Emerging Assessment Tools to Inform Food System Planning

Publisher: Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development

Author(s): Freedgood, Julia, Pierce-Quinonez, Marisol, Meter, Kenneth A.

Published Date: 2011

Document Type: Peer-reviewed article

Format: Electronic

Free of Cost: No


Food system planning is an emerging field engaging planners and planning organizations, civic leaders, citizens, food policy councils and others interested in creating more sustainable food systems. Planning practices are being developed to address the complex soil-to-soil food system, which spans production to consumption to reuse and recycling of waste. This article outlines a variety of approaches and suggests further research to evaluate the efficacy of assessment tools used to inform the food systems planning process.


Growing Food Connections Topic(s): community food connections

Main Food Topics: agriculture, agriculture preservation, food access, food aggregation, food assistance, food availability, food distribution, food economy, food marketing, food processing, food procurement, food production, food retail, food security, food system, food waste, nutrition

Sub Food Topics: animals, buy local, community garden, farm, farm stand, food infrastructure, fruit, grocery store, low-income, produce, supermarket, vegetables

Public Policy Topics: Non-binding policies, Physical projects, Plans, Programs, Public investment, Regulations/laws

Geographic Scale: Exurban, Nation, Rural, Suburban, Urban

Addresses food security needs of underserved populations: No