What is a Food System?
In A Primer on Community Food Systems: Linking Food, Nutrition and Agriculture, Eames-Sheavly and Wilkins provide the following definition of a food system:
The food system includes all processes involved in keeping us fed: growing, harvesting, processing (or transforming or changing), packaging, transporting, marketing, consuming and disposing of food and food packages. It also includes the inputs needed and outputs generated at each step. The food system operates within and is influenced by social, political, economic and natural environments. Each step is also dependent on human resources that provide labor, research and education (1).
The food system includes all processes involved in keeping us fed: growing, harvesting, processing (or transforming or changing), packaging, transporting, marketing, consuming and disposing of food and food packages. It also includes the inputs needed and outputs generated at each step. The food system operates within and is influenced by social, political, economic and natural environments. Each step is also dependent on human resources that provide labor, research and education (1).
__Sources cited
1. Eames-Sheavly, M., J. Wilkins. (n.d.) A Primer on Community Food Systems: Linking Food, Nutrition and Agriculture, In Discovering the Food System: an experiential learning program for young and inquiring minds. Cornell University, Department of Nutritional Sciences and Department of Horticulture. Found at http://www.discoverfoodsys.cornell.edu/primer.html
1. Eames-Sheavly, M., J. Wilkins. (n.d.) A Primer on Community Food Systems: Linking Food, Nutrition and Agriculture, In Discovering the Food System: an experiential learning program for young and inquiring minds. Cornell University, Department of Nutritional Sciences and Department of Horticulture. Found at http://www.discoverfoodsys.cornell.edu/primer.html