Eating Local: Defining A Local Foodshed to Meet Local Food Goals

Date
2014-10-14
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Abstract
An increasing number of regional and municipal local food goals are being promoted around the world based on perceived benefits to society including local food security, environmental benefits and the economic welfare of local communities. One of the challenges to studying the benefits of local food is the ambiguity around the definition of “local.” Another challenge is the lack of primary production information available for a local market relative to current and future local food demand. This thesis demonstrates a method for determining the size of a local foodshed with the operational potential to meet a percentage of current or future food needs relative to specific municipal food goals. To demonstrate this approach to foodshed analysis, the method was applied to a local food target outlined in the City of Calgary’s “imagineCALGARY” Long Range Urban Sustainability Plan. Results show that mapping a local foodshed by individual food type provides a powerful visual understanding of what is local, the distances that food travels and the production area that comprises the local footprint, and, contributes new understanding to local food capacity and a starting point for future discussions on the development and implementation of local food targets.
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Environmental Sciences
Citation
PIERCE, CAROL. (2014). Eating Local: Defining A Local Foodshed to Meet Local Food Goals (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/25776