What is a Foodshed?
A foodshed is the geographic extent of a food supply. A foodshed represents all of the land on which food is produced to feed a population - in this case Lopez Island. In the global food system, the foodshed often encompasses the entire world, with branches stretching to nearly every continent: Bananas from South America, apples from New Zealand, coffee from Ethiopia... we are living in a truly global world even here on little Lopez Island. Where does your food come from?
The term "foodshed" was first used in 1929 by W.P. Hedden, head of the New York City port authority, to describe what he observed as the "gigantic traffic" of the food system - the trucks and ships and trains that bring food from the country to the city. The foodshed concept builds upon the idea of a watershed, an area of land drained through a common point. This imagery of flow over land, of tributaries flowing into rivers - equating food to water - presents the need to protect a source, in this case farms and farmland. Thinking in foodsheds enlightens us on the need to conserve the whole food system from production to consumption.
The word foodshed is also used to describe a community's vision for an alternative food system. The movement to conserve our foodsheds has brought about CSAs, farmer's markets, farm-to-school programs, harvest dinners, and other community-centric celebrations of local food.Thinking about where our food comes from is the first step towards this vision.
What if we localized the foodshed that feeds Lopez? What if we could produce the majority of the food we eat right here on the island? On Lopez we are fortunate to live amidst bountiful farms in a beautiful, pastoral landscape. But whether we're eating bread, beans, or bananas, we still depend on food from afar.
Can Lopez become self-sufficient? Is self-sufficiency desirable? Maybe or maybe not. These are the questions being asked by the Lopez Island Foodshed Assessment. Studying the foodshed is the first step towards reimagining our island's food system, including all of the cultural, economic, social and ecological pieces that make this system function.
The term "foodshed" was first used in 1929 by W.P. Hedden, head of the New York City port authority, to describe what he observed as the "gigantic traffic" of the food system - the trucks and ships and trains that bring food from the country to the city. The foodshed concept builds upon the idea of a watershed, an area of land drained through a common point. This imagery of flow over land, of tributaries flowing into rivers - equating food to water - presents the need to protect a source, in this case farms and farmland. Thinking in foodsheds enlightens us on the need to conserve the whole food system from production to consumption.
The word foodshed is also used to describe a community's vision for an alternative food system. The movement to conserve our foodsheds has brought about CSAs, farmer's markets, farm-to-school programs, harvest dinners, and other community-centric celebrations of local food.Thinking about where our food comes from is the first step towards this vision.
What if we localized the foodshed that feeds Lopez? What if we could produce the majority of the food we eat right here on the island? On Lopez we are fortunate to live amidst bountiful farms in a beautiful, pastoral landscape. But whether we're eating bread, beans, or bananas, we still depend on food from afar.
Can Lopez become self-sufficient? Is self-sufficiency desirable? Maybe or maybe not. These are the questions being asked by the Lopez Island Foodshed Assessment. Studying the foodshed is the first step towards reimagining our island's food system, including all of the cultural, economic, social and ecological pieces that make this system function.
