Started in 2023, Communal Roots offers a thought-provoking discussion on current trends in agriculture with the goal of encouraging individuals to consider their own role in the food economy. In the age of today’s sharing economy, trailblazers like Uber and Airbnb demonstrate the power of the individual to step into the active role of both producer and consumer.
In response to globalization, you may have heard of the push to reinvest our money and efforts back into local communities and regions. In all sectors, relying on a globalized system to meet local needs can result in a mismatch where the prevailing one-size-fits-all approach fails to account for an area’s uniqueness.
When it comes to agriculture, the globalized food market provides an individual with the opportunity to purchase food produced in nearly any corner of the globe, with less efficiency and more waste as a tradeoff. In a capitalistic system, less efficiency means greater cost.
Concerns like the rising cost of food, the lack of transparency in global supermarket chains’ practices, and the uncertainty of climate change motivate individuals to participate in their own local food economy as more responsible consumers or even small-scale, part-time, or hobby food producers. Anyone who has attended a farmers’ market has seen a local food economy at work.
Farmers’ markets and other grassroots initiatives like urban agriculture and Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) make up the backbone that supports the local food movement and its economy. While the local food movement operates uniquely in each locality, at the core of this global phenomenon is the aim to revitalize the social element of agriculture by allowing producers and consumers to interact, support, and learn from one another.
If you like the idea of a more sustainable and local alternative to our increasingly globalized food chains, check out Communal Roots’ posts to learn more.
“The agriculture taught at colleges between 1930 and 1980 has caused more damage on the face of the Earth than any other factor.” – Bill Mollison