Howard E. Woodin ES Colloquium Series

“Metropolitan Foodsheds: A Resilient Solution to the Climate Change Challenge?” by Laura Lengnick, Owner and Principal, Cultivating Resilience, LLC and Vice President of Resilience, Climate Optimize, Inc.

The 21st century challenges of climate change and resource scarcity bring a new urgency to the widely recognized sustainability challenges of the U.S. food system. Environmental and social impacts associated with geographic concentration and specialization in production, processing and global distribution that have accompanied industrialization of the U.S. food system have degraded the resilience of our nation to climate change. The results of nationwide case study research support an emerging consensus that that two fundamental changes—a transformation of production methods from industrial to sustainable and a transformation of food system geography from regional specialization to regional diversity – are needed to put the U.S. food system on a path to a sustainable and resilient food future.