009). "Is Local Food Better?". World Watch. 22 (3): 6.
↑ "Food Miles Movement Fueled by Local Food". Environmental Nutrition. 34 (6): 3. 2011.

Related Research Articles

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to agriculture:

Sustainable agriculture is farming in sustainable ways meeting society's present food and textile needs, without compromising the ability for current or future generations to meet their needs. It can be based on an understanding of ecosystem services. There are many methods to increase the sustainability of agriculture. When developing agriculture within sustainable food systems, it is important to develop flexible business process and farming practices. Agriculture has an enormous environmental footprint, playing a significant role in causing climate change, water scarcity, water pollution, land degradation, deforestation and other processes; it is simultaneously causing environmental changes and being impacted by these changes. Sustainable agriculture consists of environment friendly methods of farming that allow the production of crops or livestock without damage to human or natural systems. It involves preventing adverse effects to soil, water, biodiversity, surrounding or downstream resources—as well as to those working or living on the farm or in neighboring areas. Elements of sustainable agriculture can include permaculture, agroforestry, mixed farming, multiple cropping, and crop rotation.

Local food is food that is produced within a short distance of where it is consumed, often accompanied by a social structure and supply chain different from the large-scale supermarket system.

Community-supported agriculture or cropsharing is a system that connects producers and consumers within the food system closer by allowing the consumer to subscribe to the harvest of a certain farm or group of farms. It is an alternative socioeconomic model of agriculture and food distribution that allows the producer and consumer to share the risks of farming. The model is a subcategory of civic agriculture that has an overarching goal of strengthening a sense of community through local markets.

Urban agriculture refers to various practices of cultivating, processing, and distributing food in urban areas. The term also applies to the area activities of animal husbandry, aquaculture, beekeeping, and horticulture in an urban context. Urban agriculture is distinguished from peri-urban agriculture, which takes place in rural areas at the edge of suburbs.

Agribusiness is the industry, enterprises, and the field of study of value chains in agriculture and in the bio-economy, in which case it is also called bio-business or bio-enterprise. The primary goal of agribusiness is to maximize profit while satisfying the needs of consumers for products related to natural resources such as biotechnology, farms, food, forestry, fisheries, fuel, and fiber.

The food industry is a complex, global network of diverse businesses that supplies most of the food consumed by the world's population. The food industry today has become highly diversified, with manufacturing ranging from small, traditional, family-run activities that are highly labour-intensive, to large, capital-intensive and highly mechanized industrial processes. Many food industries depend almost entirely on local agriculture, animal farms, produce, and/or fishing.

Food miles is the distance food is transported from the time of its making until it reaches the consumer. Food miles are one factor used when testing the environmental impact of food, such as the carbon footprint of the food.

Farm to School is a program in the United States through which schools buy and feature locally produced, farm-fresh foods such as dairy, fruits and vegetables, eggs, honey, meat, and beans on their menus. Schools also incorporate nutrition-based curriculum and provide students with experiential learning opportunities such as farm visits, garden-based learning, and recycling programs. As a result of Farm to School, students have access to fresh, local foods, and farmers have access to new markets through school sales. Farmers are also able to participate in programs designed to educate kids about local food and agriculture.

A sustainable food system is a type of food system that provides healthy food to people and creates sustainable environmental, economic, and social systems that surround food. Sustainable food systems start with the development of sustainable agricultural practices, development of more sustainable food distribution systems, creation of sustainable diets, and reduction of food waste throughout the system. Sustainable food systems have been argued to be central to many or all 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

A low-carbon diet is any diet that results in lower greenhouse gas emissions. Choosing a low carbon diet is one facet of developing sustainable diets which increase the long-term sustainability of humanity. Major tenets of a low-carbon diet include eating a plant-based diet, and in particular little or no beef and dairy. Low-carbon diets differ around the world in taste, style, and the frequency they are eaten. Asian countries like India and China feature vegetarian and vegan meals as staples in their diets. In contrast, Europe and North America rely on animal products for their Western diets.

This is a glossary of environmental science.

In New York City, there is an extensive water supply system that supports several programs and infrastructure pertaining to the city's food supply. City officials, agencies, and organizations cooperate with rural farmers to grow food more locally, as well as protect waterways in the New York metropolitan area. The New York City Department of Education operates a school-time and summertime breakfast/lunch program. The city is also deprived of supermarkets in several neighborhoods, and the city government has addressed the problem by allowing extra street vendors to operate. To encourage food safety, the government also operates a restaurant-grading system that it introduced in 2010. The various food programs have made the city a model for food systems internationally.

The term food system describes the interconnected systems and processes that influence nutrition, food, health, community development, and agriculture. A food system includes all processes and infrastructure involved in feeding a population: growing, harvesting, processing, packaging, transporting, marketing, consumption, distribution, and disposal of food and food-related items. It also includes the inputs needed and outputs generated at each of these steps. Food systems fall within agri-food systems, which encompass the entire range of actors and their interlinked value-adding activities in the primary production of food and non-food agricultural products, as well as in food storage, aggregation, post-harvest handling, transportation, processing, distribution, marketing, disposal, and consumption. A food system operates within and is influenced by social, political, economic, technological and environmental contexts. It also requires human resources that provide labor, research and education. Food systems are either conventional or alternative according to their model of food lifespan from origin to plate. Food systems are dependent on a multitude of ecosystem services. For example, natural pest regulations, microorganisms providing nitrogen-fixation, and pollinators.

