Tasting food tasting sustainability: Defining the attributes of an alternative food system with competent, ordinary people

Initiatives intended to create alternatives to the conventional, industrial ized, global food system are now emerging. Conceptual framings of alternati ve food systems have been based principally on the reflections of academics and policy specialists rather than on the views of the producers and eater s who constitute the bulk of the food localization movement. At a conferenc e hosted by the Michael Fields Agricultural Institute, we explored the attr ibutes of food system sustainability with 125 persons representing a broad cross section of the alternative farm/food community. Dividing into five di scussion groups, participants were asked what the characteristics of a sust ainable food system would be. From their statements we abstracted a set of attributes. Participants envisioned a sustainable food system as relational , proximate, diverse, ecologically sustainable, economically sustaining, ju st/ethical, sacred, knowledgeable/communicative, seasonal/temporal, healthf ul, participatory, culturally nourishing, and sustainably regulated. We exp lain these attributes and note their complementarities and tensions.