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Mapping the Food System: Improving Sustainability of How We Eat

Visualize the material flows and social ties connecting actors within food systems to identify optimally effective connections, reduce food loss and waste, and enhance resource efficiency. Explore the potential of food hubs, industrial symbiosis, and circular economies to create a sustainable and interconnected food system.

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Mapping the Food System: Improving Sustainability of How We Eat

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  1. Mapping the Food System: Improving the Sustainability of How We eat on a Systems Level Sam Evers

  2. Problem Lack of connectivity withhin food system, leading to food loss and food waste, inefficent use of resources, and missed opportunities for meaningful involvement by everyine in those systems

  3. Solution Visualize of the material flows and socials ties connecting actors within food systems in order to provide a framework for identifying optimally effective connections.

  4. Background

  5. Food Value Chains are business models where a food producer coordinates entities along the food`s supply chain in order to “enhance financial returns through product differentiation that advances social or environmental values” (Barham et. al, 2014, p. 2)

  6. Aspects of Food Value Chains • Partnerships move food along the life cycle of food • Shared set of values and “operational principles” • Not a closed but open system subject to external influence

  7. Collaboration is key Food Value Chains (Barham et. al, 2014)

  8. Food Hubs When food value chains combine, food hubs emerge. Food hubs vary in function but commonly focus on … “the aggregation, storage, processing, distribution, and/or marketing of locally or regionally produced food products along with community development and building healthy,equitable, and sustainable food systems.” (Lezkoe et. al, 2018, 111)

  9. Driven by Collective Impact Food hubs act as a “backbone organization” which manages the augmented supply chains of individual businesses in order to advance an overarching mission (Kania & Kramer, 2011, pg. 40) How? • Facilitating “ continuous communication and mutually reinforcing activities among all participants” (Kania & Kramer, 2011, pg. 36) • Entering in a commitment with businesses they work with • Depend on entities within food hub and outside support

  10. Aspects of Food Value Chains • Partnerships move food along the life cycle of food • Shared set of values and “operational principles” • Not a closed but open system subject to external influence

  11. Industrial Symbiosis Since food hubs already have the augmentation of food value chains, they also have the potential to use these pathways to enhance material recovery and engagement with the food system

  12. Circular Economies As opposed to a linear economy, a circular economy consists of industries that are “restorative or regenerative by intention and design” (Ellen Macarthur Foundation, 7) • Favors continual reuse of material • Favors use of renewable energy • Favors use of non-toxic materials

  13. Case Study - The Plant • “Mission is to be a sustainable food production hub that operates with closed-circuit energy loops — the waste created by one company is utilized by another.” (Jensen, A.) • Utilizes the supply chains it already has

  14. What Institutions Can Learn From Food Hubs • Engaging in all life cycle stages maximizes impact and efficiency of delivering mission • Mutualistic relationships between entities form a positive feedback loop that progresses them towards their respective missions • Existing connections are pathways to future material recovery and involvement in the food system

  15. What Institutions Can Learn From Food Hubs (cont.) • Strong connections between entities are built on commitment, communication, and trust • Connections to entities outside of food system are as important as connection within that system • Continually cycling materials reimagines and increases its value

  16. Interconnected network -> opportunities for collaboration -> waste recovery, involvement in food system (educational, entrepreneurial, etc.)

  17. Project Summary Visualizes of the material flows and socials ties connecting stakeholders within food systems in order to provide a framework for identifying opportunities for increasing food system involvement.