The environmental impact of agriculture is the effect that different farming practices have on the ecosystems around them, and how those effects can be traced back to those practices. The environmental impact of agriculture varies widely based on practices employed by farmers and by the scale of practice. Farming communities that try to reduce environmental impacts through modifying their practices will adopt sustainable agriculture practices. The negative impact of agriculture is an old issue that remains a concern even as experts design innovative means to reduce destruction and enhance eco-efficiency. Though some pastoralism is environmentally positive, modern animal agriculture practices tend to be more environmentally destructive than agricultural practices focused on fruits, vegetables and other biomass. The emissions of ammonia from cattle waste continue to raise concerns over environmental pollution.

A You-Pick ("U-Pick") or Pick-Your-Own (PYO) farm operation is a type of farm gate direct marketing (farm-to-table) strategy where the emphasis is on customers doing the harvesting themselves and agritourism. A PYO farm might be preferred by people who like to select fresh, high quality, vine-ripened produce themselves at lower prices.

Building-integrated agriculture (BIA) is the practice of locating high-performance hydroponic greenhouse farming systems on and in mixed-use buildings to exploit synergies between the built environment and agriculture.

Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) is a set of farming methods that has three main objectives with regards to climate change. Firstly, they use adaptation methods to respond to the effects of climate change on agriculture. Secondly, they aim to increase agricultural productivity and to ensure food security for a growing world population. Thirdly, they try to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture as much as possible. Climate-smart agriculture works as an integrated approach to managing land. This approach helps farmers to adapt their agricultural methods to the effects of climate change.

The amount of greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture is significant: The agriculture, forestry and land use sector contribute between 13% and 21% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Agriculture contributes towards climate change through direct greenhouse gas emissions and by the conversion of non-agricultural land such as forests into agricultural land. Emissions of nitrous oxide and methane make up over half of total greenhouse gas emission from agriculture. Animal husbandry is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions.

A foodprint refers to the environmental pressures created by the food demands of individuals, organizations, and geopolitical entities. Like other forms of ecological footprinting, a foodprint can include multiple parameters to quantify the overall environmental impact of food, including carbon footprinting, water footprinting, and foodshed mapping. Some foodprinting efforts also attempt to capture the social and ethical costs of food production by accounting for dimensions such as farm worker justice or prices received by farmers for goods as a share of food dollars. Environmental advocacy organizations like the Earth Day Network and the Natural Resources Defense Council have publicized the foodprint concept as a way of engaging consumers on the environmental impacts of dietary choices.

References

"If you build it, they may not come". Economist. 399 (8741): 31. 2011-07-07.
Koch, P. (2008). "Helping Students Make Sense of the Global Food System". Science Scope: 37–39.

External links

Foodshed Alliance, nonprofit organization Archived 2011-07-07 at the Wayback Machine
Foodshed mapping tool at Cornell University

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[Feagan2007-1] 1 2 3 Feagan, R. (February 2007). "The place of food: mapping out the 'local' in local food systems" (PDF). Progress in Human Geography. 31 (1): 23–42. doi:10.1177/0309132507073527. S2CID 146722092. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2020-02-07.

[How_Great_Cities_are_Fed-2] Walter P. Hedden (1929). How great cities are fed. Boston: D.C. Heath and Company. OCLC 3714302. OL 6736131M.

[What_is_a_Foodshed-3] "What is a Foodshed?" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 September 2011. Retrieved 6 April 2011.

[How_Great_Cities_are_Fed_Review-4] Knapp, Joseph G. (1930). "How Great Cities Are Fed. By W. P. Hedden. Boston: D. C. Health & Co, 1929, Pp. 285". The Journal of Business of the University of Chicago. 3 (2): 263–266. doi:10.1086/232115. JSTOR 2349347.

[Peters2008-5] 1 2 3 4 5 Peters, C.; Bills, N.; Fick, G. (2008). "Foodshed analysis and its relevance to sustainability". Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems. 24: 1–7. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.517.4300 . doi:10.1017/s1742170508002433. S2CID 53612885.

[6] Vileisis, A. (2008). Kitchen literacy: how we lost knowledge of where food comes from and why we need to get it back . Washington: Island Press/Shearwater Books.

[Tippins2002-7] 1 2 3 4 5 Tippins, M. (2002). "An assessment of direct farm-to-table food marketing in the USA". International Journal of Retail and Distribution Management. 30 (7): 343–353. doi:10.1108/09590550210433329.

[8] Harper, C.; Beau, B. L. (2003). Food, Society and Environment. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

[9] Hayward, G. (2010). "Eat Your Foodshed". Organic Gardening. 57 (2): 26–29.

[DeWeerdt2009-10] DeWeerdt, S (2009). "Is Local Food Better?". World Watch. 22 (3): 6.

[11] "Food Miles Movement Fueled by Local Food". Environmental Nutrition. 34 (6): 3. 2011.

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