Executive summary The food that arrives at the typical American table has gone through a long, energy-intensive process. It is grown using highly mechanized agricultural methods, is shipped to centralized plants for resource-intensive processing and packaging, and travels on average 1,500 miles to reach the U.S. consumer. The waste associated with this process is also often shipped—to overflowing landfills. This global food system is dependent on fossil fuels. From the petroleum-based fertilizers and pesticides needed, to the fuel running farming, processing, and packaging equipment, to the gasoline used for air, water, and ground transport, these non-renewable resources are integral to every step. A food system that depends on such limited non-renewable resources is highly precarious and vulnerable to the unstable prices and uncertain supply of those resources. Since 1988, the price of oil has risen from $12 per barrel to as high as $140 per barrel in 2008, and many have suggested that fossil fuel supplies have already peaked. Moreover, there are significant costs attached to this conventional large-scale, global food system. The extraction and consumption of fossil fuels contribute to environmental degradation and climate change. Conventional agriculture practices may also cause major environmental damage, eroding precious topsoil, wasting increasingly scarce water resources, and poisoning waterways with fertilizer runoff. Large-scale, centralized processing and distribution systems, furthermore, are vulnerable to pathogen contamination. In addition, food that travels long distances may lose its nutritional value over time, and is often treated with chemicals to either speed up or slow down ripening before being sold. In Northampton, there is a growing awareness of the overreliance on the global food system. The Northampton Food Security Group, an organization of local farmers and activists concerned about the future of Northampton’s food supply in the face of diminishing oil availability, climate change, and loss of farmland, asked the Conway School of Landscape Design to help them develop a comprehensive vision for local food that promotes food security, sustainable practices, small-scale farming ventures, and increased vitality in the local economy. Northampton historically was able to grow much of its own food. Today there are several challenges that may inhibit Northampton’s ability to do so again. In the past fifty years, the amount of developed land within the city limits has increased
by 50%. Much of this development has been on flat, cleared land that was well-suited for food cultivation, most of which housed former farming operations. People interested in starting new farms are challenged by a lack of affordable land that is appropriate for food production. Homeowners are restricted by zoning laws that prohibit certain agricultural practices, notably raising livestock of any type on small parcels. Lastly, Northampton’s temperate climate has a shorter growing season than places like California or Florida, and consumers have come to expect an assorted selection of produce throughout the year. These social and economic challenges pose obstacles to boosting local cultivation efforts. The specifics of Northampton’s natural and built environments pose additional constraints to agriculture. Soil fertility, topography, and urban form all help determine what can be grown or raised, with what strategies and yields, and where. This report identifies alternative land and strategies for growing food in the agricultural, urban, suburban, and rural areas of Northampton, using unconventional sites, small spaces, and cooperative efforts that reduce fossil fuel input. The project suggests how more of the city’s food could be grown within its boundary and makes recommendations for supporting diverse local cultivation methods, the particular focus of this report. Looking beyond cultivation, there are limited distribution systems in the Northampton that serve producers, distributors, and buyers. There is a lack of food system infrastructure such as processing centers, storage facilities, and waste management sites. Existing and potential sites in Northampton are suggested to serve as infrastructure nodes, supporting the various types of local food production recommended in this report. This report does not attempt to envision the complete replacement of a complex global food system with local ones. However, the findings of this report may help Northampton initiate cultivation and post-cultivation efforts to reduce residents’ dependence on the centralized food system in the transition towards greater participation in and reliance on its own local food system. While the focus of this project is on Northampton, the tools used here to engage the public, analyze the land, and develop concepts for a local food system may be helpful to other communities that have similar goals of increasing self-sufficiency through local food production and consumption.
Feed NorthamptoN eXecuTive summary
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