Local Food Innovation in a World of Wicked Problems: The Pitfalls and the Potential

Abstract

Food-oriented markets, such as food innovation districts (FIDs), have been touted as potential methods to address complex societal issues involving the environment, poverty, and health. On this front the Grand Rapids Downtown Market (DTM) was created in 2013, envisioned as a vibrant public space for local food, entrepreneurship, community health, and jobs. An innovative, collective response to the interconnected and urgent problems of poverty, access, health, diet, and environment, the DTM can serve as a case study through which the value and necessity of a wicked problems framework become apparent. Wicked problems literature demonstrates that collaborative and iterative processes are essential to effective and inclusive transformational change of food systems, while also emphasizing that there can be no final, ideal solution. On the other hand, as an FID intentionally located in a low-income neighborhood, the DTM has been subject to criticism about top-down, expensive, and exclusionary practices aimed at gentrification. In the end, this analysis suggests that while FIDs can address local problems resulting from dominant food systems and practices, they can also function as a gentrifying force. Efforts more directly aimed at bottom-up, participatory engagement are essential to making collectively systemic, equitable changes in current food systems and practices. Emphasizing the need for bridge institutions, we argue that it is essential to value actively a wider array of knowledge cultures.

Local Entrepreneurship in the Context of Food Production: A Review

“…Creation of this concept allowed to promote local food systems to boost economy by agglomeration of small producers located in the region. Food innovation districts are supposed to stimulate job growth, increase healthy food options, and create a 'sense of place', concentrating on improving the quality of life of local residents [46].…”

Enabling Food Safety Entrepreneurship: Exploratory Case Studies From Nepal, Senegal, and Ethiopia

“…The market for food businesses in all three countries is strong due to an increase in population, an increase in demand for ASFs, a limited number of food-oriented businesses, and a large dependency on imported foods. Increasing local food businesses can enhance the income of small and medium size businesses and stimulate a slowly growing economy (Lake et al, 2015;Kwil et al, 2020). Small and medium size agri-food businesses now experience significant challenges from the local level all the way up to being engaged with international trade (Sautet, 2013;Deller et al, 2017).…”

How does food localization contribute to food system sustainability?

“…Third, local food “may increase community involvement”, yet it can also be co‐opted by the conventional food system in ways that can reinforce inequity, unless it is part of the broader goals for improving social justice. For example, while local food systems and urban agriculture can promote community well‐being and equity, they can also encourage gentrification and exclusion of local residents, and reinforce other structures that maintain inequality (McClintock 2014; Lake et al . 2015).…”