  18. Methods

  19. Guiding Methodology Social Network Analysis - examines social relationships between enitities Material Flow Analysis - examies direction and magnitude of materials’ travels through entites

  20. Methods • Define Scope • Acquire Data on material flow and social ties through interviews • Visualize these connections

  21. Reading the Map Lehigh

  22. Food Value Chains come together….

  23. Indices for Improving Circularity • Connection Concentration • Number of connections coming from and to each life cycle stage, organization, or key activity • Existing pathways to build future efforts upon

  24. Indices for Improving Circularity • Circularity Index = (amount recovered)/(amount recovered + amount not recovered) • *Cannot be determined unless magnitude of material flows are known

  25. Other Indicators • Tightness of reuse cycle • Duration of reuse cycle • Cascaded Use • Pure Circles Ellen Macarthur Foundation (24)

  26. Results from Lehigh

  27. Results • A total of 67 connections were recorded • Consumption and Food Processing through Dining Services acts as major node with 20 connections running through it • In aggregate, food production activities have the highest concentration of connections • Each activity sees 2-7 connections • Destination of this food: local non-profits and the general public

  28. Insights and Recommendations • Supporting the food production that is happening currently is one way of increasing its connectivity and an important stepping stone on the path to increasing the over food production on campus. One way of doing so might be, in collaboration with those food producers, to feature that production at catered events or advertise it as a giveaway at events. • In a similar fashion, a stepping stone on the path to campus wide compost might be to support current composting initiatives in collaboration with those stakeholders. • Dining Services acts as a major node and, therefore, has a lot of pathways to make potential future impacts

  29. What do you see?: Using the map • Identify your organization values, assets, future direction, and challenges to achieving your goals. • What possible solutions would you like to see? • Who would you need to collaborate with to make them happen? • How would these connections affect the circularity of the food system?

  30. Limitations • Scope is limited geographically to scope and in material to food and water • System changes over time while the map is static so it must be updated to stay current • Magnitude of most material flows were unknown at this point, and magnitude that are known are not currently reflected in the map

  31. Future... • Activities • Refine map • Update material flows • Continually update as food system changes • Identify potential connections and pinpoint the most effective connections • Evaluating role of Farmer`s Markets • Apply mapping to other contexts

  32. The power of this mapping is in the engagement between stakeholders which it brings

  33. Questions to leave you with • How does this change how you think about the roles organizations play? • What issues surrounding food are coming up at your campuses and how does this discussion relate? • What barriers exist to filling gaps or taking advantage of analysis? • Any other tools that could be used or ways to use the tools I`m already using more effectively? • What data do you already have and how can it be used with this analysis?

  34. While this project is student run, it would not be possible without the support of my faculty advisor, Prof. Karen Beck Pooley (kbp312@lehigh.edu), funding from Lehigh`s Office of Creative Inquiry, and the cooperation of various organizations and offices at lehigh University

  35. Sam Evers https://www.linkedin.com/in/samuelevers/ Contact: sje219@lehigh.edu or sjeteal@yahoo.com

  36. Thank you

  37. Works Cited Barham, J., Schaffstall S., Tropp, D. (2014) Food Value Chains: Creating Shared Value to Enhance Market Success. USDA Agricultural Marketing Service, 1-5. Chance, E. et. al. (2018) The Plant - An Urban Experiment in Urban Food Sustainability. Environmental Progress & Sustainable Energy, 37(1), 82-90. doi: 10.1002/ep Cullen, J. (2017) Circular Economy: Theoretical Benchmark or Perpetual Motion Machine?. Journal of Industrial Ecology, 21(3), 443-446. doi:10.1111/jiec.12599 Ellen Macarthur Foundation. (2013) Towards the Circular Economy. Jensen, A. (2018, Dec 4). There's a Use for That. urban plains. Retrieved from https://urban-plains.com/destinations/theres-a-use-for-that/?fbclid=IwAR3jShuBg3jOFusuPPPTYnkh1Tq5P8c-s-PgHLR61Q9OvYgHWhtmsspysB4 Kania, J., Kramer, M. (Winter 2011) Collective Impact. Stanford Social Innovation Review, 36-41. Levkoe, C. Z. et. al. (2018). Building sustainable food systems through food hubs: Practitioner and academic perspectives. Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development, 8(2), 127-102. https://doi.org/10.5304/jafscd.2018.082.008

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