Chapter 1: Introduction to Food Systems

(Excerpted from the book: Food, Farms and Community: Exploring Food Systems. Lisa Chase

and Vern Grubinger, University Press of New England, publication date: Dec. 2014)

"Vision without systems thinking ends up painting lovely pictures of the future with no deep

understanding of the forces that must be mastered to move from here to there." - Peter Senge,

The Fifth Discipline1

The food system is extremely complex. If food systems were linear, at one end of the

human continuum would be farmers, or producers, and on the other end would be consumers. Or

food waste managers could be on the far end, and if some of them were composters, they’d

connect back to the farmers, creating a circular food system. But food systems aren’t linear nor

are they circular. They are webs of people and the resources and behaviors they affect.

Producers, consumers, processors, distributors, wholesalers and retailers interact with people

working in education, social services, research and so forth. These people may be advocates,

entrepreneurs, or employees of institutions and businesses; they function in the for-profit and

non-profit sectors. Some deal directly with food and some deal with infrastructure; they offer

technical assistance, manage natural resources, provide inputs such as fuels and fertilizers, or

develop and implement policies and regulations. Together they create the food system, which

can be broken down into myriad smaller systems.

Food System Models

The food system has been defined as “an interconnected web of activities, resources and

people that extends across all domains involved in providing human nourishment and sustaining

health, including production, processing, packaging, distribution, marketing, consumption and

disposal of food. The organization of food systems reflects and responds to social, cultural,

political, economic, health and environmental conditions and can be identified at multiple

scales, from a household kitchen to a city, county, state or nation.”2

Individual perspectives determine how that web will be envisioned and described. A
relatively simple depiction, for example, considers only the various types of markets for food

(Figure 1.1). This reflects the economic measures that are often used to evaluate food systems:

how much is produced, how much is sold, and to which markets.

Figure 1.1. Market levels of the food system. View of the food system with a focus on the

different market channels for which food is produced.

Alternatively, the food system can be depicted as a much more complex and broad reaching set

of interactions, which go far beyond the production, processing and distribution of food to

include the connection of food to the health of people and the environment (Figure 1.2).

Figure 1.2. Complex diagram of the food system. This view of the food system has a

focus on food, people and the environment, as well as factors that influence their interactions in

the system, which uses inputs and generates outputs.

 When human and environmental interactions are included, the economic impact of a food

system is much greater than the market value of the food sold. Holistic assessments of the food

system may reveal many other kinds of positive economic impacts, such as improved nutrition

and ecosystem services. They may also reveal negative impacts not accounted for by simple

market prices, such as the effect on health care costs due to excessive consumption of low

quality foods, or the cost of cleaning up water pollution resulting from agricultural runoff. The

positive and negative impacts that are not captured by the market are known as externalities.3

There is widespread concern about negative externalities from the food system, in

particular the impact of a poor diet on human health. Efforts are underway to understand how the

food system can be changed to alleviate food-related illness. From the perspective of people for

whom the effect of dietary behavior on human health is a priority, it’s important to describe the

food system in a way that captures the ‘ingredients’ they can work with to improve the situation

(Figure 1.3.)

Figure 1.3. Human health and the food system. This view of the food system has a focus

on dietary behavior and human health. Note that food production and distribution are depicted as

a small part of this system, just one of many practices, whereas in Figure 1.2 they are shown as a

primary part of the system.

 In addition to concerns about human health, there are many initiatives underway to strengthen

local and regional food systems. In these cases a primary consideration is often which facets of

the system can be influenced by local or regional policies. Thus the descriptions of food

systems in these plans usually focus on the governing unit’s ‘sphere of influence’ such as the

activities of various industries and markets, rather than human behavior or environmental

outcomes (Figure 1.4).

Figure 1.4. Food system components affected by policy. This view of the food system

has a focus on industries and activities that can be influenced by local and regional government

through policy.
 Another way that food systems can be described is in terms of desired outcomes for a

healthy community (Figure 1.5). This doesn’t provide detail about how the system actually

functions, but it articulates a set of broad, inter-related results that can then be stated as

measurable goals.

Figure 1.5. Food system community outcomes. This view of the food system emphasizes

the goals a community may have that are related to food.

