2009: Sustainability of Food Systems
Consumer interest in “eating local” has increased sharply in recent years, although locally grown food still accounts for a small share of food sales. Cornell researchers are leading a two-part project that will yield a method for assessing the sustainability of local and conventional food systems. The group will develop an assessment model through a series of seminars and workshops, and then apply it in a study comparing the sustainability of one local and one conventional supply chain for a fruit and a vegetable. The project will quantify the overall sustainability of a shift from conventional to local food systems, shedding light on key policy questions about the nation’s food supply.
Investigators: Miguel Gomez, Huaizhu Gao, Dennis Miller, Jonathan Russell-Anelli, Ardyth Gillespie