Resource Pointer #385 (Local Food Systems)
May 31, 2005

For copies of the following resources, please contact the appropriate publishers or organizations directly.

*Eat Here: Reclaiming Homegrown Pleasures in a Global Supermarket, 2004* Brian Galwell. Points towards a growing movement for local food that exists outside of the corporate, global food system. Argues that eating local food is one of the most significant choices we can make to protect public health and the environment and preserve the cultural and social benefits of small farms. 237 pages. $13.95. Contact Worldwatch Institute, P.O. Box 188, Williamsport, PA 17703-9913; phone (888) 544-2303; fax (570) 320-2079; email wwpub@worldwatch.org; website http://www.worldwatch.org/.

*Food Share, Website*http://www.foodshare.net/. Food Share focuses on the entire system that puts food on our table-from the growing, processing and distribution of food to its purchasing, cooking and consumption. Describes several innovative grassroots projects that promote healthy eating, teach food preparation and cultivation, and develop non-market-based forms of food distribution. FoodShare promotes policies, such as adequate social assistance rates, sustainable agriculture, universal funding of community-based programs and nutrition education, that will make food a priority at all levels of society. Contact Field to Table Centre, 200 Eastern Avenue, Toronto ON M5A 1J1; phone (416) 363-6441; fax (416) 363-0474; email info@foodshare.net.

*Together at the Table: Sustainability and Sustenance in the American Agri-food System, 2004* Patricia Allen. Spotlights successful alternatives to the U.S. industrial agricultural model. Shows how ideas and practices of sustainable agriculture and community food security have begun to weave their way into the dominant agri-food institutions. Explores the potential for these alternative models to improve social and environmental justice. 260 pages. $45.00. Contact The Pennsylvania State University Press, 820 North University Drive, University Support Building 1, Suite C, University Park, PA 16802; phone (814) 865-1327; fax (814) 863-1408; email info@psupress.org; website http://www.psupress.org/.

*A Systemic Approach to Community Food Security: A Role for Public Health, 2002* Ontario Public Health Association. Addresses the role public health can play at the municipal level in the overall process of building food security and presents a plan of action. 21 pages. Available as a free download at: http://www.opha.on.ca/workgroups/foodsecurity.html. Contact OPHA, 468 Queen St. East, Ste 202, Toronto ON M5A 1T7; phone (416) 367-3313; fax (416) 367-2844; email info@opha.on.ca; website http://www.opha.on.ca/.

*The Way to a City’s Heart is Through Its Stomach, 2001* Wayne Robert, PhD. Suggests that urban planners and government officials need to consider food systems and food security in city planning agendas. Serves as an introduction to the policy implications of food security for planners, and includes a review of food security issues in a draft version of Toronto’s official plan, along with a proposal for change. 59 pages. Available as a free download at: http://www.city.toronto.on.ca/health/tfpc_discussion_paper.htm. Contact Toronto Food Policy Council, 277 Victoria Street, Ste 203, Toronto, Ontario M5B 1W1; phone (416) 392-1107; fax (416) 392-1357; email tfpc@city.toronto.on.ca; website http://www.city.toronto.on.ca/health/tfpc_index.htm.

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