Planning the foodshed: Rural and peri‐urban factors in local food strategies of major cities in Canada and the United States

Abstract

Many North American cities seek to increase access to locally sourced foods. But to what degree are cities planning for and supporting peri‐urban and rural food production? We examined this question by analyzing 25 documents from 22 major United States and Canadian cities (>300,000 residents) with local food strategies or action plans, focusing on social, ecological, and technological factors relevant to local food production. Our review suggests that the following topics are often overlooked: farmland access and quality, farm viability, agricultural training and workforce, environmental and public health, processing infrastructure, climate change adaptation, and particular needs pertinent to those concerns among marginalized groups, including Black, Indigenous, and People of Color. Just under half of the cities defined how success or progress toward reaching their food‐related goals would be monitored and measured. Many municipalities considered collaboration as an important governance tool for realizing their strategies toward local food systems, including with actors from within the city and beyond, as cities’ governance scope, resources, and power are often limited. Besides illustrating ongoing municipal efforts to enhance local food systems, our study identifies focus areas in food policy and planning to avoid overlooking social and environmental trade‐offs in local foodsheds, including potentially overestimating self‐sufficiency capacity.