Sustainable Food Systems: Websites

Unlike publications for experienced producers, the Agricultural Alternatives fact sheets are developed for those less familiar with the enterprise. Each fact sheet contains information on marketing, production, enterprise budgeting, and resource requirements to help users make a balanced evaluation of the enterprise for their operation.

The mission of the Center for a Livable Future is to promote research and to develop and communicate information about the complex interrelationships among diet, food production, environment and human health, to advance an ecological perspective in reducing threats to the health of the public and to promote policies that protect health, the global environment and the ability to sustain life for future generations.

Community food security is a condition in which all community residents obtain a safe, culturally acceptable, nutritionally adequate diet through a sustainable food system that maximizes community self-reliance and social justice.

Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission plan to strengthen local food systems.

As cities expand, so do the food needs of urban families. United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization website.

Get a spatial overview of low-income neighborhoods with high concentrations of people who are far from a grocery store.

A national non-profit dedicated to reintroducing Americans to their food: the seeds it grows from, the farmers who produce it, and the routes that carry it from the fields to our tables.

Our Vision: Inspiring communities to build sustainable food systems that are equitable and ecologically sound, creating a just world, one food-secure community at a time.

Founded in 1992, PASA's consistent and driving vision has been to transform agriculture and food systems in Pennsylvania and beyond in a way that makes our farmers more viable, improves the land and restores the health and wellbeing of all our citizens.

Research, teaching, and extension to promote food and agricultural systems that are economically, environmentally, and socially sound, now and in the future.

this is the place to post jobs, find jobs, buy, sell and network

A guide to getting affordable, healthy food. Has information and a map of your neighborhood's food programs.

SPUR report 04/2012

In the United States, obesity and diet-related chronic disease rates are escalating, while the public’s health is further threatened by rising antibiotic resistance; chemicals and pathogens contaminating our food, air, soil and water; depletion of natural resources; and climate change. These threats have enormous human, social, and economic costs that are growing, cumulative, and unequally distributed. These issues are all related to food—what we eat and how it is produced. The US industrial food system provides plentiful, relatively inexpensive food, but much of it is unhealthy, and the system is not sustainable. Although most US food consumption occurs within this industrial system, healthier and more sustainable alternatives are increasingly available.

A news service providing a review of daily news pertinent to the community of practitioners & developers that are planning & practicing alternative farming in cities.

AFSIC specializes in identifying resources about sustainable food systems and practices in support of USDA's effort to ensure a sustainable future for agriculture and farmers worldwide.

Masters of Urban and Regional Planning Major Paper, Virginia Tech, 2009 by Basil Hallberg that explores the potential of community gardening as a tool to augment food security efforts within low-income communities.

An online training module for the Network of Conservation Educators and Practitioners (NCEP), this is a project of the American Museum of Natural History’s Center for Biodiversity and Conservation.

A food system encompasses the activities, people and resources involved in getting food from field to plate. Along the way, it intersects with aspects of public health, equity and the environment. In this course, we will provide a brief introduction to the U.S. food system and how food production practices and what we choose to eat impacts the world in which we live. Through several case studies, we will discuss some key historical and political factors that have helped shape the current food system and consider alternative approaches from farm to fork. The course will be led by a team of faculty and staff from the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future. Guest lecturers will include experts from a variety of disciplines, including public health and agriculture.

Challenges students to look closely at the environment of Baltimore City’s complex food systems, and to consider what it would take to improve these systems to assure access for all to nutritious, adequate, affordable food. Students “go backstage” with tour guides at sites that may include a supermarket, a corner store, an emergency food distribution center, and an urban garden. Students learn about the types of foods available at these sites, who uses them, relevant aspects of their operations, and site-relevant key barriers to and opportunities for providing access to healthier food, ideally with reduced environmental harm. They also conduct oral history interviews about food with elderly city residents to understand how food access has changed over the years.

Provides an overview of the complex and challenging public health issue of food security (sufficient, safe and nutritious food for all) in a world where one billion people are undernourished, while another billion are overweight. Explores the connections among diet, the current food and food animal production system, the environment and public health, considering factors such as economics, population and equity. Focuses on the U.S. experience, but also uses case studies in the U.S. and internationally to illustrate the issues discussed. Considers alternative approaches to achieving both local and global food security. Explores the important role public health professionals can play.

This free online course explores the diversity of the foods we eat, the ways in which we grow, process, distribute, and prepare them, and the impacts they have upon our environment, health, and society. We will also examine the challenges and opportunities of creating a more sustainable global food system in the future.

Designed for high school educators, this free, downloadable curriculum offers a range of educational materials that span issues in the U.S. food system from “field to plate”. The site includes lesson plans, a range of teaching resources and companion educational videos.