Food System Mapping
Kate
MikeGoal
In this collaborative group activity, learners will create a system map of their local food systems. This exercise aims to deepen their understanding of the interconnected elements within the food system, considering both internal components and external influences.
Materials
Instructions
Introduction
Briefly explain the purpose of the activity: to create a comprehensive map of the local food systems.
Emphasize the importance of understanding the various actors, processes, and influences contributing to the functionality (way it works) or challenges of the system.
Components of the food system
Discuss the different components of the local food system, covering production, distribution, processing, marketing, purchasing/collecting, preparation/consumption, and resource/waste recovery. See Appendix A for a description and example of each aspect.
Once learners understand the different aspects, determine how to break up the group.
Break the group into smaller units or clusters based on class size, shared home communities, or by random assignment.
Encourage visual representation using a whiteboard, flip chart, or mapping app like Loopy.
Mapping a food system
Let learners know they’ll be working in groups to generate a map of the food system in their own community.
Show Appendix C to the learners as a completed example map. Let them know that their job is to create a more detailed map that is specific to the food system in their community.
This includes food that is found on grocery store shelves as well as food that is grown, harvested or produced in the community directly.
Ask learners to consider each aspect of the food system for their map and to discuss in their groups examples of each, and how they’re connected.
Ask them who and what is involved in each aspect, and how that works.
Learners can use a (digital) whiteboard or flip chart to visually represent these elements, or a mapping app like Loopy.
Introducing External Influences
Once participants have identified examples and created their draft map, introduce them to the different influences that exist in relation to food systems
Explore social, political, economic, contextual, and environmental influences on the local food system. See Appendix B for a description and examples of each.
Facilitate a discussion on how cultural beliefs, political decisions, economic factors, contextual aspects, and environmental conditions impact the community's food system.
Mapping External Influences
Invite learners to map the external influences that impact their current food system map.
Learners can note down these external influences on the same visual representation used in Step 2 or create a separate map.
Reflection and Discussion
Conclude by inviting groups to share their maps with one another.
Refer to Debrief Questions to facilitate a discussion that emphasizes the complexity and interconnectedness revealed through the mapping exercise.
Discuss any surprising insights, patterns, or areas of concern identified during the activity.
Background
Preparation
Familiarize yourself with the aspects of the food system and external influences.
Ensure access to a (digital) whiteboard, flip chart, or a digital platform for visual representation like Loopy if opting to use it.
Technology Considerations
If conducted virtually, use tools like Zoom and Miro for small group discussions.
Prepare a digital copy of the Food Systems map example in advance.
Additional Context
Highlight the relevance of understanding food systems for sustainable and community-driven development.
Encourage participants to consider the historical context of their local food systems. Has the food system always been this way? Have there been times when it was better/stronger, or worse/more vulnerable?
Tips for Localization
See Appendix D.
Debrief Questions
What parts of the local food system surprised you?
Were ones you hadn’t previously considered?
What are some variations between the food systems each group mapped?
How do outside factors change the way your local food system works?
What can communities do to protect their local food system and to make it better?
What can individual people do to support their local food system, to make sure it is sustainable and resilient?
Appendix A: Aspects of the food system
Production
Definition: Relates to how food is produced or created, including activities such as hunting, fishing, foraging, harvesting, farming, and gardening.
Example: Farmers planting and harvesting their crops.
Distribution
Definition: Involves the transportation, delivery, and refrigeration of food to various locations.
Example: Trucks or airplanes delivering produce and canned goods to local grocery stores.
Processing
Definition: Refers to changing the form of the original food before selling or gifting it, through activities like canning, preserving, curing, grinding, kneading, baking, and assembling.
Example: Taking raw caribou or moose meat and turning it into jerky by dehydrating it.
Marketing
Definition: Involves branding, packaging, and advertising food products.
Example: Designing attractive packaging for a new cereal brand.
Purchasing/Collecting
Definition: Relates to how people get food through various channels, including stores, markets, community fridges, websites, and apps.
Example: Shopping for groceries at the local co-op.
Preparation/Consumption
Definition: Focuses on individual knowledge, skills, and attitudes related to cooking and other methods of food preparation.
Example: Using ingredients to follow a recipe you learned from your family.
Resource and Waste Recovery
Definition: Involves managing organic food waste through practices like composting, food rescue, and redistribution.
Example: A city or town’s compositing program that asks residents to put all of their food scraps into a specific bin, separate from their garbage.
Appendix B: Influences on the Food System with examples
Social Influences
Definition: Relates to cultural beliefs and traditions, family dynamics, and health trends influencing the local food system.
Example: Traditional Indigenous practices governing communal hunting and fishing seasons in Arctic communities.
Political Influences
Definition: Encompasses factors such as access to healthy food, food production subsidies, food purchasing subsidies, farming regulations, and hunting regulations that impact the food system.
Example:
Nunavut: The incorporation of the IQ principles into the Nunavut Wildlife Act in 2015.
NWT: The creation of the NWT Hunter Education course that is required for all new resident hunters, and hunters who have been convicted of a wildlife offense, prior to being issued a hunting license.
See also: Take a Kid Trapping Program and the NWT Trapping Mentorship Program
Yukon: Annual policies that limit lake trout fishing in order to enable the populations to regenerate.
Economic Influences
Definition: Involves economic factors like the price of food, cost of living, and average income affecting the local food system.
Example: The high cost of food in remote areas impacts how and when people can access certain food resources.
Contextual Influences
Definition: Relates to traditional food systems and considerations of sustainability influencing the local food system.
Example: Unlike much of the food system around the world, Indigenous communities minimize waste by using all parts of the animal, honoring its sacrifice by being good stewards.
Environmental Influences
Definition: Encompasses factors like climate change, environmental degradation, species extinction, pollution, overdevelopment, and land rehabilitation affecting the food system.
Example: Arctic communities having to adapt to changing climate patterns, which impacts hunting, trapping, harvesting, etc…
Appendix D: Localized Examples
NWT:
In the NWT, open the discussion to food systems by region and what services/businesses/opportunities exist (or have previously existed) and the role they play in the territory’s food system.
DIscussion Questions:
Northern Farm Training Institute (NFTI) used to be a huge piece of the food systems puzzle but ceased operating during the pandemic years - how has this impacted the southern regions?
In the Beaufort Delta region, how does the Inuvik Greenhouse (which operates year round) influence or play a role in the food systems picture?
Each Community has some sort of food systems service or business, or there are community members who are passionate about food sustainability (hunting, gardening, farming, harvesting) who play important roles in providing for themselves, their families, and influencing the community around them.
Who are they?
What businesses exist?
What more can you share about your community?
Are you aware of the funding and opportunities for food system growth and development in the NWT or in your own community?
Additional food system examples from NWT:
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