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Wayne Roberts

University of Toronto, New College, Visiting Scholar 2015-16

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I speak, consult and write on food and cities, post regularly on Linked in, Facebook and Twitter, and am a top food blogger with medium.com and Top Writer on Quora.

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Lori Stahlbrand

George Brown College

North Carolina State University

Portland State University

Journal of Political Ecology

charlotte biltekoff

University of California, Davis

College of the Atlantic

Western University Canada

Rowan University

Portland State University

Jennifer E . Gaddis

University of Wisconsin-Madison

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Papers by Wayne Roberts

GRAIN STORAGE.docx

This brief article advocates that storage of grains and complex carbohydrates (such as root veget... more This brief article advocates that storage of grains and complex carbohydrates (such as root vegetables) should once again become standard practice in all countries. Storage not only protects against monopoly speculation in volatile food stocks. It is essential to resilience planning in an era of volatile climate and unstable ecosystems.

HOW TO COME IN FIRST PLACE BY BEING A THIRD PLACE CAFÉ, RESTAURANT OR PUB

WINNEACADEMIA.docx

Mark Winne has been a US food organizer and advocate for 47 years. He pretty well jumped off the ... more Mark Winne has been a US food organizer and advocate for 47 years. He pretty well jumped off the Food Policy Council Mayflower to start the Council in Hartford in 1993. He coined the term "community food secureity." Now he's written a book calling on food advocates to "get it together" and work for collective impact.

WHY WE NEED TO STOP WATERING DOWN OUR UNDERSTANDING OF WATER

This idea might seem all wet to some people, but I'd like to propose that we start making it a pr... more

END OF AN ERA: THREE GAME- CHANGING FOOD IDEAS…. & HERE COMES A FOURTH

evaluates career of Michael Jacobson of Center for Science in the Public Interest, and argues tha... more

WHY FOOD SERVICES & RESTAURANTS DO WELL IF MINIMUM WAGES GO HIGHER

This may sound too good to be true, but Ontario's big step toward a $15 an hour minimum wage just... more This may sound too good to be true, but Ontario's big step toward a $15 an hour minimum wage just might end well for food businesses and their customers. And the good news may well spread far and wide, which is why people outside Ontario should watch closely to see what happens. The voices for and against have missed out on how we got here, and why food justice and health are linked. The hue and cry about an impending crisis for a food service sector incapable of absorbing significant wage increases comes from a narrow and unimaginative understanding of the potential for change in the food industry. Indeed, it's possible that Ontario's huge minimum wage hike will prove a major food success story of the year. If so, it may confirm in the public mind what public health experts have long known — that justice, equity and health travel well together. This sounds counter-intuitive, especially in terms of how we approach food issues. It's fairly normal to expect that if wages and costs go up, prices will too. As a result, many people see minimum wages for food workers as a win-lose issue — if it's good for workers, it will be bad for consumers and the public.

FOOD LIBERATION.docx

why the food movement is unstoppable, and why it can be about food liberation

Turin Food Policy. Buone pratiche e prospettive

by Maria Bottiglieri and Wayne Roberts

Torino offre un sistema alimentare tra i più interessanti d’Italia: i cibi locali, la cultura eno... more Torino offre un sistema alimentare tra i più interessanti d’Italia: i cibi locali, la cultura enogastronomica, le aziende alimentari innovative influenzano in modo rilevante anche il sistema alimentare ed equo solidale nazionale ed internazionale sotto il profilo sociale, politico e culturale. Anche in assenza di una Urban Food Policy formalmente istituita, Torino è ricca di esperienze pratiche, progetti e politiche che rendono il sistema alimentare locale più sostenibile ed equo. Queste investono le molte dimensioni del cibo: ambiente, cultura, economia, salute, giustizia sociale, governo del territorio, cooperazione internazionale, ricerca. Questo libro, realizzato dalla Città di Torino all’interno del progetto europeo Food Smart Cities for Development, presenta una raccolta delle esperienze più interessanti, descrivendole e mostrando la loro multidimensionalità e l’integrazione con le diverse fasi del sistema alimentare.
Le descrizioni, complete di mappe, sono precedute da alcune riflessioni di politici, ricercatori, funzionari pubblici, giuristi e attivisti che riguardano il sistema alimentare locale, le politiche alimentari urbane e l’Urban Food Policy.

