Close to Home: The Drive for Local Food

One popular approach in the recent discussion around sustainable food systems has been to encourage a shift to locally and regionally produced food. The logic of doing this is multifold: locally produced food is good for the environment, helps a regional economy thrive, and provides a greater connection between people, their food, and those who produce it, which should also lead to equitable labor practices and greater food security and access. Yet for all of the benefits of a locally based food system, there are certain problematic elements inherent to some of these claims. In this paper I link these social, economic, and environmental elements through a review of what we know about locally based food systems as a function of sustainable agriculture. A careful examination of the literature shows that although local food systems hold considerable promise, they are not inherent mechanisms of sustainability