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Introduction to the Symposium on American Food Resilience

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  • Gerald Marten
  • Nurcan Atalan-Helicke

Abstract

The resilience of the American food supply—the ability of the food system to withstand shocks or stresses that could lead to disruption or collapse—is a matter of genuine concern. While all seems well with supermarkets stocked to the brim, changes in the food system and our environment during recent decades have created risks that are no longer hypothetical possibilities. They are with us now. The 27 articles in the Symposium on American Food Resilience explore the vulnerability and resilience of food production and distribution from a diversity of perspectives. Four central questions provide a framework for the exploration: • What are the main lines of vulnerability? • What are leverage points for reducing the risks and improving the capacity to deal with breakdowns if they occur? • What is already being done by government, civil society, and the private sector to reduce the risks? • What can scientists, teachers, and other environmental and food system professionals do through research, education, community action, or other means to make the food system and food supply more resilient? Some of the articles use case studies that highlight various kinds of disturbances: influenza pandemic, war, nuclear-reactor catastrophe, natural disasters (e.g., floods and earthquakes), and crop failure due to drought or other climatic perturbations. Lessons for improving resilience are drawn from the experiences. Other articles examine the significance of globalization, food system consolidation, diversity, and food storage; the interplay of efficiency, adaptive capacity, sustainability, and resilience; the potential and limitations of local or regional food systems to compensate for shortcomings in the mainstream food system; organizational learning and networking, integrating local food systems with the mainstream, channeling promising innovations into the mainstream; and success stories and the lessons they offer. The articles afford a wealth of material that can be mined by researchers, teachers, practitioners, and policy makers for application to their own circumstances. Copyright AESS 2015

Suggested Citation

  • Gerald Marten & Nurcan Atalan-Helicke, 2015. "Introduction to the Symposium on American Food Resilience," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 5(3), pages 308-320, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:jenvss:v:5:y:2015:i:3:p:308-320
    DOI: 10.1007/s13412-015-0310-4
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Fuglie, Keith O. & Heisey, Paul W. & King, John L. & Day-Rubenstein, Kelly & Schimmelpfennig, David & Wang, Sun Ling, 2011. "Research Investments and Market Structure in the Food Processing, Agricultural Input, and Biofuel Industries Worldwide: Executive Summary," Economic Information Bulletin 291936, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    2. Rebecca Dunning & J. Bloom & Nancy Creamer, 2015. "The local food movement, public-private partnerships, and food system resiliency," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 5(4), pages 661-670, December.
    3. Goerner, Sally J. & Lietaer, Bernard & Ulanowicz, Robert E., 2009. "Quantifying economic sustainability: Implications for free-enterprise theory, policy and practice," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(1), pages 76-81, November.
    4. Molly Anderson, 2015. "The role of knowledge in building food security resilience across food system domains," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 5(4), pages 543-559, December.
    5. James Ward, 2015. "Can urban agriculture usefully improve food resilience? Insights from a linear programming approach," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 5(4), pages 699-711, December.
    6. Janet MacFall & Joanna Lelekacs & Todd LeVasseur & Steve Moore & Jennifer Walker, 2015. "Toward resilient food systems through increased agricultural diversity and local sourcing in the Carolinas," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 5(4), pages 608-622, December.
    7. Michelle Miller & Jeremy Solin, 2015. "The power of story for motivating adaptive response–marshaling individual and collective initiative to create more resilient and sustainable food systems," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 5(4), pages 671-684, December.
    8. Robert Dyball, 2015. "From industrial production to biosensitivity: the need for a food system paradigm shift," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 5(4), pages 560-572, December.
    9. Krystyna Stave & Birgit Kopainsky, 2015. "A system dynamics approach for examining mechanisms and pathways of food supply vulnerability," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 5(3), pages 321-336, September.
    10. Marten, Gerald G., 1988. "Productivity, stability, sustainability, equitability and autonomy as properties for agroecosystem assessment," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 26(4), pages 291-316.
    11. Casey Hoy, 2015. "Agroecosystem health, agroecosystem resilience, and food security," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 5(4), pages 623-635, December.
    12. Mary Hendrickson, 2015. "Resilience in a concentrated and consolidated food system," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 5(3), pages 418-431, September.
    13. Amy MacMahon & Kiah Smith & Geoffrey Lawrence, 2015. "Connecting resilience, food security and climate change: lessons from flooding in Queensland, Australia," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 5(3), pages 378-391, September.
    14. Kathryn Ruhf, 2015. "Regionalism: a New England recipe for a resilient food system," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 5(4), pages 650-660, December.
    15. Brett Tolley & Regina Gregory & Gerald Marten, 2015. "Promoting resilience in a regional seafood system: New England and the Fish Locally Collaborative," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 5(4), pages 593-607, December.
    16. Nurcan Helicke, 2015. "Seed exchange networks and food system resilience in the United States," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 5(4), pages 636-649, December.
    17. Dan Keppen & Tricia Dutcher, 2015. "The 2014 drought and water management policy impacts on California’s Central Valley food production," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 5(3), pages 362-377, September.
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    1. Krystyna Stave & Birgit Kopainsky, 2015. "A system dynamics approach for examining mechanisms and pathways of food supply vulnerability," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 5(3), pages 321-336, September.
    2. Kathryn Ruhf, 2015. "Regionalism: a New England recipe for a resilient food system," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 5(4), pages 650-660, December.
    3. Gerald Marten & Nurcan Atalan-Helicke, 2015. "Introduction to the Symposium on American Food Resilience (Part 2)," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 5(4), pages 537-542, December.
    4. Laura Lengnick & Michelle Miller & Gerald Marten, 2015. "Metropolitan foodsheds: a resilient response to the climate change challenge?," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 5(4), pages 573-592, December.
    5. Janet MacFall & Joanna Lelekacs & Todd LeVasseur & Steve Moore & Jennifer Walker, 2015. "Toward resilient food systems through increased agricultural diversity and local sourcing in the Carolinas," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 5(4), pages 608-622, December.
    6. Alessandro Passaro & Filippo Randelli, 2022. "Spaces of Governance for Sustainable Transformation of Local Food Systems: the Case of 8 biodistricts in Tuscany," Working Papers - Economics wp2022_12.rdf, Universita' degli Studi di Firenze, Dipartimento di Scienze per l'Economia e l'Impresa.
    7. Natalia Brzezina & Birgit Kopainsky & Erik Mathijs, 2016. "Can Organic Farming Reduce Vulnerabilities and Enhance the Resilience of the European Food System? A Critical Assessment Using System Dynamics Structural Thinking Tools," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(10), pages 1-32, September.

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