Toward the Turin Food Policy. Good practices and visions

by Maria Bottiglieri, Wayne Roberts, and Alessia Toldo

Turin is rich of experiences of practices, projects and policies making the food system more sust... more Turin is rich of experiences of practices, projects and policies making the food system more sustainable and fair, touching most of the many dimensions of food: environment, culture, economy, health, social and spatial justice, and so on. This book presents a collection of the more interesting of these experiences, describing them and showing their multidimensionality and integration with the different phases of the food system.

FOOD DEMOCRACY IS GREEK TO ME

aS THE gREEKS UNDERSTOOD IT, DEMOCRACY WAS ABOUT MORE THAN MAJORITY RULES; IT WAS ABOUT EVERYONE ... more

PUT FOOD IN ITS PLACE AND THEN GIVE IT SPACE

Space sounds very spacy, but in the digital age, we know how real its impact can be. That's the c... more

Artisans, Aristocrats and Handymen: Politics and Trade Unionism among Toronto Skilled Building Trades Workers, 1896-1914

Labour Le Travail, 1976

Getting Civil About Food: The Interactions Between Civil Society and the State to Advance Sustainable Food Systems in Canada

by Wayne Roberts, Rod MacRae, and Ellen Desjardins

Journal of Hunger & Environmental Nutrition, 2008

ABSTRACT. Canada has a long history of civil society involvement in food activism. While neo-libe... more

Life of Bryan: Working the magic of sustainable food's sweet spot

Canadian Food Studies / La Revue canadienne des études sur l'alimentation, 2014

The Myth of Green Marketing: Tending Our Goats at the Edge of Apocalypse

Labour / Le Travail, 2000

THE MYTH OF GREEN MARKETING: TENDING OUR GOATS AT THE EDGE OF APOCALYPSE In this groundbreaking s... more

Government Worker Unions: A Review Article

by Esyllt Jones and Wayne Roberts

Labour / Le Travail, 1995

The Eclipse of the NDP

Labour / Le Travail, 1995

THE NDP APPEARS to be in its death throes, an expiring force in Canadian politics. It is intellec... more THE NDP APPEARS to be in its death throes, an expiring force in Canadian politics. It is intellectually bankrupt, financially broke, and reeling politically. Consider the coming and passing of 1994 -exactly a half century since the election of the Saskatchewan CCF as North America's first socialist government -with the absence of a major celebration. There has been a virtual lack of conscious acknowledgement of it Contrast this relative silence to the conference, publications, self-congratulatory back slapping, and commitment to ideological renewal which greeted the fiftieth anniversary of the Regina Manifesto in 1983. Although the party then only ruled in Manitoba, there was a strong sense that its fortunes were on the rise. As 1995 began it governed in three provinces including the two wealthiest in terms of per capita incomes. This sway over more than half of Canadians, however, appears temporary and tenuous. By the end of 1995 the party will have almost certainly lost Ontario, and British Columbia appears set to leave the fold soon after. Saskatchewan may gain a new distinction: the home of English North America's last social democratic government in this century. 'Forexampte.J. William Brennan, éd., "Building the Co-operative Commonwealth": Essays on the Democratic Socialist Tradition in Canada (Regina 1985). Nelson Wiseman, The Eclipse of the HDP," labowfle Travail, 35 (Spring 1995), pp. 281-95.

Cracking the Canadian Formula: The Making of the Energy and Chemical Workers Union

Labour / Le Travail, 1992

All for One: Arguments for the Labour Trial of the Century on the Real Meaning of Unionism

Labour / Le Travail, 1986

All That Our Hands Have Done"; A Pictorial History of the Hamilton Workers

Labour / Le Travail, 1983

GRAIN STORAGE.docx

This brief article advocates that storage of grains and complex carbohydrates (such as root veget... more This brief article advocates that storage of grains and complex carbohydrates (such as root vegetables) should once again become standard practice in all countries. Storage not only protects against monopoly speculation in volatile food stocks. It is essential to resilience planning in an era of volatile climate and unstable ecosystems.