Campaign briefing

Transforming our food system

The movement for food sovereignty
October 2012
WDM’s campaign to curb speculation on food tackles one aspect of a broken food system. We’re also helping
to build a movement for a just global food system, inspired by activists in the global south.
The global food system is in crisis. Globally we are now
producing more food than ever before. But while 1.5
billion people are overweight, 870 million people are
affected by chronic hunger. Small-scale farmers are
suffering from prices falling below their costs of
production due to unfair trade regimes, corporate
concentration and the dismantling of state support.
The industrial farming methods that produce our food
also contribute to climate change, and the depletion
and pollution of natural resources.
Fairer food
In considering what a just and sustainable food system
might like look, we can draw on a framework developed
by social movements around the world including the
global peasants’ movement La Via Campesina. Over
the last 15 years, these movements have developed a
shared vision for a world that upholds the right to food,
where people can define their own food and agriculture
systems.
In 2007, more than 500 people gathered in Mali at the
Nyeleni forum, named after a Malian peasant farmer
legendary for developing crops to feed her people.
They included peasants and family farmers, fisherfolk,
landless
An Indian perspective
“Food sovereignty means to me the self
respect which comes from self reliance in
food production and distribution. In
southern India they have
their own historic struggle for rights in
southern India. They have squatted some
lands and claimed their rights over it. I was
so impressed to see that about 4000 acres
of land from the government corporations
was reclaimed by the tribal
communities in Kerala. 4000 families each
gained one acre.”
S. Kannaiyan, a member of the South Indian
Co-ordination Committee of Farmers’ Movements.
people, rural workers and representatives of
environmental and urban movements. This forum drew
up a declaration setting out six principles of food
sovereignty (see overleaf). These are universal
principles which are designed to be translated into
practice differently from place to place.
Five countries - Nepal, Mali, Senegal, Venezuela and
Bolivia - have made food sovereignty government policy.
P
r
 Participants arrive at the camp built specially for the Nyeleni food sovereignty forum in 2007, in Selingue, Mali.
Six principles: food sovereignty… ...focuses on food for people
The right to food which is healthy and culturally appropriate is the basic legal demand underpinning food sovereignty.
Guaranteeing it requires policies which support diversified food production in each region and country. Food is not
simply another commodity to be traded or speculated on for profit.
...values food providers
Many smallholder farmers suffer violence,
marginalisation and racism from corporate landowners and governments. People are often pushed off their land by
mining concerns or agribusiness. Agricultural workers can face severe exploitation and even bonded labour. Although
women produce most of the food in the global south, their role and knowledge are often ignored, and their rights to
resources and as workers are violated. Food sovereignty asserts food providers’ right to live and work in dignity.
...localises food systems
Food must be seen primarily as sustenance for the community and only secondarily as something to be traded. Under
food sovereignty, local and regional provision takes precedence over supplying distant markets, and export-orientated
agriculture is rejected. The ‘free trade’ policies which prevent

Food sovereignty in action

The principles above show how progress towards food sovereignty can be made through action at the community or
local level. In recent years food movements have emerged in many countries in the global north including the UK,
contributing to a more environmentally and socially sustainable food system.
According to Andrea Ferrante, chair of the Italian association for organic farming, the burgeoning of urban food
gardens, farmers’ markets and educational programmes show that:
“There are more real activities of food sovereignty now running than ever before. All these new and
alternative models of distribution are really seeds of food sovereignty … no, more than seeds, they already
have shoots.”
However, food sovereignty also requires structural change at the national and international levels. For example, a just
food system cannot be realised without a just international trading system. The influence of financial speculators must
be scaled back dramatically. And we must end those policies, promoted by the likes of the IMF and World Bank, that
favour huge corporations over small-scale producers.
developing countries from protecting their own agriculture, for example through subsidies and tariffs, are also inimical
to food sovereignty.
... rejects corporate control
Food sovereignty requires that women and men who provide food have control of land and resources such as water
and seeds, to be used and shared in socially and environmentally sustainable ways. Privatisation of such resources,
for example through intellectual property rights regimes or commercial contracts, is explicitly rejected.
... builds knowledge and skills
Technologies, such as genetic engineering, that undermine food providers’ ability to develop and pass on knowledge
and skills needed for localised food systems are rejected. Instead, food sovereignty calls for appropriate research
systems to support the development of agricultural knowledge and skills.
...works with nature
Food sovereignty requires production and distribution systems that protect natural resources and reduce greenhouse
gas emissions, avoiding energy-intensive industrial methods that damage the environment and the health of those
that inhabit it.

Transforming livelihoods in Sri Lanka

A.A. Priyanthi is a peasant farmer from Katuwanayaya, Sri Lanka. She says the effect of using conventional farming
on her land was driving her family further into poverty:
“We were falling into an ever increasing debt trap. We had to spend lots of money on chemical inputs and
seeds. And every year we had to increase the amount of chemicals we used in order to get a decent harvest.
We felt that we were becoming slaves.”
P

A.A. Priyanthi, with her son, at work in Sri Lanka.

