by Jeff Nield, Vancouver, British Columbia for TreeHugger.com
In North America the food economy has long been dominated by commodities. A big part of the sustainable and local food movement is a direct response to systems that are controlled by outside interests. New models for food system are continually emerging. Martin Prosperity Institute, a "think-tank on the role of sub-national factors in global economic prosperity", recently published a report on one of these models, From Kraft to Craft: innovation and creativity in Ontario’s Food Economy. At the core of the report is the concept of a "creative food economy".
The Institute feels that sustainable food economies have "profound implications for sustainable economic development" in general because of food's intimate connection to place.
Those passionate about food and food research are inspired because food, unlike any other commodity on the planet, is intimate: we eat it and therefore how we eat it has implications for a host of policy related issues around local job creation, health, hunger, ecosystem protection, carbon footprint, labour practices, cultural awareness and diversity. As Kevin Morgan so eloquently states, “food is a prism through which we can explore the scope and complexity of many of our most pressing economic, social and ecological issues”. Once we understand this, we can begin to make significant policy change...read the full article at TreeHugger.com
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