Circles of Association: The Connections of Community-Based Food Systems

Michigan, like many states, is experiencing a number of deep and persistent problems, including high rates of obesity, unemployment, fiscal deficits and farmland loss. This paper develops a conceptual framework, showing how these problems are related to options available for food and agricultural systems. Community-based food systems (CFS) lie at the center of a number of causal loops which may reinforce a series of potentially positive or negative outcomes. We suggest a number of interventions that would lead to a more community-based food system: (1) strategies to make fresh food and local food more accessible; (2) policy interventions to reverse bias against CFS and promote locally grown good; (3) nutrition and food system education; (4) training for entrepreneurial agriculture. We also discuss countervailing forces such as the influence of those benefiting from the current system: agribusiness and food corporations such as input suppliers, manufacturers, realties and fast food chains. The unintended consequence of gentrification is also discussed. We conclude with a discussion of future research directions, utilizing a system dynamics model to identify levers of and barriers to change and ultimately the most effective pathway toward realizing CFS' benefits.