Then Priyanthi, along with just over half of the 42 families in Katuwanayaya, decided to take a different approach to
farming.
“We decided to get away completely from chemical use and to adopt ‘natural farming principles’. We
developed soil conservation, water management,
compost-making, and mixed crop farming. With natural farming, as you can see, there are hundreds of
varieties in our garden.
“Food sovereignty is not, in fact, a new idea, but something we had earlier. For me, the basic element in this
concept of food sovereignty is that it allows us to feel free once more.”

Reclaiming land in Brazil

After a long struggle, 400 families have made their homes in Itaituba, in a fertile, grain-growing area in south-west
Brazil. In the 1980s groups of landless families from the region found that wealthy dairy farmers had illegally taken
over a large piece of state-owned land in the 1960s. They began to occupy the land and demand its expropriation.
Soon they received the support of the Landless Workers’ Movement, which helped them to organise makeshift camps
and to regroup for further occupations after frequent evictions.
Finally, in 1992, the land was expropriated and given to the families as part of the government’s agrarian reform
programme.
At first, the families practised conventional agriculture, planting beans, wheat and maize. They bought their seeds,
fertilisers and pesticides from company salesmen and sold their crops to middlemen, who paid them less than the
market price. Their dream of owning a piece of land had come true, but they were just as poor as before.
They decided to diversify their crops, set up training courses in ecological agriculture, and begin a programme of
environmental measures.
One of the inhabitants, Tiao Carvalho, aged 57, describes his experience:
“We wanted to produce food, not merchandise. It took time to transform the soil, full of pesticides, of poison,
back to healthy soil. We used green fertilizer - animal manure and turnips which fix nitrogen.”
At first production fell, but then it began to pick up. Tiao and his wife Nazare acquired a cow and chickens. They
began a small seed bank. Now they produce all their own food.
“We eat much better now, more healthily - one day I counted 26 different products - fruits, salad, herbs,
vegetables, milk, eggs - all produced by ourselves.”

Building food sovereignty in Europe

To catalyse food sovereignty in Europe and build on the Nyeleni Forum held four years earlier in Mali, 400 food
providers and activists came together in Austria in August

The Nyeleni Europe Food Sovereignty Forum gets underway in Krems,

Austria, in August 2011. Over 400 participants came from 34 countries.

2011. They spent a week sharing experiences, taking action and drawing up the Nyeleni Europe declaration.
WDM campaigner Dan Iles took part in the forum and related actions. These included a ‘market of a ideas’, which was
a “pop-up farmer’s market with a political twist”. Stalls offered taste tests of local produce, waste displays and even
interactive butter churning. These activities enabled people to engage with some of the ideas of food sovereignty:
“Contact between local producers and consumers, good tasting organic food and getting back in touch with the lost
culture around food” were among the aims Dan reported.
The Nyeleni Europe declaration reaffirmed the principles of food sovereignty and emphasised the democratic deficit in
Europe’s food system, stating that in order to achieve a true democracy, violence, corporate influence and gender
inequalities must come to an end.

Food sovereignty versus food security: What’s the difference?

Food sovereignty goes beyond the concept of food security that the big aid donors and neoliberal international
institutions prefer. Food security simply aims to ensure that people have sufficient food to eat. It is not concerned
about how this food is produced, nor the means by which people might attain this fundamental right.
By contrast, food sovereignty requires not just that everyone is properly fed, but that the food system that feeds us is
just and sustainable.
INSTITUTE FOR FOOD AND DEVELOPMENT POLICY FALL 2010 VOLUME 16 • NUMBER 3

Photo by Real Food Challenge

 Youth and Food Justice: Lessons
from the Civil Rights Movement
By Anim Steel*
The food justice movement is entering a new period of opportunity. Good, fresh, healthy food is
on the agenda in underserved neighborhoods and even First Lady, Michelle Obama has planted an
organic garden and taken on childhood obesity with her Let’s Move! campaign. But fair and
affordable fresh food at 4,000 farmers markets and hundreds of CSAs, with double digit annual
growth in organic food over the last 20 years, represents under two percent of the trillion dollar
food market.

Poor diet is condemning one in three African-American children to Type II diabetes by the age of
18 and one in four Latino kids to hypertension and heart disease. Indeed, all of our young people
are at risk. The Centers for Disease Control now projects that the youngest generation of
Americans will be the first to have a shorter lifespan than their parents—thanks to our toxic food
system.