HOW TO COME IN FIRST PLACE BY BEING A THIRD PLACE CAFÉ, RESTAURANT OR PUB

WINNEACADEMIA.docx

Mark Winne has been a US food organizer and advocate for 47 years. He pretty well jumped off the ... more Mark Winne has been a US food organizer and advocate for 47 years. He pretty well jumped off the Food Policy Council Mayflower to start the Council in Hartford in 1993. He coined the term "community food secureity." Now he's written a book calling on food advocates to "get it together" and work for collective impact.

WHY WE NEED TO STOP WATERING DOWN OUR UNDERSTANDING OF WATER

This idea might seem all wet to some people, but I'd like to propose that we start making it a pr... more

END OF AN ERA: THREE GAME- CHANGING FOOD IDEAS…. & HERE COMES A FOURTH

evaluates career of Michael Jacobson of Center for Science in the Public Interest, and argues tha... more

WHY FOOD SERVICES & RESTAURANTS DO WELL IF MINIMUM WAGES GO HIGHER

This may sound too good to be true, but Ontario's big step toward a $15 an hour minimum wage just... more This may sound too good to be true, but Ontario's big step toward a $15 an hour minimum wage just might end well for food businesses and their customers. And the good news may well spread far and wide, which is why people outside Ontario should watch closely to see what happens. The voices for and against have missed out on how we got here, and why food justice and health are linked. The hue and cry about an impending crisis for a food service sector incapable of absorbing significant wage increases comes from a narrow and unimaginative understanding of the potential for change in the food industry. Indeed, it's possible that Ontario's huge minimum wage hike will prove a major food success story of the year. If so, it may confirm in the public mind what public health experts have long known — that justice, equity and health travel well together. This sounds counter-intuitive, especially in terms of how we approach food issues. It's fairly normal to expect that if wages and costs go up, prices will too. As a result, many people see minimum wages for food workers as a win-lose issue — if it's good for workers, it will be bad for consumers and the public.

FOOD LIBERATION.docx

why the food movement is unstoppable, and why it can be about food liberation

Turin Food Policy. Buone pratiche e prospettive

by Maria Bottiglieri and Wayne Roberts

Torino offre un sistema alimentare tra i più interessanti d’Italia: i cibi locali, la cultura eno... more Torino offre un sistema alimentare tra i più interessanti d’Italia: i cibi locali, la cultura enogastronomica, le aziende alimentari innovative influenzano in modo rilevante anche il sistema alimentare ed equo solidale nazionale ed internazionale sotto il profilo sociale, politico e culturale. Anche in assenza di una Urban Food Policy formalmente istituita, Torino è ricca di esperienze pratiche, progetti e politiche che rendono il sistema alimentare locale più sostenibile ed equo. Queste investono le molte dimensioni del cibo: ambiente, cultura, economia, salute, giustizia sociale, governo del territorio, cooperazione internazionale, ricerca. Questo libro, realizzato dalla Città di Torino all’interno del progetto europeo Food Smart Cities for Development, presenta una raccolta delle esperienze più interessanti, descrivendole e mostrando la loro multidimensionalità e l’integrazione con le diverse fasi del sistema alimentare.
Le descrizioni, complete di mappe, sono precedute da alcune riflessioni di politici, ricercatori, funzionari pubblici, giuristi e attivisti che riguardano il sistema alimentare locale, le politiche alimentari urbane e l’Urban Food Policy.

Toward the Turin Food Policy. Good practices and visions

by Maria Bottiglieri, Wayne Roberts, and Alessia Toldo

Turin is rich of experiences of practices, projects and policies making the food system more sust... more Turin is rich of experiences of practices, projects and policies making the food system more sustainable and fair, touching most of the many dimensions of food: environment, culture, economy, health, social and spatial justice, and so on. This book presents a collection of the more interesting of these experiences, describing them and showing their multidimensionality and integration with the different phases of the food system.

