VJEL Staff Editor: Alison Lesure

Faculty Member: Professor Laurie Beyranevand

 

COVID-19’s Shot Across the Bow: Create Resilient Regional Food Systems

 

As the COVID-19 virus reached pandemic status in March 2020, food system disruptions in the United States swiftly followed. More than one in five households (and two in five households with children age 12 and younger) were food insecure by the end of April. As COVID-19 surged, the rates of food insecurity surged—increasing from 8 million American adults in 2018 to upwards of 29 million as of July 2020. Many households experienced food insecurity for the first time because of COVID-19’s deep and lasting economic impact. In some communities, lines at food banks extended for several miles. Grocery stores instituted rationing for certain foods. Yet farmers were dumping milk, plowing under vegetables in the fields, and smashing unhatched eggs as traditional buyers (restaurants, hotels, and schools) closed and redistributing massive quantities of perishable food was not easy or economically feasible. Consolidated industrialized agriculture with its monocultures, feed lots, limited number of processing plants, lack of product and market diversity, and a labor force of workers in crowded conditions with few labor protections did not lend itself well to quick adaptation.

Smaller, diversified farms with established direct to consumer sales, while not immune from COVID-19 pandemic impacts, appeared to be more insulated. Shortages at grocery stores caused many consumers to seek out more reliable and consistent sources of produce or meat from local producers. Restaurant and farmers market closures caused local food producers to look for ways to make up for lost sales. The increased consumer interest in local food and farmers’ needs to shift resulted in increased Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) memberships as soon as COVID-19 escalated. Local and regional food systems’ shorter supply chains allowed for easier shifts in markets from institutional buyers to direct sales to consumers, which made them more resilient to the massive supply chain disruptions.

But shorter supply chains are only part of the reason why local and regional food systems are more adaptable and resilient in the face of crisis. Local food systems also create lasting bonds between producers and consumers, encourage supply chain transparency, provide local jobs and revenue, reduce food contamination risk, and promote practices that diminish environmental harms. While it is unknown if the COVID-19 pandemic boost to CSA memberships and local food interest will remain, local and regional food systems provide numerous benefits that can carry us forward to the next crisis.

COVID-19 Food System Adaptations: An Opportunity for Lasting Food System Transformation?

The COVID-19 pandemic serves as a warning that our food systems are vulnerable. It exacerbated pre-existing problems, but it also placed new and immediate constraints on food systems giving us an opportunity to intentionally redesign how we produce, sell, and consume food. In response to COVID-19 food insecurity and public health concerns, the lines between food service and food retail blurred to ensure access to food in local communities. No-touch payment systems, online farmers markets, community food purchasing and distribution, little free pantries, and increased food delivery services are only some of the adaptations. And while some lines blurred, others, like agricultural worker safety, came starkly into focus, raising questions about how much longer we will tolerate food systems that often fail us.

Embracing COVID-19 food system adaptations that move us away from specialized, inflexible food systems to decentralized, sustainable, relationship-based food systems will help mitigate future disruption. An emphasis on regional and local food systems following the pandemic can also prepare us to be more resilient and food secure in the face of other threats while reducing the impacts of industrialized agriculture. The pandemic’s impact on food systems is particularly informative as we look to address one of the biggest risks to our food systems—climate change. The climate crisis looms large over the future stability and sustainability of our food systems. Climate change impacts on food systems are already evident across the globe. Drought, storms, fire, and floods regularly threaten food crops and livelihoods. Climate change will increasingly become a source of major disruption, driving the displacement of vast populations. Both moderate and extreme warming temperature scenarios indicate huge shifts in where Americans currently live and grow significant amounts of food.

Certain regions, like the Great Lakes and New England, will likely be climate migration destinations. These regions may be able to more easily mitigate the effects of climate change. For example, New England is a region known for its strong commitment to local, sustainably produced food. The region has thriving partnerships and shared commitments among farmers, farm organizations, restaurants, businesses, nonprofits, educational institutions, agricultural research labs, and state governments, making it well-positioned to push forward stronger than before to build a resilient regional food system in response to COVID-19 and climate change. But are they ready and willing to handle an influx of climate migrants?

