Local First Arizona Partners Are Growing a Sustainable Food Economy in Arizona
Food Systems sit at the intersection of water, energy, and food—we need each of these components to produce the others—they are interdependent industries. Diving into this Food-Water-Energy (FWE) nexus to address social, environmental, and economic issues, while ensuring there is enough healthy and affordable food to feed our communities, is a complex endeavor.
Last year, Local First Arizona joined local partners at ASU’s School of Sustainability and School for the Future of Innovation in Society, City of Phoenix, and City of Tempe to develop local solutions that grow the sustainable food economy in Arizona. This partnership is part of an international project supported by the National Science Foundation called Globally and LOCally-sustainable food-water-energy innovation in Urban Living Labs, or GLOCULL.
Photo courtesy of Heirloom Farmers Market
A thriving local sustainable food economy can provide quality jobs with equal pay and benefits, water conservation, local investment opportunities, land remediation, reliable food supplies, GHG emissions reduction, healthy and affordable food, and a network of mutually-supporting vibrant local food businesses. With the persistent growing rates of COVID-19, and the devastating impacts to our state economy and our communities’ well-being, the need for sustainable local food solutions has grown more apparent than ever before.
With our GLOCULL partners, we are tackling some of the most pressing issues affecting our state food system. Through a series of pilot projects, we have identified and implemented new solutions to protect farmland against growing development pressures, support local food businesses to adopt sustainable practices, elevate diverse cultural and values-based food entrepreneurs, and provide policy guidance to uplift food businesses and organizations.
Each week, we will feature one of four different GLOCULL pilot projects, so stay tuned to learn more about each one and what you can do to strengthen Arizona’s local sustainable food economy.