Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T07:30:33.204Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Foodshed analysis and its relevance to sustainability

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 December 2008

Christian J. Peters ,
Nelson L. Bills ,
Jennifer L. Wilkins  and
Gary W. Fick
Christian J. Peters*
Affiliation:
Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA.
Nelson L. Bills
Affiliation:
Department of Applied Economics and Management, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA.
Jennifer L. Wilkins
Affiliation:
Division of Nutritional Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA.
Gary W. Fick
Affiliation:
Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA.
*
*Corresponding author: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Providing a wholesome and adequate food supply is the most basic tenet of agricultural sustainability. However, sharp increases in global food prices have occurred in the past 2 years, bringing the real price of food to the highest level seen in 30 years (FAO, 2008). This dramatic shift is a fundamental concern. The role of ‘local food’ in contributing to the solution of underlying problems is currently being debated, and the debate raises a critical question: To what degree can society continue to rely on large-scale, long-distance transportation of food? Growing concerns about climate change, the longevity of fossil fuel supplies and attempts to produce energy from agriculture suggest that energy efficiency will be critical to adapting to resource constraints and mitigating climate impacts. Moreover, these problems are urgent because energy prices, biofuel production and weather-related crop failures are partially responsible for the current world food price situation. Tools are needed to determine how the environmental impact and vulnerability of the food system are related to where food is produced in relation to where it is consumed. To this end, analyses of foodsheds, the geographic areas that feed population centers, can provide useful and unique insights.

Keywords

local foodclimate changeenergybiofuelworld food situation
Type
Commentary
Information
Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems , Volume 24 , Issue 1 , March 2009 , pp. 1 - 7
Copyright
Copyright © 2008 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1Delgado, C., Rosegrant, M., Steinfeld, H., Ehui, S., and Courbois, C. 1999. Livestock to 2020: The Next Food Revolution. 2020 Vision for Food, Agriculture, and Environment. Discussion Paper 28. International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
2von Braun, J. 2007. The World Food Situation: New Driving Forces and Required Actions. Food Policy Report No. 18. International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington, DC. Available at Web site http://www.ifpri.org/pubs/fpr/pr18.asp (verified 14 March 2008).Google Scholar
3Hedden, W.P. 1929. How Great Cities Are Fed. D.C. Heath and Company, New York.Google Scholar
4Kloppenburg, J. Jr, Hendrickson, J., and Stevenson, G.W. 1996. Coming in to the foodshed. Agriculture and Human Values 13(3):33–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
5Stagl, S. 2002. Local organic food markets: potentials and limitations for contributing to sustainable development. Empirica 29:145–162.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
6Pretty, J. 2000. Towards sustainable food and farming systems in industrialized countries. International Journal of Agricultural Resources, Governance and Ecology 1(1):77–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
7Halweil, B. 2002. Home Grown: The Case for Local Food in a Global Market. Worldwatch Institute, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
8Feagan, R. 2007. The place of food: mapping out the ‘local’ in local food systems. Progress in Human Geography 31(1):23–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
9Anonymous. 1921. Strike to affect forty-two states. The Washington Post, 16 October 1921, 1, 22.Google Scholar
10Anonymous. 1921. Peace vote unconditional: ‘Big Four’ unions and the Switchmen act after critical day. New York Times, 28 October 1921, 1.Google Scholar
11Getz, A. 1991. Urban foodsheds. The Permaculture Activist 24:26–27.Google Scholar
12Cloud, J. 2007. My search for the perfect apple. Time 169(11):42–50.Google ScholarPubMed
13Anonymous. 2006. Voting with your trolley. The Economist, 9 December 2006, 73–75.Google Scholar
14Oxford University Press. 2007. Oxford Word of the Year: Locavore. Available at Web site: http://blog.oup.com/2007/11/locavore/ (verified 22 May 2008).Google Scholar
15Hartman Group. 2008. Consumer Understanding of Buying Local. Available at Web site: http://www.hartman-group.com/hartbeat/2008-02-27 (verified 22 May 2008).Google Scholar
16Bellows, A.C. and Hamm, M.W. 2001. Local autonomy and sustainable development: testing import substitution in localizing food systems. Agriculture and Human Values 18:271–284.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
17Edwards-Jones, G., Milá i Canals, L., Hounsome, N., Truniger, M., Koerber, G., Hounsome, B., Cross, P., York, E.H., Hospido, A., Plassman, K., Harris, I.M., Edwards, R.T., Day, G.A.S., Tomos, A.D., Cowell, S.J., and Jones, D.L. 2008. Testing the assertion that ‘local food’ is best: the challenges of an evidence-based approach. Trends in Food Science and Technology 19:265–274.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