Improving the health of our youth will require a transformation of our food system. This will
require strong social movements capable of creating the political will to truly transform how we
grow, buy, prepare and eat food. Lessons from the civil rights era suggest how today’s food justice
movement can organize. In particular, a new, youth-led, multiracial coalition could unleash the
voice and energy of those with the most to gain from transforming the food system—young
people.

What does Fast Food have in common with Jim Crow?

The political disenfranchisement addressed by the Civil Rights movement, and the cheap, unhealthy
food plaguing our underserved communities both refect structural inequities that marginalize people
of color. Poverty—the cause of hunger and poor diet—is built-in through “redlining” by banks and

*Anim Steel is the Director of National Programs with The Food Project. He co-founded the Real Food Challenge in 2007.
He
holds a Master’s in Public Policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, and is a 2010 Prime Mover Fellow. This
backgrounder is based on a chapter in a Food First book in progress, Food Movements Unite!
For more information: www.foodmovementsunite.org
retail outlets and the outmigration of changing the tastes and attitudes of freshmen at North Carolina
fnance, business, jobs and services regular people any more than the Agricultural and Technical State
caused by zoning and suburban Civil Rights movement could end University sat down at a segregated
development schemes that favor segregation without the 1964 Civil Woolworth’s lunch counter in
higher earning, primarily white Rights Act. Beyond the personal, Greensboro, North Carolina and
workers, over lower-income people2 asked to be served. They were
of color. In this sense, the fght for these transformations require refused—but their simple, bold
good, fresh, affordable food is a political, economic, and cultural action ignited a week-long protest
social and economic continuation of changes. Just as with the Civil Rights and a wave of similar sit-ins across
the struggle to end discrimination. movement, transformation needs to the South, breathing new life into
Turning the “invisible hand” of this be local, national, and international. the
skewed marketplace into a helping Social movements will play a civil rights movement. As Andrew
hand that creates and keeps wealth deciding role in creating the political Lewis wrote, “We forget how
in underserved communities will for change just as they did with troubled the civil rights movement
requires economic and political Civil Rights. To quote Myles was in January 1960. Six years after
restructuring for equal Horton of Highlander Institute, Brown v. the Board of Education fewer
opportunities. “It’s only in a movement that an than one in 100 black students in the
idea is often made simple enough South attended an integrated school.
Lesson #1: The imperative of and direct enough that it can spread Many worried that the civil rights
social movements rapidly… A large social movement movement had ended. Then
How can we turn our food systems forces people to take a stand.”1 Greensboro changed everything. The
into healthy, equitable engines for sit-ins rewrote the rules of protest.”2
local economic growth? We can’t Lesson #2: It’s time for youth In Later that spring, 300 students met at
change the food system by simply February of 1960 four black college a conference, to form the Student
Nonviolent Coordinating Campaign innovation, involve masses of people, Immokalee Workers was formed in
(SNCC). Veteran civil rights activist and harness our collective political 1993). In 2007, several of these groups
Ella Baker counseled the students and economic power. came together to create the Real Food
not to become just an arm of the Challenge, a campaign to redirect $1
more established Southern Christian Such an organization should prioritize billion in college food purchases away
Leadership Conference (SCLC). the voices of those most hurt by the from industrial agriculture, toward local,
“Don’t let anyone else, especially the system, even as it welcomes the fair, and sustainable sources. These and
older folks, tell you what to do,” she contributions of all who care. And it hundreds of other projects are a
said. SNCC was sponsored by SCLC should be open to the contributions powerful platform to build upon.
and worked closely over the decade and wisdom of all generations as it
with Martin Luther King’s group and emphasizes the leadership of young Lesson #3: Drawing the Line with
others. But the decision to remain people. Even as we celebrate the Real Food
independent allowed the students to unique strengths of youth, it’s helpful The iconic 1963 Civil Rights March
fnd their own voice and develop to remember that Martin Luther on Washington drew over 100,000
their own leadership. Without that King, Jr. was recruited into the people to the Lincoln Memorial
independence, we might not have had movement by older pastors. A youth- where Reverend Martin Luther King,
the voter registration drive in the focused organization should be Jr. stated, “I have a dream that my
deep South, the idea of black power, infused with a deep respect for the four little children will one day live in
or a lifetime of leadership from movement pioneers who paved the a nation where they will not be judged
people like now-Congressman John roads we walk on. by the color of their skin but by the
Lewis and NAACP head Julian Bond content of their character.” In that
— not to mention the landmark civil The seeds of such an organization one sentence King contrasted what
rights actions such as the Freedom have been planted. Beginning in the was and what should be—expressing
