'Working Toward a Just, Equitable, and Local Food Sytem'

This research paper, published in the Social Science Quarterly journal, examines who in the Vermont community is eating local foods. The researcher, Thomas Macias, looked through three different lenses to understand local food systems. The first one, food equity, helped Macias see which part of the population is eating local food; this lens helps refer to the differences in social class, race, and gender. The next lens was social integration, which helped quantify the importance of human connection and how that can relate to food systems. Lastly, natural human capital was used as a lens, which helps look at what kind of jobs are in the community.

These three lenses were used to look at three different models of the local food system: community-supported agriculture (CSA), community gardens and organic market farms. Through looking at these models with the social lenses, Macias found which model was best for each section of the local society.  In solving the problem of food equity, none of the models of local agriculture were best for getting food to people of lower income. The best model of local farming over all lenses was community gardening, which proved to be a good way to keep the lots of the community involved, interacting at a low price. The only negative of community gardening is that it is a huge time commitment, so individuals working 2 jobs or long days cannot participate as much.