States and regions have primarily focused on reducing carbon emissions and mitigating other impacts of climate change, but a big part of the challenge involves planning for climate migration and the impacts to local food systems. How regions receive and integrate climate migrants will depend on a region’s planning and capacity. If states and regions are to increase the resilience of their communities and economy to climate change, policies, incentives, and legislation must support small and sustainable farms and food businesses. Ideally, food system strategies and policies will align across state boundaries to develop a cohesive regional approach.  However, it is not enough to consider local food production with existing populations in mind—communities who may receive climate migrants need to account for increased population density. Further research about climate migration patterns and directly addressing climate migration in State Hazard Mitigation Plans could get states thinking more seriously about redesigning regional food systems for climate migration.

In addition to generally addressing climate change and climate migration in State Hazard Mitigation Plans, cities, states, and regions can develop and implement Food Action Plans. A food action plan is a community-driven strategic plan that assesses how we grow, distribute, consume, and dispose of food. Food action plans tailor to the specific needs of the community and prioritize healthy, affordable, and sustainable food. These plans identify concrete and time-bound actions to improve government and non-governmental policies and programs, as well as shift individual behaviors. In 2015, the Massachusetts Metropolitan Regional Planning Council (MAPC) completed the Massachusetts Local Food Action Plan. The Massachusetts Local Food Action Plan is a collaborative, expansive document that addresses every imaginable food system component, including climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies. Other places, like Seattle, greater Pittsburgh, and Santa Barbara County have also adopted food action plans, and some cities like Minneapolis, are in the process of developing a food action plan.

Food action plans, along with other food systems adaptations, also provide an opportunity to to transform food systems into resilient regional and local systems that meet the needs of all. Climate change and climate migration, like the pandemic, has an outsized impact on communities traditionally marginalized in our food systems—BIPOC communities and other under-served, under-resourced, and historically marginalized communities. Groups already marginalized within the food system face a markedly different reality compared to those who have the luxury to invest in CSA shares or panic-buy grocery store staples online or in person. For example, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)recipients are at a greater disadvantage during the pandemic. As of 2019, SNAP recipients in participating states could use their benefits to purchase food at online retailers. Since the pandemic hit, more states have been approved for expedited online purchasing pilots. Currently, Walmart and Amazon are the only online retailers approved in the 47 states participating in the SNAP online purchasing program. This significantly limits SNAP recipients’ online shopping optionsand creates an unequal playing field for smaller, independent grocers who are unable to easily participate in SNAP’s online purchasing program. Furthermore, low-income Americans do not always have reliable access to internet access that online shopping requires. Race and class inequalities will continue to permeate the food system from production to distribution to consumption unless traditionally marginalized communities have a voice in shaping food action plans.

The pandemic, racial injustice, and severe weather events in 2020 amplified the problems in our current food system, which may encourage more cities to adopt food action plans. As noted in the Massachusetts Local Food Action Plan, food action plans provide an opportunity to establish “a vision for a food system that is socially just, environmentally resilient, and ripe with economic opportunities.” Food action plans not only create a collaborative food system vision—they prepare us to address challenges in an effective and equitable manner.

Looking Forward

Like the lack of a cohesive federal pandemic plan, the current lack of federal climate change leadership leaves the door wide open for states to determine how to plan for climate change, climate migration, and other future threats to our food system. Based on what we know from the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on the food system, one of the most critical challenges will be to ensure that local communities, states, and regions have resilient and equitable food systems to support current and future residents. Regional planning organizations and state and local governments can acknowledge that climate migrants already exist in the United States and their numbers are quickly increasing, and proactively plan for climate change and the expected climate migrations. Additionally, 2021 will bring a change in presidential administrations. The expected shift in climate change (and pandemic) policy approach and political will to reengage globally on climate change could provide renewed drive to plan for future disruptions to our food system.

The COVID-19 pandemic is a warning shot across the bow to steer a course that ensures sustainable and equitable regional food systems in the face of climate change and climate migration. Food sustains us, educates us, enriches our shared experiences, and shapes our world. As farmer and author Wendell Berry notes “eating is an agricultural act” that determines, to a considerable extent, how the world is used. In 2021 and beyond, we can look to see if increased momentum translates to action that shifts us to more resilient food systems.