Developing a food system indicators database to facilitate local food systems assessments

Abstract

Many food policy councils, food and agriculture-oriented groups, coalitions, organizations, funders, nonprofits, decision-makers, government depart­ments, and other entities work to address local food system issues and inequities that negatively affect human, animal, and planetary wellbeing. In this article, we summarize and reflect on the pro­cess of creating an open-access food system indica­tors database. Our goal has been to create a library of indicators from which groups can draw when assessing their local food system, identifying improvement opportunities, and evaluating their efforts. The indicators were extracted from seven sources selected to cover a wide range of food sys­tem elements and pertinent topics, including nutri­tion, agricultural production, racial equity, health outcomes, environmental impacts, and economics. Our work can contribute to needed research on monitoring and evaluating food system attributes and changes, developing a common set of indica­tors that groups can use to track food systems across places and over time and to assess racial equity, justice, and fairness in the food system.

Keywords

• food system
• monitoring and evaluation
• equity
• public health
• collective impact
• indicators