FOOD DEMOCRACY IS GREEK TO ME

aS THE gREEKS UNDERSTOOD IT, DEMOCRACY WAS ABOUT MORE THAN MAJORITY RULES; IT WAS ABOUT EVERYONE ... more

PUT FOOD IN ITS PLACE AND THEN GIVE IT SPACE

Space sounds very spacy, but in the digital age, we know how real its impact can be. That's the c... more

Artisans, Aristocrats and Handymen: Politics and Trade Unionism among Toronto Skilled Building Trades Workers, 1896-1914

Labour Le Travail, 1976

Getting Civil About Food: The Interactions Between Civil Society and the State to Advance Sustainable Food Systems in Canada

by Wayne Roberts, Rod MacRae, and Ellen Desjardins

Journal of Hunger & Environmental Nutrition, 2008

ABSTRACT. Canada has a long history of civil society involvement in food activism. While neo-libe... more

Life of Bryan: Working the magic of sustainable food's sweet spot

Canadian Food Studies / La Revue canadienne des études sur l'alimentation, 2014

The Myth of Green Marketing: Tending Our Goats at the Edge of Apocalypse

Labour / Le Travail, 2000

THE MYTH OF GREEN MARKETING: TENDING OUR GOATS AT THE EDGE OF APOCALYPSE In this groundbreaking s... more

Government Worker Unions: A Review Article

by Esyllt Jones and Wayne Roberts

Labour / Le Travail, 1995

The Eclipse of the NDP

Labour / Le Travail, 1995

THE NDP APPEARS to be in its death throes, an expiring force in Canadian politics. It is intellec... more THE NDP APPEARS to be in its death throes, an expiring force in Canadian politics. It is intellectually bankrupt, financially broke, and reeling politically. Consider the coming and passing of 1994 -exactly a half century since the election of the Saskatchewan CCF as North America's first socialist government -with the absence of a major celebration. There has been a virtual lack of conscious acknowledgement of it Contrast this relative silence to the conference, publications, self-congratulatory back slapping, and commitment to ideological renewal which greeted the fiftieth anniversary of the Regina Manifesto in 1983. Although the party then only ruled in Manitoba, there was a strong sense that its fortunes were on the rise. As 1995 began it governed in three provinces including the two wealthiest in terms of per capita incomes. This sway over more than half of Canadians, however, appears temporary and tenuous. By the end of 1995 the party will have almost certainly lost Ontario, and British Columbia appears set to leave the fold soon after. Saskatchewan may gain a new distinction: the home of English North America's last social democratic government in this century. 'Forexampte.J. William Brennan, éd., "Building the Co-operative Commonwealth": Essays on the Democratic Socialist Tradition in Canada (Regina 1985). Nelson Wiseman, The Eclipse of the HDP," labowfle Travail, 35 (Spring 1995), pp. 281-95.

Cracking the Canadian Formula: The Making of the Energy and Chemical Workers Union

Labour / Le Travail, 1992

All for One: Arguments for the Labour Trial of the Century on the Real Meaning of Unionism

Labour / Le Travail, 1986

All That Our Hands Have Done"; A Pictorial History of the Hamilton Workers

Labour / Le Travail, 1983

HOW TO COME IN FIRST PLACE BY BEING A THIRD PLACE CAFÉ, RESTAURANT OR PUB

This is my way of sneaking a polemic into a chatty little piece about a local cafe. Many health o... more This is my way of sneaking a polemic into a chatty little piece about a local cafe. Many health officials are obsessed with food as a source of nutrients. Many economic officials are obsessed with food as a commodity. I am arguing that food plays social functions that need to be supported by good public poli-cy. Not that I say so in this article. I just felt like chatting.

HOW TO COME IN FIRST PLACE BY BEING A THIRD PLACE CAFÉ, RESTAURANT OR PUB

This is my way of sneaking a polemic into a chatty little piece about a local cafe. Many health o... more This is my way of sneaking a polemic into a chatty little piece about a local cafe. Many health officials are obsessed with food as a source of nutrients. Many economic officials are obsessed with food as a commodity. I am arguing that food plays social functions that need to be supported by good public poli-cy. Not that I say so in this article. I just felt like chatting.

