Napa Food System Report

The impetus for the Recipe for Sustainability blog is a paper I researched from 2008-2009 as the exit project for my master’s degree in city and regional planning.  For this paper, Comprehensive Planning for the Napa County Food System: A Preliminary Study of Problems and Possibilities (aka the Napa County Food System Report), I spoke with many people from the community who are involved with the food system as well as food system advocates outside Napa, and collected data about the food system from Napa on up to the national and global food system.

Abstract
In response to the increasing understanding of the role that the food system plays in health, the environment, social justice and the economy, and the existing lack of holistic planning for this issue, I analyze the condition of the Napa County’s food system. In the paper I show that Napa shares national problems of obesity, lack of food knowledge, food insecurity and contribution to global climate change and other environmental problems. I also show that there are a significant range of advocates and resources for the individual concerns that are affected by the food system. I identify the benefits of bringing these stakeholders together in a participatory process to further assess and address the food system and suggest strategies and models for doing so.

Read the Executive Summary (PDF).

Read the Full Report (PDF).