TOWARDS A SUSTAINABLE NIAGARA FOODSHED: LEARNING FROM EXPERIENCE

Experience from outside the Niagara Region focused on developing sustainable food systems provides some important testimony to both the difficulties of establishing and managing food systems for environmental and community health, and of the achievements which are possible. Both kinds of experience offer important lessons for thinking about Niagara's potential for an alternative and sustainable food production system. In this paper, we look at two related perspectives in the context of a Niagara foodshed. In light of the environmental and social problems associated with industrial food systems, we examine the conceptual basis for rethinking food production. We also draw on case studies of alternative food system practices and processes from outside the region designed to link consumers and producers more directly from within specific localized food production areas. Drawing on these ideas and experiences can help to create stronger linkage between the rural and the urban in Niagara so as to foster long-term food security, community development, and visible food system functions, consciousness of the importance of food production relations and environmental health. A sustainable Niagara foodshed premised on social, environmental, and cultural diversity is the objective of this work.