The 21st century challenges of climate change and resource scarcity bring a new urgency to the widely recognized sustainability challenges of the U.S. food system. Environmental and social impacts associated with geographic concentration and specialization in production, processing and distribution that have accompanied industrialization of the U.S. food system have degraded our nation's capacity to adapt to changing climate conditions. A consensus is emerging in sustainable food systems scholarship that two fundamental changes—a transformation of production methods from industrial to sustainable and a transformation of food system geography from regional specialization to regional diversity—may enhance the resilience of the food system to climate change. A transition to a nationally integrated network of sustainable metropolitan food systems (“metropolitan foodsheds”) could improve climate resilience by enhancing three key qualities associated with resilience in social-ecological systems – diversity, modularity, and balanced accumulation of capital assets. Resilience theory suggests that these qualities promote the capacity of a system to respond, to recover, and to undergo transformation in ways that reduce damaging effects and take advantage of opportunities created by change. Using a case study approach, we examined the general resilience of sustainable food production and supply chains in the U.S.
Results/Conclusions
Sustainable production systems managed by award-winning sustainable food producers expressed all of the behaviors of a resilient system and demonstrated remarkable resilience to weather variability and extremes. These producers attributed the climate resilience of their farms and ranches to high quality soils, planned biodiversity, and diversified marketing. Like many sustainable producers, these farmers and ranchers not only produce crops and livestock; they also participate in processing, distribution and retailing. Resilient behavior was also expressed in sustainable supply chains developed by networked community cooperatives and through government investment in a large non-profit food terminal. As recent food system planning projects in the U.S. illustrate, there is growing recognition of the potential sustainability and resilience benefits of regional food systems designed to develop positive relationships between the metropolitan core and surrounding areas. Although many questions remain, the environmental benefits of diversified production systems have been well documented. We can begin now to shift public support for a transition to more diversified production, to develop regional food system infrastructure, and to conduct comprehensive research to refine resilience indicators and develop food system performance metrics to guide a transformation of the U.S. food system to a more sustainable and resilient future.