Visions, Plans, and Maps: Making Space for Food Systems Change in Massachusetts

The need for food system reform is urgent, evidenced by the environmental damage caused by industrial agriculture, the socio-economic impacts of concentration in the food industry, increases in diet-related disease, and widespread food insecurity. The sustainable agriculture and community food security movements have recently started to collaborate, forming a broader "alternative food movement" (AFM). The AFM is also working to expand beyond the "alternative" margins to gain wider influence and expand sustainability and equity in the mainstream food system.;This dissertation examines these trends through qualitative research conducted with AFM organizations in Massachusetts. The three articles that comprise the dissertation each address specific components of these trends, asking: (1) What role do visions for future food systems play in building collaboration within the alternative food movement? (2) How do the alternative food movement's spatial politics take effect beyond the movement?;Chapter 2 uses framing concepts from social movement theory to examine collaborations with the AFM, finding that frame alignment around visions for future food systems is central to the development of a shared political agenda for food systems reform. Chapter 3 focuses on regionalism in the emerging field of food systems planning, where planners are increasingly looking beyond localism as the appropriate scale for food systems reform. I identify definition and governance as two challenges facing the development of regional food systems, and draw from the new, progressive, and community-based regionalism literatures to understand these challenges in more detail. Chapter 4 examines the spatial analysis and mapping methodologies used to understand the geography of food access.;Dominant methodologies focus on the absence of supermarkets in low-income communities and recommend a policy approach that incentivizes supermarket development. In response to concerns expressed by community food security organizations, I argue that a different, community-based methodology is needed to map food access in a way that builds community food security. Together, these articles highlight the importance of developing shared visions for food systems reform in partnership with communities, planners and policy-makers; visions that form the foundation for successful collaboration and for the expansion of sustainable and equitable food systems.