An Ideal Food System

Around the country organizations have created new models for food production and distribution. The community food movement takes into account all parts of the food system from growing and harvesting to distribution to composting. This movement is changing the conversation, looking for new solutions to issues of food production and food insecurity. It emphasizes fresh, nutritious fruits, vegetables, and lean proteins. It works to educate residents on where their food comes from and is tackling the issue of diet-related disease from the standpoint of education and food access. Food policy is part of this discussion.

Just over a year ago, a group came together to start talking about some of these issues. Out of that group came the concept of the idea food system as a SHOVEL. The group isn't meeting anymore, but the idea has gained some tilth to its frame. It has become very relevant to a new group working on some of these issues. So we wanted to share this with you....

So how does one describe the ideal food system?

What is a food system?   The food system is everything associated with the growing, shipping, processing/packaging, sales, purchase, and consumption of food. Everything about the food we eat each day is part of the larger food system.

And an ideal food system is one in which every person has access to enough nutritious food - all the time. Yes, there are many aspects to making this happen.

In a fit of spontaneity, a group discussing food policy in Dallas created a way to talk about the aspects of our DFW food system. An acronym was born.

What? You’re tired of acronyms? You will like this one. It’s a useful tool!

So here is what you need to dig in…

SHOVEL is…

Secure – a secure food system is one that provides access to healthy, quality food for all and enough food for all. It’s also a system in which food comes from a variety of sources so that if crops fail or there is a food related illness, there is still food available. An ideal food system advocates sustainable agriculture as a secure way to ensure continued production of healthy fresh foods. 

Healthy – healthy food is real food (fresh, nutritious fruits, vegetables, grains, and protein) with as little processing as possible. A healthy food system is one in which residents know where their food comes from, have plates that are usually filled with real food - not processed food, and have experiences growing and harvesting foods they regularly see on their plates. This food system creates healthy environments and ecosystems.

Open – an open food system is one that allows lots of people and lots of companies to be involved in the production of food. It encourages small food enterprises and micro-economies that help everyone have access to real food. Plenty of room exists for citizens to get involved- help on the CSA farm, volunteer at the farmers market, be a part of food policy committee, do advocacy work, and many other activities that support the food system.

Vibrant – a vibrant food system has a food culture that expresses the community’s values about food. The community is excited about locally produced food and recognizes its local food economy as something special and unique of which to be proud. The community looks forward to the changing of the seasons and celebrates these changes as well as the new foods available with each part of the year.  Many connections and conversations happen around food activities because a vibrant food system is a relational, interactive food system.

Equitable – a healthy food system is one that emphasizes healthy eating habits and works toward equal access to real food for all residents. With equitable access comes an increased opportunity for better overall health and wellness, for the individual and for the community. Food producers are always valued for their importance in the food system. Small food businesses whether food producers or food artisans are valued as much or more than large food producers because they are essential to an ideal food system.

Local – Local aspects contribute to and help shape the secure, healthy, open, vibrant, and edible food system. In order for a community to value its food system, it must be in touch with where that food comes from and who grew it. A local food system provides a stronger local economy which reinvests for an even stronger local food system. 

Developed by Susie Marshall and the Dallas Food Policy Discussion Group

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

No Sweet Potato Round-Up

Once again, we have to cancel our sweet potato gleaning event, the Sweet Potato Round-Up, this year. We are really bummed about it.  But the crop is just not big this year, and growers are picking up everything they possibly can for sale. There just really isn’t anything for us to glean.

It is sad for us because we love hosting this event! But it is even worse for the growers. They have not had a good year since 2008. They were due one this year, but not enough rain fell on the east Texas fields to help the potatoes grow to any size. Irrigation is just too costly. Fruit and vegetable growers do not receive crop subsidies.

This situation just can’t go un-discussed any longer. The hardworking families that grow our food are struggling. These days, we as consumers expect low-cost food. We want the best deal. But what we don’t think about is who is on the other end of our food purchase. With the way in which the vast majority of our fruits and vegetables are grown, pack, shipped, and distributed, the farmer who actually grew them gets a few dimes for every dollar you pay. They can barely afford to pay wages for their workers to harvest for them, but they can’t do it without the extra help.

Those who once produced food in the North Texas area can usually no longer afford to do so. We once had a vibrant truck farming system (as did most places in the US) in which growers grew a few crops really well. Harvested them once or twice a week, took them to the nearest town or city, and sold them to local grocery stores and restaurants. Today, so many of our fruits and vegetables are raised in huge mono-cropping environments all over the world. The fields, groves, and orchards are owned by or contracted to multi-national corporations. They are often picked well before they are ripe – ever wondered why that peach from the Superstore never has any flavor?- , packed and shipped at least 2000 miles, if not more, before it gets to the store where you buy it.

This system brings us low-cost food, but it hurts anyone left in North, East, or Central Texas trying to produce food for the DFW area. When you purchase from local producers, you can get tree-ripened fruit and veggies picked just the day before. And the money stays in our local greater North Texas economy. Buying from the growers or through a local co-op or delivery system removes steps from the distribution system, and growers earn more money. We are helping support our neighbors down the road, not some CEO in another part of the country who you will never meet.

I don’t like to listen to the stories of struggle from these growers who have become my colleagues. Each year, they plant again. They understand that we can’t control the weather. They know the tricks to growing a good crop. We have to be willing to purchase locally grown foods, ask for it in stores and restaurants, and know that it may cost a little more, but we are supporting our neighbors and eating really fresh food!

Community food? What’s that?

No, community food doesn't have to do with considering food community property. But it does see food in terms of a larger community system. Community food is a term that has been around for a while now, just not one we usually hear in Dallas, or much in Texas for that matter. If you were to join the COMFOOD listserv, you would see the hundreds of projects and workshops and jobs and trainings that are happening around the country to bring food back to our communities.

Community food is an approach to dealing with the issues of hunger and food insecurity that looks at more than just feeding people for that day. It believes that all of the programs that feed people – school lunches & breakfasts, SNAP, WIC, summer lunch, food pantries etc – are all important to ending hunger. But the community food approach also considers community gardens, farmers markets, creative urban agriculture programs, education in nutrition and food preparation, and local production agriculture as all part of providing equitable access to healthy, fresh fruits and vegetables for those who don’t always have good access. Yes, community food is aimed in a basic way to fix the problems of healthy food access, to begin to address issues of chronic diseases that come with less than ideal nutrition, and similar issues.

But one of the underlying values of community food that I have come to understand is that we are all part of the larger community. And the community is healthier as a whole when more of its members are participating. Community food works for greater self-reliance and self-sufficiency for its members. But this is not a self-reliance that is individualistic. It’s not a Texas-style, I-don’t-need-anyone’s-help, up-by-the-bootstraps kind of self-reliance or -sufficiency. Community food strives to help community members better able to participate as productive members of the community. There is the understanding that everyone deserves the opportunity for healthy food, has the ability to learn to prepare, and will benefit from eating it. In the long term, the community is healthier, stronger, and more vibrant because more people are able to participate. More people are healthier and happier.

Hopefully, with all of the things happening in Dallas around food, you will hear more about community food projects in the coming months!