Foodshed analysis and its relevanceto sustainability

Providing a wholesome and adequate food supply is the most basic tenet of agricultural sustainability. However, sharpincreases in global food prices have occurred in the past 2 years, bringing the real price of food to the highest level seen in30 years (FAO, 2008). This dramatic shift is a fundamental concern. The role of ‘local food’ in contributing to the solutionof underlying problems is currently being debated, and the debate raises a critical question: To what degree can societycontinue to rely on large-scale, long-distance transportation of food? Growing concerns about climate change, the longevityof fossil fuel supplies and attempts to produce energy from agriculture suggest that energy efficiency will be critical toadapting to resource constraints and mitigating climate impacts. Moreover, these problems are urgent because energy prices,biofuel production and weather-related crop failures are partially responsible for the current world food price situation.Tools are needed to determine how the environmental impact and vulnerability of the food system are related to where foodis produced in relation to where it is consumed. To this end, analyses of foodsheds, the geographic areas that feed populationcenters, can provide useful and unique insights