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Community Food Strategies provides guidance and tools to local food networks in North Carolina to empower the creation of equitable policy change at all levels. Their vision is the realization of an equitable food system that improves the quality of life for all. In Davidson County, the recently formed Local Food Network, created under the guidance of Community Food Strategies, is working to create a more equitable and sustainable food system and is evaluating how best to apply their resources toward this end. The county is largely rural, and rural areas tend to have lower food access. Two cities, Lexington and Thomasville, have experienced economic depression over the past three decades with the exodus of furniture manufacturing overseas and as such, both cities have communities that suffer from poverty and food insecurity issues. In this research, we use visual analytics and spatial analysis to build a survey and analysis of local food availability for the county. Visual analytics is increasingly being applied to applications like this to increase understanding of large datasets and improve decision making. This research provides a base analysis for the Local Food Network to present the state of the local food system to potential partners who can help create policies that will increase equity and availability of food to everyone in the county.
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Leverage points to pathways for transformation of agri-food systems
Abstract Achieving large-scale, transformative climate change adaptations in agriculture while mitigating further climate impacts and supporting sustainable and equitable rural livelihoods is a grand challenge for society. Transformation of the agri-food system is necessary and inevitable, but the extent to which transformation can be intentionally guided toward desirable states remains unclear. We argue that instead of targeting leverage points in isolation, coordinated interventions multiple leverage points and their interactions are necessary to create broader system transformation towards more adaptive futures. Using the Southeastern U.S. as a case study, we conceptualize a way of doing transformation research in agri-food systems that integrates multiple theoretical and practical perspectives of how transformative pathways can be constructed from ‘chains’ of interacting leverage points. We outline several principles for transformative research; the core of which are participatory, transdisciplinary, and convergence research methods needed for articulating a shared vision. These principles embrace an action-oriented approach to research in which the act of assembling diverse networks of researchers, stakeholders, and community partners itself can activate community- and regional-level leverage points to scale-up changes. Finally, we present tangible examples of specific leverage points and their interactions targeted by agri-food systems interventions currently underway or planned. This work offers an ‘anticipatory’ vision for agri-food systems transformation research that recognizes the need to normatively create an enabling environment to build momentum toward shared visions of secure, equitable, and sustainable regional agri-food systems.
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- PAR ID:
- 10613379
- Publisher / Repository:
- IOP Publishing
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Environmental Research: Food Systems
- ISSN:
- 2976-601X
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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