Sustainable regional food systems

Visiting academic, Mike Hamm shares his experience of sustainable regional food systems. 

We were delighted to have Mike Hamm visiting Cardiff in March and to hear more about his work on sustainable, regional food systems at Michigan State University. 

Mike Hamm is the C. S. Mott Professor of Sustainable Agriculture at Michigan State University and head of the Centre for Regional Food Systems at MSU.  The Centre works to engage the people of Michigan, the United States and the world in applied research, education and outreach to develop regionally integrated, sustainable food systems.

During his presentation Mike outlined what he sees as a regionalised food system: A food system that optimises the production, consumption and supply chain infrastructure of food within a defined region while integrating with larger regions, as well as the national and global supply of food in a manner that provides a healthy sustainably- produced diet to all a region's inhabitants.

He then went on to discuss the context within which a system like this can operate: where people and entities from a variety of backgrounds and interest can see a value in participating; where there is an infrastructure to support this; a climate of professions emerging within this sphere; a groundswell of support; and there is robust analysis to enable continuous improvement.

The full presentation from Mike can be viewed here.