Jack Kloppenburg

Coming in to the foodshed

Bioregionalists have championed the utility of the concept of the watershed as an organizing framework for thought and action directed to understanding and implementing appropriate and respectful human interaction with particular pieces of land. In a creative analogue to the watershed, permaculturist Arthur Getz has recently introduced the term “foodshed” to facilitate critical thought about where our food is coming from and how it is getting to us. We find the “foodshed” to be a particularly rich and evocative metaphor; but it is much more than metaphor. Like its analogue the watershed, the foodshed can serve us as a conceptual and methodological unit of analysis that provides a frame for action as well as thought. Food comes to most of us now through a global food system that is destructive of both natural and social communities. In this article we explore a variety of routes for the conceptual and practical elaboration of the foodshed. While corporations that are the principal beneficiaries of a global food system now dominate the production, processing, distribution, and consumption of food, alternatives are emerging that together could form the basis for foodshed development. Just as many farmers are recognizing the social and environmental advantages to sustainable agriculture, so are many consumers coming to appreciate the benefits of fresh and sustainably produced food. Such producers and consumers are being linked through such innovative arrangements as community supported agriculture and farmers markets. Alternative producers, alternative consumers, and alternative small entrepreneurs are rediscovering community and finding common ground in municipal and community food councils. Recognition of ones residence within a foodshed can confer a sense of connection and responsibility to a particular locality. The foodshed can provide a place for us to ground ourselves in the biological and social realities of living on the land and from the land in a place that we can call home, a place to which we are or can become native.

Linking the Land and the Lunchroom: Lessons from the Wisconsin Homegrown Lunch Project

ABSTRACT The experience of the Wisconsin Homegrown Lunch project is used to frame an exploration of the challenges facing the nations proliferating farm-to-school initiatives. Prospects for connecting the land and the lunchroom are found to be constrained by structural features that include the industrialization of many school food services, inadequate supply of local produce, and the need for processing facilities. A variety of tactical choices that can be made to enhance the prospects for success are described. The authors call for wider discussion of how farm-to-school programs are performing and what contributions they are making to development of a sustainable food system.

Biotechnology, Seeds, and the Restructuring of Agriculture

and other capitalist nations enjoyed following World War II was realized in agriculture as well as in industry. The deployment of new technologies in machinery, chemical inputs and plant breeding resulted in burgeoning productivity, relative prosperity on the farm, and unprecedented opportunities for capital to realize profit in agriculture. The devedopment of new forces of production compelled a reformulation

The American agricultural research system: An obsolete structure?

Abstract The paper examines the recent debate over the relative merits of the current structure of the US agricultural research system. The main actors and motives are examined, and an historical parallel is drawn with the birth of molecular biology. The results of the highly centralized and competitive National Institute of Health (NIH) model, which is currently under consideration for application to agriculture, are discussed. The authors conclude that the importance of research to agriculture and the fact that the research system is in need of reform make public debate and awareness regarding proposed reforms imperative.

Industry-University relationships and the land-grant system☆

Abstract The nature of the relationships between industry and public agricultural research programs in USA land-grant universities (LGUs) is explored historical