‘Local food systems’ movements, practices, and writings pose increasingly visible structures of resistance and counter-pressure to conventional globalizing food systems. The place of food seems to be the quiet centre of the discourses emerging with these movements. The purpose of this paper is to identify issues of ‘place’, which are variously described as the ‘local’and ‘community’ in the local food systems literature, and to do so in conjunction with the geographic discussion focused on questions and meanings around these spatial concepts. I see raising the profile of questions, complexity and potential of these concepts as an important role and challenge for the scholar-advocate in the realm of local food systems, and for geographers sorting through them. Both literatures benefit from such a foray. The paper concludes, following a ‘cautiously normative’ tone, that there is strong argument for emplacing our food systems, while simultaneously calling for careful circumspection and greater clarity regarding how we delineate and understand the ‘local’. Being conscious of the constructed nature of the ‘local’, ‘community’ and ‘place’ means seeing the importance of local social, cultural and ecological particularity in our everyday worlds, while also recognizing that we are reflexively and dialectially tied to many and diverse locals around the world.

Farmers' markets (FMs) in the US, Canada and Britain are often held as one key response to the unsustainability of conventional food production systems, as they provide consumers with a potentially more comprehensive valuation venue for their food purchases. This paper categorizes and examines the range of consumer motivations at the Brantford FM in Ontario, Canada using the concept of embeddedness. Though not a simple concept, embeddedness proves useful for framing non‐economic values sought by consumers at FMs in a way that helps to build our understanding of the context‐specific quality of patron motivations at FMs. In the study, values of social embeddedness (social interaction, knowledge of vendors, etc.) and spatial embeddedness (food freshness, supporting the ‘local’, etc.) emerge as core sets of consumer motivations at this FM, while natural embeddedness values (organic production, ‘food‐miles’ concerns, etc.) are less strongly held. This case study helps advance that specific sets of embedded values are expressed at FMs – consumer motivations partly reflect their historic and situated contexts, while contributing to our understanding of the importance of the embeddedness concept to alternative food system arguments for change.

This article presents the findings of a survey of farmers' markets customers in the Niagara region of Ontario, Canada. The recent growth of farmers' markets in North America and the association of these markets with local food systems development provoke examination to gain insights into consumer motivations for patronizing these markets, and to then reflect on their potential role within locally oriented and sustainable food production systems. The survey carried out on customers of three Niagara region farmers' markets corroborates previous studies that noted that socioeconomic and cultural factors such as the importance of food freshness, support of local farmers and the local farm economy, and social interaction-embeddedness-are key expressions of people's support and interest in farmers' markets. This work serves to heighten our understanding of consumer attitudes toward direct marketing via farmers'markets, yields useful speculation about these markets and their roles in sustainable local food systems progress, and also raises critical questions about such customer patronage and associated farmers' markets potential in local food system development.

This paper focuses on examining the dynamic nature of community supported agriculture (CSA) and the real-world experiences which mark its contours, often making it distinct from the early idealized CSA ''model.'' Specifically, our study examines the narratives of the farmers of Devon Acres CSA over its duration, in tandem with a survey of recent shareholders in order to understand and explain its evolution. The framework we develop here shows that this CSA is largely characterized by instrumental and functional beliefs and practices, with some elements in the collaborative mode. A key contribution of this research is the development of a framework which helps to highlight the relative fluidity and patchwork quality of CSA participant positions over time. At Devon Acres, the real-world factors and issues influencing CSA evolution are seen to be products of both the local and larger contexts, evident in such areas as shifts in farmer learning and adaptation, differences between beliefs and practices in member volunteer efforts, and changes in farm and resource conditions. With respect to CSA more broadly, we argue that the reality of dominant food system context and site-specific influences on CSA development compels us to rework our attachment to early idealized ''model'' traits. Expansion in CSA numbers, evidence of adaptation and situated learning, and retention of the local and organic as core traits, speak to the pragmatic yet transformative potential of CSA contribution to food system change.

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Managing the demand for municipal water supply has become a viable alternative or supplement to traditional supply management responses. Though senior governments in Canada are committed to the concept, there is a lack of knowledge concerning the level of use of the demand management concept and little promotion of water conservation. This paper assesses the extent of the use of this concept as it applies to municipal water supply across southern Ontario and examines factors that influence the variation in use of water conservation strategies. Information from 219 municipalities revealed that the concept is not in wide use in southern Ontario and that existing variation can be partially explained by the extent of problems experienced and the population size served by the municipal water supply system. Suggestions for increasing municipal use of the demand management concept are offered.