Growing Food Connections

Research, Education and Planning & Policy

These three major activities work hand-in-hand to address the concerns of struggling farmers and vulnerable consumers by building capacity of local governments and their partners to create, implement and sustain food system policies and plans that both promote food security and foster a healthy agricultural sector.

FEATURED

March 11, 2026

Research Article: Equitable Food Value Chains through Collaborative Action

Food system practitioners and scholars are increasingly interested in applying collective and place-based efforts to create equitable food systems. How well do such efforts work? A team from the UB Food Lab, led by Dr. Micaela Lipman, explores this question in a paper about Buffalo, NY.

December 18, 2024

Students and community partners co-produce Growing Toward Equity report to strengthen urban agriculture on Buffalo’s East Side

Students and community partners co-produce a planning report to strengthen equitable urban agriculture in Buffalo, NY

June 6, 2024

Planning for Equitable Urban Agriculture: Future Directions for a New Ethic in City Building

"Planning for Equitable Urban Agriculture: Future Directions for a New Ethic in City Building": A book in honor of Food Systems Planning scholar, teacher, and advocate- Jerome Kaufman; (Jerry) Kaufman (1933-2013). The book explores the potential and pitfalls of planning for urban agriculture, provides case studies from cities across the United States, and documents the state-of-art in municipal planning practice, research, and teaching tied to planning for urban agriculture. Cities featured in the book include Albany (GA), Baltimore, Buffalo, Chicago, Denver, Detroit, Cleveland, NYC, Seattle, and others.

April 19, 2022

Event | Food Equity by Design | April 27, 2022

Dr. Samina Raja will deliver a virtual lecture at the 17th reSHAPING ROCHESTER series. This year the series focuses on what it means for a city to be "ideal," and asks if/how a community could become ideal. Dr. Raja will focus her remarks on the ideal of food equity in cities.

Cabarrus County, North Carolina

Image Source: Cabarrus County Sustainability Department. Printer Version (pdf) Advancing Local Food Policy in Cabarrus County, North Carolina: Successes and Challenges in a Changing Political [...more]

Local Government Food Policy Database

The Growing Food Connections Policy Database is a searchable collection of local public policies that explicitly support community food systems. This database provides policymakers, government staff, and others interested in food policy with concrete examples of local public policies that have been adopted to address a range of food systems issues.