1. Feed Northampton:
FIRST STEPS TOWARD A LOCAL FOOD SYSTEM
Responding Innovatively to Challenges

2. UNDERSTANDING
FOOD AS A
SYSTEM
Components of a food system

3. Scales of foOD SYSTEMS:
1. Local
2. Regional
3. National
4. Global

4. The Global Foodshed
• A foodshed is the area between where food is
produced and where food is consumed, including:
- where food is grown
- where food travels on distribution routes
- where it is processed and packaged
- where it’s sold and consumed
On average, food consumed in the United States
travels over 1,500 miles and changes hands half a
dozen times before it even reaches the table

5. A D VA N TAG E S
of large-scale
s y s t e m s
• Access to wide varieties of food from
distant lands and warmer climates
• Food is available year-round
• Food is produced and sold at low costs,
making it more accessible to food insecure

6. WEAKNESSES
of large-scale
s y s t e m s
• The reliance on fossil fuels makes the system vulnerable,
due fuel availability and fluctuating costs
• Massive waste stream pollutes the environment and fails to
capitalize on potential opportunities
• Centralized processing plants are susceptible to
contamination affecting people nation-wide
• Less economic trickle down to local economy

7. PLANNING A
LOCAL FOOD
SYSTEM:
a proactive
response to the
vulnerabilities of
large-scale food
systems for
securing our food

8. ADDITIONAL BENEFITS
 Stimulates local
economy
 Reduces
environmental impacts
 Enhances community

9. UNREALIZED OPPORTUNITIES...
• A local food system planned at the municipal level has
the potential to provide food security and support job
growth
• Individuals, businesses, and local governments can
realize that there is an opportunity to plan a local food
system that can foster:
 entrepreneurial endeavors
 educational opportunities
 community assets
 food abundance

10. ...However, there are constraints and
limitations to local food cultivation
CHALLENGES
to be overcome:
• Land is prohibitively expensive
• Diminishing agricultural land
• Voids in infrastructure
• Legal barriers and zoning restrictions
• Short growing season

11. FEED NORTHAMPTON:
First steps Towards a Local Food System
Responding Innovatively to Challenges

12. A process for
developing a
LOCAL FOOD SYSTEM
1. Land Assessment
2. Appropriate Strategies
3. Assembling a
Whole System

13. Context:
Northampton lies in the fertile
Pioneer Valley
Some of the richest
agricultural soils in the
world:
Winooski/Hadley Loam

14. 1) LAND ASSESSMENT
Legend
0‐3%
3‐8%
8‐15%
15‐25%
25+ %
Slope Analysis

15. soils

16. Density & grocery stores

17. COMPOSITE ANALYSIS
← Slopes
← Land Use
← Impervious Surfaces
← Hydrology
← Soils
← Transportation
← Conservation Areas
← Farmland

18. A A’
SUMMARY ANALYSIS
TRANSECT
A A’

19. SUMMARY ANALYSIS
TRANSECT

20. DISTRICTS
Agricultural
Rural
Suburban
• Each District has unique opportunities and
constraints to food cultivation
• Apply site-specific cultivation strategies
appropriate to each district’s characteristics
Urban

21. 2) APPROPRIATE STRATEGIES
• How can we apply the best management
practices and food cultivation strategies from
around the world to each district?
• Permaculture offers some solutions…
• Coupled with case studies of regions with similar
growing conditions to Western Massachusetts

22. AGRICULTURAL DISTRICT
Greenhouse: Four-season Farming

23. AGRICULTURAL DISTRICT
Organic Farming

24. RURAL DISTRICT
Pond Construction Water Storage Earthworks

25. RURAL DISTRICT
Chicken/Duck “Tractors” Two-storey Grazing

26. RURAL DISTRICT
Perennial Polycultures

27. SUBURBAN DISTRICT
Edible Front Yards

28. SUBURBAN DISTRICT
Subdivision CSA Site Plan:
East Lake Commons, GA

29. URBAN DISTRICT
Asphalt Removal
Community
Gardens

30. URBAN DISTRICT
Roof-top Gardening

31. MUNICIPAL STRATEGIES
• Policy Recommendations
• Municipal Programs

32. Local Food System Concept:
Implementing Cultivation Strategies
Legend
Prototype
Start-up Farm

33. 3) ASSEMBLING A WHOLE SYSTEM
• A food system is
more than cultivation
• Four other components
-processing
-distribution
-waste management
-education

34. ASSEMBLING A WHOLE SYSTEM
KEY QUESTIONS for tying all of the components
of a food system together:
• What assets of a food system already exist?
• What are the voids in the system?
• What are appropriate types of infrastructure that fulfill
case-specific functions of a local food system?
• Strategize: where should efforts be focused first for the
greatest returns and community benefits?

35. POST-CULTIVATION HUB FACILITIES

36. Hub CASE STUDY:
Healthy City Intiative @ Intervale--Burlington, VT
Hands-on agricultural training Youth-run farm markets
Gleaning produce to share Community-building

37. Local Food System Concept:
Assembling a Whole System
Legend
Food Hub
Prototype
Start-up Farm
Food flow
Food feeding
Northampton

38. Change on a Town-by-Town Basis
Municipal food systems in New England working in
conjunction with larger-scale food systems

39. LIMITATIONS & OBSTACLES
• Lack of central coordination or organizing
body for a local food system
• Outside economic forces affect the local
economy
• Resistance to changing the “business as
usual” model

40. A COMMON EFFORT
• Using innovative responses to meet the challenges posed to
beginning a local food system…
• City departments, non-profit organizations, and food and
farming businesses can work together in a coordinated effort
to create:
– entrepreneurial endeavors
– employment opportunities
– community assets
– food abundance!

41. Intro to food systems
@ Greenfield Community College