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Regionalism: a New England recipe for a resilient food system

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  • Kathryn Ruhf

Abstract

Regionalism is a framework for economic, policy, and program development that responds to regional characteristics, differences, and needs and encourages regional approaches and solutions. This paper suggests that acting regionally contributes to food system resilience. The author discusses attributes of regionalism and regional food systems and how they build capacity to withstand disruptions in the food system. Food system resilience entails reducing vulnerability to risks of disruption to the food supply and increasing capacity to withstand or adapt to such disruption. Regions are an effective scale to promote resilience through enhanced diversity, stability, and flexibility, appropriately scaled supply chains and infrastructure, and strong foundational relationships. These attributes are important to resilience in that they decrease dependence on “external” variables, such as long-distance transport of foods, and increase “internal” capacity to provide for the region and withstand natural and manmade disruptions. The region is a powerful scale to respond to disruption in that it addresses supply (volume and diversity) better than local; is more nimble and flexible than nationally and globally sourced food (even accounting for global supply chain “substitution”); and effectively fosters relationships, communication, and trust which are foundational for responding to change (disruption). This paper focuses on the New England region whose six states have a history of working together. It is also a region that exemplifies an area’s ability to respond to disruption based on real and felt interconnectedness of rural and urban interests. As such, it is an ideal learning laboratory for applying regional approaches to food system resilience, approaches that can be of use elsewhere both nationally and internationally. The paper describes several initiatives in New England that exemplify regional thinking applied to food systems and how such thinking can foster resilience. Initiatives focusing on regionally focused food supply chains, increased regional production, access to farmland, and food system public policies illustrate how the government, the civil society, and the private sector can collaborate to strengthen food resilience. Copyright AESS 2015

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  • Kathryn Ruhf, 2015. "Regionalism: a New England recipe for a resilient food system," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 5(4), pages 650-660, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:jenvss:v:5:y:2015:i:4:p:650-660
    DOI: 10.1007/s13412-015-0324-y
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Gerald Marten & Nurcan Atalan-Helicke, 2015. "Introduction to the Symposium on American Food Resilience (Part 2)," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 5(4), pages 537-542, December.
    2. Clancy, Kate & Ruhf, Kathryn, 2010. "Is Local Enough? Some Arguments for Regional Food Systems," Choices: The Magazine of Food, Farm, and Resource Issues, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 25(1), pages 1-5.
    3. Gerald Marten & Nurcan Atalan-Helicke, 2015. "Introduction to the Symposium on American Food Resilience," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 5(3), pages 308-320, September.
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    1. Gerald Marten & Nurcan Atalan-Helicke, 2015. "Introduction to the Symposium on American Food Resilience (Part 2)," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 5(4), pages 537-542, December.
    2. Laura Lengnick & Michelle Miller & Gerald Marten, 2015. "Metropolitan foodsheds: a resilient response to the climate change challenge?," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 5(4), pages 573-592, December.
    3. Gerald Marten & Nurcan Atalan-Helicke, 2015. "Introduction to the Symposium on American Food Resilience," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 5(3), pages 308-320, September.
    4. Rebekah Paci-Green & Gigi Berardi, 2015. "Do global food systems have an Achilles heel? The potential for regional food systems to support resilience in regional disasters," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 5(4), pages 685-698, December.
    5. Alessandro Passaro & Filippo Randelli, 2022. "Spaces of Governance for Sustainable Transformation of Local Food Systems: the Case of 8 biodistricts in Tuscany," Working Papers - Economics wp2022_12.rdf, Universita' degli Studi di Firenze, Dipartimento di Scienze per l'Economia e l'Impresa.
    6. Andreia Saavedra Cardoso & Tiago Domingos & Manuela Raposo De Magalhães & José De Melo-Abreu & Jorge Palma, 2017. "Mapping the Lisbon Potential Foodshed in Ribatejo e Oeste: A Suitability and Yield Model for Assessing the Potential for Localized Food Production," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(11), pages 1-31, November.
    7. Victor Ye. Kovalev & Aleksandr N. Semin, 2021. "Resilience of Russia’s agri-food market under customs imbalances of the Eurasian integration," Journal of New Economy, Ural State University of Economics, vol. 22(3), pages 28-43, October.

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