Food and agriculture are in the news daily. Stories in the media highlight issues of abundance, deprivation, pleasure, risk, health, community, and identity. Remaking the North American Food System examines the resurgence of interest in rebuilding the links between agricultural production and food consumption as a way to overcome some of the negative implications of industrial and globalizing trends in the food and agricultural system.

 

Written by a diverse group of scholars and practitioners, the chapters in this volume describe the many efforts throughout North America to craft and sustain alternative food systems that can improve social, economic, environmental, and health outcomes. With examples from Puerto Rico to Oregon to Quebec, this volume offers a broad North American perspective attuned to trends toward globalization at the level of markets and governance and shows how globalization affects the specific localities. The contributors make the case that food can no longer be taken for granted or viewed in isolation. Rather, food should be considered in its connection to community vitality, cultural survival, economic development, social justice, environmental quality, ecological integrity, and human health.

C. Clare Hinrichs, an associate professor of rural sociology at Pennsylvania State University, has published numerous articles on rural sociology and agriculture. Thomas A. Lyson (1948–2006) was the Liberty Hyde Bailey Professor of Development Sociology and director of the Community, Food, and Agriculture Program at Cornell University. He is the author of Civic Agriculture: Reconnecting Farm, Food, and Community.

 

Contributors: Elizabeth Barham, Jim Bingen, Troy C. Blanchard, Holly Born, Linda Brewer, Viviana Carro-Figueroa, Kate Clancy, Laura B. DeLind, Gail Feenstra, Gilbert W. Gillespie Jr., Amy Guptill, Michael W. Hamm, Janet Hammer, Alison H. Harmon, Duncan L. Hilchey, C. Clare Hinrichs, Matthew Hoffman, Raymond A. Jussaume Jr., Larry Lev, Sharon Lezberg, Debra Lippoldt, Thomas A. Lyson, Audrey N. Maretzki, Todd L. Matthews, Marcia Ruth Ostrom, Kathryn Ruhf, Garry Stephenson, G. W. Stevenson, Joan S. Thomson, Elizabeth Tuckermanty, and Jennifer Wilkins

"Whether looking for alternatives to large-scale commodity agriculture or seeking to improve food access for underserved people, Remaking the North American Food System is useful to practitioners and academics alike as they work to better understand the context and possibilities for creating a better food system."—Patricia Allen, Great Plains Research

"Remaking the North American Food System: Strategies for Sustainability is an essential reference for anyone working on improving their local, regional, and our national food systems. The collection of work provides a rich history of how local food movements have served to reconnect people to the places and producers in their own communities."—Kelly D. Horton, Journal of Hunger and Environmental Nutrition