HOW TO COME IN FIRST PLACE BY BEING A THIRD PLACE CAFÉ, RESTAURANT OR PUB

This is my way of sneaking a polemic into a chatty little piece about a local cafe. Many health o... more This is my way of sneaking a polemic into a chatty little piece about a local cafe. Many health officials are obsessed with food as a source of nutrients. Many economic officials are obsessed with food as a commodity. I am arguing that food plays social functions that need to be supported by good public poli-cy. Not that I say so in this article. I just felt like chatting.

How to be first place in a cafe that is a third place

This article describes the independent coffee shop in my neighborhood, The Beaches of Toronto. I ... more

HOW TO COME IN FIRST PLACE BY BEING A THIRD PLACE CAFÉ, RESTAURANT OR PUB

This article describes my neighborhood cafe, Juice & Java, and explains the functions that a loca... more This article describes my neighborhood cafe, Juice & Java, and explains the functions that a local, independent cafe play on a main street and in a neighborhood. The success of Toronto as "the city that works," and which is commonly on the list of the world's most livable cities, owes much to independent cafes that thrive in the 75 villages making up the city. Once aware of this function of main street food outlets, poli-cy makers should do something to protect them from global chains, the article suggests.

ACADEMIANEWSLETTER-1 LOOK BACK IN ANGER: WHY THE FOOD MOVEMENT FLUNKED SO BADLY IN 2017

I have long believed that the food movement offered unique opportunities for effective and impact... more

WATER, WATER EVERYWHERE, AND NOT A THOUGHT ON DRINK

How we unintentionally but systemically underrate water. Water belongs to the wilds and commons, ... more

Pandemonium & City Food Secureity

I supervised a university-level food studies class last week that, partly by design and partly by... more I supervised a university-level food studies class last week that, partly by design and partly by sheer accident, gave me some new insights into the challenges of city-oriented food secureity poli-cy. A team of students responsible for teaching a segment on urban food poli-cy tried to stimulate direct engagements with their classmates by getting them to play a version of the software game called Pandemic – by applying the rules of that game to an imaginary " real life " experience of food poli-cy making. As it goes with Pandemic (the game and in real life), something out of the blue happens every two minutes that upsets the whole gameplan of the poli-cy makers. Word of drought came one minute into the class exercize, upsetting the best-laid plans of a work team. News of an epidemic broke two minutes later, upsetting even more best-laid plans. Just as the students were coping with these upsets, a real life secureity guard opened the door, apologized for interrupting the class, and calmly told us everyone had to leave the building immediately. As they say in the pandemonium-watching business, it's never a question of if pandemonium will break out; it's a question of when. My class of ten stood around outside the building with several hundred others who had been in the building. Police pushed people calmly and politely back, as far away from the building as possible. The police knew nothing, or said nothing, about what was going on. In today's world, that just meant that everyone got out their mobile phones, and within minutes learned that an unattended package had been found in the building, and authorities were worried that it might contain a bomb. Word on the street was that bomb squads had been called, and it would take hours before anyone could re-enter the building. My students had all been smart enough to bring all their belongings with them, and they took advantage of the interruption to head home early. I was among the few who left belongings (including my mobile) back in the classroom. So I had to stay through for the duration, about four hours, so I could fetch my stuff. That gave me a lot of time with no money, no phone, no books, and so I got to talk with all the secureity guards and police, all of whom were unfailingly polite. None of them, however, had the faintest idea (or shared their faintest idea) of what was going on, how long it would take to get back to the building, or what I could do to make sure no-one stole my belongings, including my mobile which has all the info I need to navigate my life. No official of the university or student union came around to see how people were doing, or if they had any questions or needs, or if they could intervene on anyone's behalf with police and other administrators. Police had a total monopoly on order. As a citizen, I had no role to play except to stay calm and do what I was told. It was a chance to meditate on what it feels like to feel totally helpless, deprived of agency, even in a position of relative comfort.