18Hinrichs, C.C. 2003. The practice and politics of food system localization. Journal of Rural Studies 19:33–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
19Feenstra, G.W. 1997. Local food systems and sustainable communities. American Journal of Alternative Agriculture 12(1):28–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
20Gussow, J.D. and Clancy, K.L. 1986. Dietary guidelines for sustainability. Journal of Nutrition Education 18(1):1–5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
21Gussow, J.D. 1999. Dietary guidelines for sustainability: twelve years later. Journal of Nutrition Education 31(4):194–200.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
22Pirog, R., Van Pelt, T., Enshayan, K., and Cook, E. 2001. Food, Fuel, and Freeways: An Iowa Perspective on How Far Food Travels, Fuel Usage, and Greenhouse Gas Emissions. The Leopold Center, Iowa State University, Ames, IA.Google Scholar
23Lapping, M.B. 2004. Toward the recovery of the local in the globalizing food system: the role of alternative agricultural and food models in the US. Ethics, Place, and Environment 7(3):141–150.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
24Lyson, T.A. and Green, J. 1999. The agricultural marketscape: a framework for sustaining agriculture and communities in the Northeast. Journal of Sustainable Agriculture 15(2/3):133–150.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
25Born, B. and Purcell, M. 2006. Avoiding the local trap: scale and food systems in planning research. Journal of Planning Education and Research 26:195–207.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
26IPCC. 2007. Climate Change 2007: Synthesis Report. Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Core Writing Team, R.K. Pachauri and A. Reisinger (eds)). IPCC, Geneva, Switzerland. Available at Web site http://www.ipcc.ch/ipccreports/ar4-syr.htm (verified 29 April 2008).Google Scholar
27Scientific Expert Group on Climate Change. 2007. Confronting Climate Change: Avoiding the Unmanageable and Managing the Unavoidable. R.M. Bierbaum, J.P. Holdren, M.C. MacCracken, R.H. Moss, and P.H. Raven (eds). Report prepared for the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development. Sigma Xi, Research Triangle Park, NC, and the United Nations Foundation, Washington, DC. Available at Web site http://www.unfoundation.org/files/pdf/2007/SEG_ExecSumm.pdf (verified 18 April 2007).Google Scholar
28Kerr, R.A. 2007. How urgent is climate change? Science 318:1230–1231.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
29IPCC. 2007. Summary for policymakers. In M.L. Parry, O.F. Canziani, J.P. Palutikof, P.J. van der Linden, and C.E. Hanson (eds). Climate Change 2007: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. p. 7–22. Available at Web site http://www.ipcc.ch/ipccreports/ar4-wg2.htm (verified 29 April 2008).Google Scholar
30IPCC. 2007. Summary for policymakers. In B. Metz, O.R. Davidson, P.R. Bosch, R. Dave, and L.A. Meyer (eds). Climate Change 2007: Mitigation. Contribution of Working Group III to the Fourth Assessment Report of the IntergovernmentalPanel on Climate Change. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK and New York. p. 1–23. Available at Web site http://www.ipcc.ch/ipccreports/ar4-wg3.htm (verified 29 April 2008).Google Scholar
31Steinfeld, H., Gerber, P., Wassenaar, T., Castel, V., Rosales, M., and de Haan, C. 2006. Livestock's Long Shadow: Environmental Issues and Options. FAO, Rome, Italy. Available at Web site http://www.virtualcentre.org/en/library/key_pub/longshad/a0701e00.htm (verified 29 April 2006).Google Scholar
32Edwards, J.D. 1997. Crude oil and alternative energy production forecasts for the twenty-first century: the end of the hydrocarbon era. American Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin 81(8):1292–1305.Google Scholar
33Bentley, R.W. 2002. Global oil and gas depletion: an overview. Energy Policy 30:189–205.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
34International Energy Agency. 2007. Key World Energy Statistics. International Energy Agency, Paris, France. Available at Web site http://www.iea.org/textbase/nppdf/free/2007/key_stats_2007.pdf (verified 22 May 2008).Google Scholar
35Government Accountability Office. 2007. Crude Oil: Uncertainty About Future Oil Supply Makes it Important to Develop a Strategy for Addressing a Peak and Decline in Oil Production. US Government Printing Office, Washington, DC. Available at Web site: http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d07283.pdf (verified 18 April 2007).Google Scholar
36Duncan, R.C. and Youngquist, W. 1999. Encircling the peak of world oil production. Natural Resources Research 8(3):219–232.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
37Mouawad, J. 2008. Oil prices pass record set in '80s, but then recede. New York Times, 3 March 2008. Available at Web site http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/03/business/worldbusiness/03cnd-oil.html?hp (verified 29 April 2008).Google Scholar
