Demystifying the Local: Considerations for Higher Education Engagement with Community Food Systems

Abstract

Citation: Rosing, H. (2012). Demystifying the local: Considerations for higher education engagement with community food systems. Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development, 2(4) AbstractMany universities and colleges have started to channel resources toward understanding and supporting small-scale food systems development in low-income communities. These efforts are often embedded into institutional sustainability initiatives that incorporate new curricula, research agendas, and community engagement. Students, staff, and faculty increasingly engage in community-based research, service-learning opportunities, internships, practicum and/or pro bono technical assistance in support of local food projects. These forms of engagement frequently operate in urban sectors where access to fresh food is challenged, for example, by historical patterns of racial segregation and social exclusion. Drawing on insights from ongoing anthropological research in Chicago on the role of higher education institutions in supporting community food systems development, this commentary presents a short set of considerations for higher education institutions that engage in local food projects within lowincome communities. The author suggests that prior to such engagement, academics more fully comprehend how communities perceive local and alternative food initiatives, and that higher education institutions formulate outreach initiatives that embed food systems development within a community development and social justice framework.

Going "Beyond Food": Confronting Structures of Injustice in Food Systems Research and Praxis

“…More research is needed on successfully executed power analyses and, conversely, on what happens when organizations or institutions promoting "food justice" struggle or fail to come to terms with racial and class inequities. Rosing (2012) offers potential paths forward in this regard, suggesting that academics and activists embarking on food systems development embed that work within a social justice framework prior to initiating projects in lowincome communities.…”

Farming Chicago: Prospects for Higher Education Support of Sustainable Urban Food Systems in the U.S. Heartland

“…Students and faculty need to approach community-university food projects with a critical perspective. The perception that people in economically distressed neighborhoods want to grow food and that helping them to build gardens and farms is a solution to food access challenges should be carefully and critically examined (Rosing, 2012). There is a problematic perception that growing food locally is the solution to food access challenges that are rooted in the global political economy, income inequality and, as Philip Howard suggests, the inordinate power of supermarkets in control of the food system (Howard, 2016, p.22).…”

Community-Campus Collaborations for Food Justice: Strategy, Successes and Challenges at a Teaching-Focused College

“…Gray et al (2012) highlight the challenges of balancing the diverse needs and goals of funders, partners, and community members in a garden project at Santa Clara University. Rosing (2012) cautions academics to avoid extraction from local communities (via student training and data) and to avoid replicating nonprofit initiatives that align with neoliberal policies that disavow government responsibility for addressing social inequity. Bortolin's (2011) analysis of academic articles on service-learning found that even as academics espouse service to the community, they exploit the community for their own ends.…”