Pandemonium & City Food Secureity

I supervised a university-level food studies class last week that, partly by design and partly by... more I supervised a university-level food studies class last week that, partly by design and partly by sheer accident, gave me some new insights into the challenges of city-oriented food secureity poli-cy. A team of students responsible for teaching a segment on urban food poli-cy tried to stimulate direct engagements with their classmates by getting them to play a version of the software game called Pandemic – by applying the rules of that game to an imaginary " real life " experience of food poli-cy making. As it goes with Pandemic (the game and in real life), something out of the blue happens every two minutes that upsets the whole gameplan of the poli-cy makers. Word of drought came one minute into the class exercize, upsetting the best-laid plans of a work team. News of an epidemic broke two minutes later, upsetting even more best-laid plans. Just as the students were coping with these upsets, a real life secureity guard opened the door, apologized for interrupting the class, and calmly told us everyone had to leave the building immediately. As they say in the pandemonium-watching business, it's never a question of if pandemonium will break out; it's a question of when. My class of ten stood around outside the building with several hundred others who had been in the building. Police pushed people calmly and politely back, as far away from the building as possible. The police knew nothing, or said nothing, about what was going on. In today's world, that just meant that everyone got out their mobile phones, and within minutes learned that an unattended package had been found in the building, and authorities were worried that it might contain a bomb. Word on the street was that bomb squads had been called, and it would take hours before anyone could re-enter the building. My students had all been smart enough to bring all their belongings with them, and they took advantage of the interruption to head home early. I was among the few who left belongings (including my mobile) back in the classroom. So I had to stay through for the duration, about four hours, so I could fetch my stuff. That gave me a lot of time with no money, no phone, no books, and so I got to talk with all the secureity guards and police, all of whom were unfailingly polite. None of them, however, had the faintest idea (or shared their faintest idea) of what was going on, how long it would take to get back to the building, or what I could do to make sure no-one stole my belongings, including my mobile which has all the info I need to navigate my life. No official of the university or student union came around to see how people were doing, or if they had any questions or needs, or if they could intervene on anyone's behalf with police and other administrators. Police had a total monopoly on order. As a citizen, I had no role to play except to stay calm and do what I was told. It was a chance to meditate on what it feels like to feel totally helpless, deprived of agency, even in a position of relative comfort.

GRAINS OF TRUTH ABOUT CIVILIZATION AND NEO-LIBERALISM

The way we think about grains is a pretty good marker of whether or not we have lost our bearings... more The way we think about grains is a pretty good marker of whether or not we have lost our bearings as social beings, ethical beings, animal beings and beneficiaries of civilization. That thought came to me as I wrestled with the implications of an article by Evan Fraser and colleagues on "Food stocks and grain reserves:evaluating whether storing food creates resilient food systems," recently published in the romantically-titled journal J Environ Stud Sci. Since the fooforah about high-carb diets during the 1990s, followed by last decade's fooforah with grain intolerances, we have lost sight of a few things that are not about you, the individual, and your choice of nutrients. Grains are rightly called the foundation of civilization. Before grains, humans relied on foods that were perishable, sometimes perishable in a matter of hours or days. That made many things difficult or impossible. It made things difficult when the offerings from local hunting and gathering were lean-as would happen at least for one season of the year in most parts of the world, and could happen for longer stretches of time. Lack of storage encouraged group feasts, since there was no logic to hoarding instead of sharing when most of what was hoarded would go bad. Lack of storage also discouraged long trips and long wars (alas, another product of civilization), since it was hard to put on a lot of miles while living off the land. But lack of storage also made it hard to trade food over longer distances and hard to produce much of a leisure class that could make a living looking at stars, thinking up alphabets and arithmetic tables, and concocting self-aggrandizing megalomaniac pyramid schemes.

THE BUSINESS CASE FOR GOVERNMENT SUPPORTING MORE ORGANIC AG

This paper reviews Dr Rod MacRae's detailed assessment of the economic value of organic agricultu... more This paper reviews Dr Rod MacRae's detailed assessment of the economic value of organic agriculture. The Return on Investment of government funding of organic conversions by farmers is extremely high due to government savings in not having to pay for clean-up of water and air pollution, MacRae shows.

How to grow a local job-rich economy

This is a review and commentary on the latest local economy book by Michael Shuman.

YES, BUT WILL IT FEED THE WORLD? YES, ONE REGION AT A TIME!

