Economic and environmental performance of controlled-environment supply chains for leaf lettuce
We assess landed costs and selected environmental metrics for field-based andcontrolled-environment agriculture greenhouse (GH) supply chains for leaf lettucedelivered to New York City. Landed costs for a GH are 46 to 174 per cent higher thanfield production, with the lower value for an automated GH located in the peri-urbanarea. Energy use and global warming potential per kg lettuce delivered were larger forthe GH, particularly if located in a peri-urban area. Water use was much higher for thefield-based supply chain. Controlled-environment GH technologies will require further development to meet goals for lower costs and environmental impact.
Strengthening Local Fresh Food Markets for Resilient Food Systems
Proclaimed at the highest international levels, the global food system is experiencing the worst crisis in history. Unlike the food price crisis of 2007-8, in 2022 there is convergence of multiple crises. Hunger and malnutrition have soared in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19).
School Meals Programmes and the Education Crisis
The immediate context for this financial landscape analysis is the learning crisis triggered by school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic and the shrinking fiscal space available to governments. We look at the potential for school feeding programmes to play an expanded role in addressing the learning crisis – and at the public financing options available. The analysis draws on seven rapid assessment country studies commissioned by the SFI.
Meeting the Expectations of the Customer
Regional vegetable production can only displace high-quality centralized production if consumers specifically desire regional produce. California leads the United States (US) in vegetable production and sets the industry standard for broccoli; however, there is increasing production in the Eastern US to shorten the broccoli supply chain for East Coast consumers.
Food Action Cities: Case Study Archive
Discover how other cities improved their food system and learn from their experience
Marketing NY grains and legumes to the NYC market
During the pandemic, GrowNYC’s retail market saw demand for locally grown grains and legumes more than triple. With the upcoming expansion of its wholesale market, the organization is well positioned to help NY growers access wholesale buyers. It’s a significant marketplace with NYC schools purchasing $1 million annually on beans alone. That’s why the New York Farm Viability Institute board of directors was pleased to fund a proposal that will help connect legume and small grain growers to the New York City marketplace in its recent competitive grant round.
The Movement to Revive Local Grains — and the Infrastructure Required to Keep It Going
Walk into an artisan bakery in New York or Seattle, Portland, Maine, or Portland, Oregon, and more likely than not, you’ll discover your baguette or boule was made from locally sourced flour.
A bakery using local flour was a rarity even a decade ago. But the current expansive landscape for these products is not an accident. It’s the result of years’ worth of dedication on the part of regional food systems advocates to revive wheats both ancient (emmer, einkorn, spelt) and heritage (red fife, white Sonora, warthog and some of more than 30,000 others), along with varieties of rye, barley, buckwheat and oats.
Farm program pushes small grains as next big thing
The Hudson Valley was once the breadbasket of the U.S. But poor farming practices, the building of the Erie Canal and cheaper long-range transportation brought grains to the Midwest, where they became a crop mainstay. Over time, food growing and processing operations consolidated into what has become a more industrialized food system.
Building sustainable and resilient food systems: Integrating Market Systems at the Centre of Urban-Rural Linkages
On the 21st of April, Earth Day 2022, a technical consultation was hosted by UN-Habitat. The subject was integrating market systems at the centre of urban-rural linkages as a pathway to building sustainable and resilient food systems. A concept note for the
consultation can be found here. The topic of market systems builds on the worldwide crisis of food markets during the pandemic and the widespread innovations and lessons from food market responses
to crisis.
The crisis of food systems and the need for their transformation became a global conversation in the first United Nations Food Systems Summit in 2021. To bring market actors from the front lines of impact and response to the shocks of COVID-19 and other
crises, three global market platforms were invited to be co-organizers of the consultation. They are the World Union of Wholesale Markets (WUWM), the Market Cities Initiative, and the World Farmers Markets Coalition (WFMC).