38Hallock, J.L. Jr, Tharakan, P.J., Hall, C.A.S., Jefferson, M., and Wu, W. 2004. Forecasting the limits to the availability and diversity of global conventional oil supply. Energy 29(11):1673–1696.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
39Youngquist, W. 1999. The post-petroleum paradigm––and population. Population and Environment 20(4):297–315.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
40Greene, D.L., Hopson, J.L., and Li, J. 2004. Running out of and into oil: analyzing global oil depletion and transition through 2050. Transportation Research Record 1880:1–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
41Brandt, A.R. and Farrell, A.E. 2007. Scraping the bottom of the barrel: greenhouse gas emission consequences of a transition to low-quality and synthetic petroleum resources. Climatic Change 84:241–263.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
42Seelke, C.L. and Yacobucci, B.D. 2007. Ethanol and Other Biofuels: Potential for U.S.–Brazil Energy Cooperation. Congressional Research Service. Available at Web site http://assets.opencrs.com/rpts/RL34191_20070927.pdf (verified 6 September 2008).Google Scholar
43Hill, J., Nelson, E., Tilman, D., Polasky, S., and Tiffany, D. 2006. Environmental, economic, and energetic costs and benefits of biodiesel and ethanol biofuels. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA 103:11206–11210.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
44Goldemberg, J. 2007. Ethanol for a sustainable energy future. Science 315:808–810.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
45Giampietro, M., Ulgiati, S., and Pimentel, D. 1997. Feasibility of large-scale biofuel production: does an enlargement of scale change the picture? BioScience 47(9):587–600.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
46Berndes, G., Hoogwijk, M., and van den Broek, R. 2003. The contribution of biomass in the future global energy supply: a review of 17 studies. Biomass and Bioenergy 25: 1–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
47Energy Information Administration. 2007. International Energy Outlook 2007. Energy Information Administration, Office of Integrated Analysis and Forecasting, US Department of Energy, Washington, DC. Available at Web site http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/ieo/index.html (verified 29 April 2008).Google Scholar
48Haberl, H., Erb, K.H., Krausmann, F., Gaube, V., Bondeau, A., Plutzar, C., Gingrich, S., Lucht, W., and Fischer-Kowalski, M. 2007. Quantifying and mapping the human appropriation of net primary production in earth's terrestrial ecosystems. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA 104:12942–12947.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
49Field, C.B., Campbell, J.E., and Lobell, D.B. 2007. Biomass energy: the scale of the potential resource. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 23(2):65–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
50Fargione, J., Hill, J., Tilman, D., Polasky, S., and Hawthorne, P. 2008. Land clearing and the biofuel carbon debt. Science 319:1235–1237.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
51Searchinger, T., Heimlich, R., Houghton, R.A., Dong, F., Elobeid, A., Fabiosa, J., Tokgoz, S., Hayes, D., and Yu, T. 2008. Use of U.S. croplands for biofuels increase greenhouse gases through emissions from land-use change. Science 319:1238–1240.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
52Rosegrant, M.W. and Ringler, C. 1997. World food markets into the 21st century: environmental and resource constraints and policies. The Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics 41(3):402–428.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
53Alexandratos, N. 1999. World food and agriculture: outlook for the medium and longer term. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA 96:5908–5914.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
54Johnson, D.G. 1999. The growth of demand will limit output growth for food over the next quarter century. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA96:5915–5920.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
55Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). 2008. Soaring Food Prices: Facts, Perspectives, Impacts and Actions Required. High-level Conference on World Food Security: The Challenge of Climate Change and Bioenergy, 3–5 June 2008, Rome, Italy. Available at Web site http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/user_upload/foodclimate/HLCdocs/HLC08-inf-1-E.pdf (verified 3 September 2008).Google Scholar
56FAO. 2007. Food Outlook––November 2007. FAO, Rome, Italy. Available at Web site http://www.fao.org/docrep/010/ah876e/ah876e00.HTM (verified 29 April 2008).Google Scholar
57Kennedy, G., Nantel, G., and Shetty, P. 2003. The scourge of ‘hidden hunger’: global dimensions of micronutrient deficiencies. Food, Nutrition, and Agriculture 32:8–16.Google Scholar
58Bender, W.H. 1994. An end use analysis of global food requirements. Food Policy 19(4):381–395.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
59Peters, C.J., Bills, N.L., Lembo, A.J., Wilkins, J.L., and Fick, G.W. In press. Mapping potential Foodsheds in New York State: a spatial model for evaluating the capacity to localize food production. Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems.Google Scholar