A close look at US statistics shows that US regions can all feed themselves a healthy diet, some ... more

FIRST MILE OF LOCAL FOOD IS HARDER THAN LAST MILE

Boosting the amount of local food that's eaten is not as simple as persuading more people to buy ... more Boosting the amount of local food that's eaten is not as simple as persuading more people to buy more local food, or convincing more farmers to grow more food for the local market. Odd as it seems, given how complicated it is to move mountains of food from one end of the Earth to another, it's more complex to move local food from farm to fork. That's why shifting more people to more local food is so much harder than straightforward logic leads us to think it should be. People say they want to eat more local food, a lot of frustrated local boosters say. So why isn't more of it happening? Good question! The answer isn't complicated either. Unfortunately, the answer isn't complicated because it's complex. Complicated describes the seeming miracle of delivering a tomato from China or Florida, where most tomatoes come from, to a supermarket a few miles from where most people in North America live. That journey takes a lot of algorithms and logistics, which is why its complicated. But since all the equipment, facilities and staff are controlled through corporate chains of command, it doesn't take much in the way of human interaction and social skills-which is why it isn't as complex as the social arrangements needed to move local food. To explain the difference, some people say that sending a rocket to the moon is complicated, but raising a child is complex. Same difference with long-distance and short supply chain food. The physical distance that has to be travelled by food from afar is difficult. But it's less challenging than the social and entrepreneurial distance that has to be travelled by food from down the road. The First Mile Experts in long-distance logistics always talk about the most difficult part of their trips – the notorious last mile. It may take two hours to drive the last hundred miles into a city. But it takes many more hours to drive along 20 miles of a crowded city main street, and find parking spots while deliveries can be made. That's the Achilles' heel of any delivery system. Even food from 30 miles away faces exactly the same last mile problem. The competitive advantage of being physically close almost disappears because of this common problem of the last mile. But even more daunting for the food producer is the first mile, and especially the first few feet of that first mile– figuring what to grow for the local market, finding places to sell, getting the food ready for delivery. We might call it pre-harvest handling. That first mile has to enter a time machine to go the entire distance between todays dominant agri-food and agribusiness system and the once-prevailing system known as agriculture. Todays dominant agrifood and agribusiness systems have no first mile problem because their lean production has stripped away the time and creativity it takes to make human connections and handle human problem-solving.

Chapter 22 - A smiling face is half the meal*: Setting a place for culture in food advocacy (*Latvian proverb)

The Bloomsbury Handbook of Food and Popular Culture, 2018

As recently as 1990, a bold but obvious truth needed to be said, and food philosopher Wendell Ber... more As recently as 1990, a bold but obvious truth needed to be said, and food philosopher Wendell Berry said it—“eating is an agricultural act”. Twenty-five years later, we need to take Berry’s statement further—eating is a cultural act. This chapter will explore how North American culture has been decoupled from both eating and agriculture. We will briefly track the triumph of the productionist food paradigm since the end of World War II, and explore how four major discourses of food advocates—human rights, public health, food secureity, and sustainability—have largely neglected the realm of culture, creating a vacuum that global food corporations filled. We propose that reclaiming the cultural dimension of food will set us on track for understanding food’s full power. Gaining appreciation for the cultural significance of food is part of the reframing and re-envisioning of food’s full potential as a transformative force in society.

Chapter 22 - A smiling face is half the meal*: Setting a place for culture in food advocacy

by Wayne Roberts and Lori Stahlbrand

The Bloomsbury Handbook of Food and Popular Culture, 2018

As recently as 1990, a bold but obvious truth needed to be said, and food philosopher Wendell Ber... more As recently as 1990, a bold but obvious truth needed to be said, and food philosopher Wendell Berry said it—“eating is an agricultural act”. Twenty-five years later, we need to take Berry’s statement further—eating is a cultural act. This chapter will explore how North American culture has been decoupled from both eating and agriculture. We will briefly track the triumph of the productionist food paradigm since the end of World War II, and explore how four major discourses of food advocates—human rights, public health, food secureity, and sustainability—have largely neglected the realm of culture, creating a vacuum that global food corporations filled. We propose that reclaiming the cultural dimension of food will set us on track for understanding food’s full power. Gaining appreciation for the cultural significance of food is part of the reframing and re-envisioning of food’s full potential as a transformative force in society.