Rides and Freedom Summer. Young 1990’s, youth and adults in urban a principle planted frmly in our minds
people changed the course of the communities nationwide began to (so strongly, in fact, that it has been
Civil Rights movement. reclaim vacant lots and grow food. claimed by both conservatives and
The Food Project in Boston and liberals in subsequent generations).
Youth are prominent in the food Growing Power in Milwaukee were
justice movement today. This isn’t among the frst, but they were soon The youth call for “Real Food” states
just because they are “included” as followed by People’s Grocery in such a truth. Webster’s Dictionary defnes
afterthoughts into existing projects Oakland, Added Value in Brooklyn, “real,” as “true, actual,” and “food”
and programs. They lead and have and hundreds of others around the as “something that nourishes.” So a
their own, independent voice. country. In 1990 these projects held a “real food” system is one which truly
Thousands of young people from conference and the Rooted in nourishes communities, the earth,
Philadelphia to Honolulu are Community network was born. By and people—both those who eat and
planting gardens, running farms, and 2003 the movement had spread to those who produce. The fact is that
pushing for healthy, fair food in their college campuses with the founding what we have now does
cafeterias. They are of every race, of United Students for Fair Trade. not nourish. This contrast
class, and sexual orientation. They Students all over the country either challenges our acceptance
are urban, suburban, and rural. They revitalized or started new gardens. of the unhealthy corporate
are in communities and on campuses. Photo by Real Food Challenge food system. A world
The farmworker-led boycott of Taco without slavery would
Bell is one example—but contact have been unthinkable to
with the earth and a respect for those
who work it is a deep thread that runs most Americans 200 years
through organizing efforts. ago. In 1960, segregation
was normal in the South
To become a strong, national force, with many black people
the food justice movement needs an accepting it, as people
organization that unifes and amplifes often do when they have
these disparate efforts—a modern- few options. The parents
day food justice version of of many of the sit-in
SNCC. Such an organization should protestors were opposed to their
celebrate and encourage the diversity actions, as were large segments of the
of local work; the best local solutions black establishment.
come from local communities. But it The Student Farmworker Alliance (SFA)
should do what local organizations mobilized a new generation allied with “Real food” highlights the absurdity
often have a harder time doing: focus fellow youth working in the tomato of our current situation, of how it
the national spotlight, spread felds of Florida (the Coalition of deviates from truth. Food should
make us healthy—not sick. That’s
what real food does—and always has.
The dominant industrial food system
is the mutant deviation from real
food.
The more we draw a distinction—and
follow it with action—the closer we
will get to our goal of healthy food
for all.
Lesson #4: Think national; act
local Police dogs biting black kids.
Hoses turned on children. Bull
Connor. These are among the most
searing images of the 10-year period
that marked the height of the civil
rights movement. That all of them
came from Birmingham is no
accident. Birmingham was chosen by
the Southern Christian Leadership
Congress as a local test of conscience
and national law. Birmingham in
1962 was one of the most segregated
cities in America, making it a
strategic choice to provoke a national
reaction.
The food justice movement could
take a page from Birmingham by
mounting local actions designed for
national impact. We need both local
and large-scale social actions aimed at
changing national policies. Former
SNCC member and recent Obama
organizer Marshall Ganz talked
about this tension in a lecture he
gave at MIT in 2009: “The local
effort acquires meaning and
signifcance from being part of a
greater whole, but unless it’s
actually rooted locally and has real
commitment locally, it doesn’t go
anywhere. How that dynamic [the
combination of local action with
national purpose] is handled is one
of the most critical elements in
building an effective movement.”
same day (“Eat-In, Act Out”). In the
summer of 2009, Slow Food USA
got 20,000 people nationwide to
participate in a Day
3
of Action focused on school lunch;
generating over 150,000 letters to
members of Congress for the
reauthorization of the Childhood
Nutrition Act. Between 2001 and
2005, boycotts of Taco Bell by
students nationwide organized by
the Student Farmworker Alliance
yielded the frst wage increases for
Florida tomato pickers in 30 years.
The best local-national events
dramatize the problems we are
working to solve and compel public
attention. They make it personal, tell
our stories, and carry a powerful,
clear message. They draw a clear
distinction. Youth Food
Movements Unite!
NOTES
1. Horton, Myles (1998). The Long
Haul. New York, Teachers College,
Columbia University.
2. Lewis, Andrew B. (2009). The
Shadows of Youth: The Remarkable
Journey of the Civil Rights Generation.
New York, Hill and Wang, A division of
Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.

What would thinking nationally and

acting locally look like for the food
justice movement? Several
organizations have already started
down this path. Rooted in
Community and the Food Project
have sponsored national “days of
action,” where local groups are
encouraged to do an action or host
an awareness-raising event on the