Explore this space!
This site is intended to bring the user into the context of this space of local food awareness and engagement with the community of food systems that are established in and around the neighborhood of the Hamline Midway area. The exploration of the community systems and structures of local food will bring the user of this site tools with which to become locally focused when producing and consuming food.
However, this site is also peppered with a number of narratives and interactive forums that will engage the reader in conversations around the benefits, challenges, and mechanisms of the local food system. It is through interaction with and cognition of these ideas that the reader will have established a solid foundation of normative schemes through which to move through and explore the space of community food activity.
This field guide to local and sustainable food systems in the Hamline-Midway area was created as a part of a collection of field guides to community food systems for an Environmental Studies class at Hamline University. The main objective was to introduce users to the subject of what makes "good food" by assertion that locality is part of that criteria. This project was intended to utilize social sustainability frameworks to explore the various ways in which food came be made and classified to be good with consideration of personal, social, and environmental perspectives.
The author is a student at Hamline University hoping to engage current and future students as well as local community members in conversations and actions to endorse local food and cognizance of the relevance food has to the sustainability of their lives and the livelihood of the community. A perspective is brought to the table of a student community member that is informed by years of exploration of the neighborhood and engagement with the local sustainable food movement.
However, this site is also peppered with a number of narratives and interactive forums that will engage the reader in conversations around the benefits, challenges, and mechanisms of the local food system. It is through interaction with and cognition of these ideas that the reader will have established a solid foundation of normative schemes through which to move through and explore the space of community food activity.
This field guide to local and sustainable food systems in the Hamline-Midway area was created as a part of a collection of field guides to community food systems for an Environmental Studies class at Hamline University. The main objective was to introduce users to the subject of what makes "good food" by assertion that locality is part of that criteria. This project was intended to utilize social sustainability frameworks to explore the various ways in which food came be made and classified to be good with consideration of personal, social, and environmental perspectives.
The author is a student at Hamline University hoping to engage current and future students as well as local community members in conversations and actions to endorse local food and cognizance of the relevance food has to the sustainability of their lives and the livelihood of the community. A perspective is brought to the table of a student community member that is informed by years of exploration of the neighborhood and engagement with the local sustainable food movement.
Community Food Systems
Working with the parameters given by Whole Measures for Community Food Systems a sustainable community food system should embody six main fields and practices that enrich communities through the shared framework of food:
Justice and Fairness
• Provides food for all • Reveals, challenges, and dismantles injustice in the food system • Creates just food system structures and cares for food system workers • Ensures that public institutions and local businesses support a just community food system
Strong Communities
• Improves equity and responds to community food needs • Contributes to healthy neighborhoods • Builds diverse and collaborative relationships, trust, and reciprocity • Supports civic participation, political empowerment, and local leadership
Vibrant Farms
• Supports local, sustainable family farms to thrive and be economically viable • Protects and cares for farmers and farm-workers • Honors stories of food and farm legacy through community voices • Respects farm animals
Healthy People
• Provides healthy food for all • Ensures the health and wellbeing of all people, inclusive of race and class • Connects people and the food system, from field to fork • Connects people and land to promote health and wellness
Sustainable Ecosystems
• Sustains and grows a healthy environment • Promotes an ecological ethic • Enhances biodiversity • Promotes agricultural and food distribution practices that mitigate climate change
Thriving Local Economies
• Creates local jobs and builds longterm economic vitality within the food system • Builds local wealth • Promotes sustainable development while strengthening local food systems • Includes infrastructure that supports community and environmental health
Justice and Fairness
• Provides food for all • Reveals, challenges, and dismantles injustice in the food system • Creates just food system structures and cares for food system workers • Ensures that public institutions and local businesses support a just community food system
Strong Communities
• Improves equity and responds to community food needs • Contributes to healthy neighborhoods • Builds diverse and collaborative relationships, trust, and reciprocity • Supports civic participation, political empowerment, and local leadership
Vibrant Farms
• Supports local, sustainable family farms to thrive and be economically viable • Protects and cares for farmers and farm-workers • Honors stories of food and farm legacy through community voices • Respects farm animals
Healthy People
• Provides healthy food for all • Ensures the health and wellbeing of all people, inclusive of race and class • Connects people and the food system, from field to fork • Connects people and land to promote health and wellness
Sustainable Ecosystems
• Sustains and grows a healthy environment • Promotes an ecological ethic • Enhances biodiversity • Promotes agricultural and food distribution practices that mitigate climate change
Thriving Local Economies
• Creates local jobs and builds longterm economic vitality within the food system • Builds local wealth • Promotes sustainable development while strengthening local food systems • Includes infrastructure that supports community and environmental health