IN THIS ISSUE: Food Systems Resilience

Abstract

In this combined spring and summer issue of JAFSCD we highlight the growing interest in food systems resilience, as depicted on our cover by the design of the Hyperions project by Vincent Callebaut Architectures. Strategies to promote food system resilience come in many forms, as we reveal in this issue—supporting critical organizational and physical infrastructure along with social capital; incubating new farmers; protecting farm landscapes; using season-extending technology; and supporting labor; as well as adapting to climate change and creating more and stronger connections between farmers of need and residents of need who are in close geographic proximity to each other. Furthermore, resilience can’t come without the support of public- and private-sector actors, including local government and NGOs, who will need ways of measuring food system resilience as they address growing opportunities and challenges in their communities—whether in North America, Europe, or the Global South. With this issue, we are pleased to welcome our newest columnist, Teresa Mares, professor of anthropology at the University of Vermont. Through her column, entitled Cultivating Comida: Pushing the Borders of Food, Culture, and Politics, Teresa will be follow­ing closely and commenting on Latinx/Hispanic issues in food systems work, and along the way introduce us to new words and ideas like comida and alimento, and perhaps even impostura (the peasant cultural norm of reciprocity in sharing food during both lean times and those not so lean). Indeed, we have much to learn from our Latinx/Hispanic sisters and brothers who steadily make contributions to agriculture and foodways in the Global North; Teresa will help us understand and make the most of these rich opportunities. In her column, Freedom’s Seeds: Reflections of Food, Race, and Community Development, Monica White takes us on a trip down south to meet “freedom farmers” who played a critical role in the civil rights movement, and who continue to be influential. In our final column for this issue, The Economic Pamphleteer, John Ikerd highlights the revival of urban agriculture and suggests that its full contribution to communities of need is severely under-appreciated. Our final preliminary content is a commentary entitled Fair Labor Practices in Values-Based Agrifood Supply Chains? in which Larry Burmeister and Keiko Tanaka suggest that values-based agrifood supply chains could do a better job of prioritizing fair labor practices. Our first peer-reviewed paper is Eight Qualities of Resilient Food Systems: Toward a Sustainability/Resilience Index by James Worstell and John Green, who continue their work on the quantitative measure of resilient food systems such as locally self-organized processing and marketing. Next, Diane Kuehn, Lisa Chase, and Thomas Sharkey approach resilience from the perspective of maple producers in Adapting to Climate Change: Perceptions of Maple Producers in New York and Vermont. Resilience is also explored in the context of farmland protection in support of sustaining farm commu­nities in Preserving Large Farming Landscapes: The Case of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania by Tom Daniels and Lauren Payne-Riley. In Using Contribution Analysis to Assess the Influence of Farm Link Programs in the U.S., Angela Hersey and Michelle Adams identify factors that prevent most farm link programs from facilitating substantial numbers of farm transfers. Next, Karyn Stein, Miranda Mirosa, and Lynette Carter explore the challenges in participatory and indigenous research methods in It’s Not Just About the Destination, But Also the Journey: Reflections on Research with Indigenous Women Food Growers. Sustainable Intensification, Community, and the Montpellier Panel: A Meta-analysis of Rhetoric in Practice in Sub-Saharan Africa by Anne M. Cafer and Hua Qin yields a disturbing lack of emphasis on community and food security in the sustainable intensification literature focused on sub-Saharan countries. Krycia Cowling, Ruth Lindberg, Andrew L. Dannenberg, Roni A. Neff, and Keshia M. Pollack make the case that health impact assessments should be more widely undertaken as part of local food systems work in Review of Health Impact Assessments Informing Agriculture, Food, and Nutrition Policies, Programs, and Projects in the United States In Assessing the Impact of the EQIP High Tunnel Initiative Analena B. Bruce, James R. Farmer, Elizabeth T. Maynard, and Julia D. Valliant find that, while EQIP is having its intended impact, those farmers who have self-funded their high tunnels report greater economic stability than farmers relying on the NRCS funds for their high tunnels. Jake C. Galzki, David J. Mulla, and Erin Meier move us closer to more realistic estimations of regional food production potential in Mapping Potential Foodsheds Using Regionalized Consumer Expenditure Data for Southeastern Minnesota. In Merging Opposing Viewpoints: Analysis of the Development of a Statewide Sustainable Local Food Advisory Council in a Traditional Agricultural State Molly De Marco, Leah Chapmen, Cordon McGee, Larissa Calancie, Lauren Burnham, and Alice Ammerman shed light on the difficulty of launching a statewide food policy council in a commodity-driven environment. Of course, as a double issue, we have a considerable number of book reviews. Keith Williams reviews Conversations in Food Studies, edited by Colin R. Anderson, Jennifer Brady, Charles Z. Levkoe; Nathan Collins reviews Who Really Feeds the World? The Failures of Agribusiness and the Promise of Agroecology, by Vandana Shiva; David V. Fazzino II reviews Big Hunger: The Unholy Alliance between Corporate America and Anti-Hunger Groups, by Andrew Fisher; Carrie A. Scrufari reviews From Farm to Fork: Perspectives on Growing Sustainable Food Systems in the Twenty-First Century, edited by Sarah J. Morath; and Cassandra Hawkins Wilder reviews We Want Land to Live: Making Political Space for Food Sovereignty, by Amy Trauger. Finally, on a personal note, managing editor Amy Christian and I want to thank the JAFSCD community for its outpouring of support after the loss of our son Tom Hilchey in June. As challenging as this has been to our own personal resilience, we have found solace in the work of this dual spring-summer issue, and greatly appreciate the patience and support of authors and reviewers in helping us bring it to fruition. Publisher and Editor in Chief

Keywords

• Resilience