Integrated Regional Policy
Introducing the FSNE Integrated Regional Policy Campaign Resource Page!
The FSNE Integrated Regional Policy campaign resource page will serve as a repository of stories, educational resources, call-to-actions, issue briefs, and more focused on climate resilience and the right to food. We will use this collection to further define the narrative of climate resilience and right to food as well as the grounding to launch convenings, conversations, and info sessions. It's our hope to make space and opportunity for people throughout New England to imagine, create, participate, and contribute to efforts to build climate resilience through a Just Transition and work toward the right to food in ways that work best for them and are grounded in the New England Food Vision and values.
Posted: October 2024
FSRC Summit Insights
Charting a Course for Transformative Food Systems Change
By Karen Nordstrom, Policy Program Co-director, FSNE
"The Food Systems Research Center (FSRC) Summit held in September 2024 brought together leading thinkers and practitioners in the field of food systems, offering a wealth of insights into regional, integrated, and intersectional approaches to food systems transformation.
Posted: September 2024
Local Food Spending Insights Revealed
New England Food System Planners Partnership
"The New England Food System Planners Partnership just released a detailed analysis of local food spending in New England – Regional Food Count 2022. The report reveals that $2.28 billion or 3.1% of New England’s total $120.6 billion in food, beverage and alcohol expenditures were directed towards local and regional products, highlighting a critical area for potential growth and investment."
Posted: September 2024
An Open Question in Orange
By Cathy Stanton as featured in From the Ground Up
"This one was celebrating the opening of a new food co-op in the old bank. Formed as a seasonal buying club five years earlier, the North Quabbin Community Co-operative had been incubating in a tiny volunteer-run store in one of Orange’s many old factory buildings. It was now emerging from that cocoon as a full-time storefront operation under its new name, Quabbin Harvest. And its launch represented something more complex and challenging than was immediately apparent from the party in the parking lot."
Posted: August 2024
Summary of 2024 National Right to Food Summit:
Syracuse, New York In the Spotlight
"A right to food model would support changes in policy, programs and institutions as defined by local communities who are organizing to reinvigorate equitable local food and farm economies. At the center of this change is giving people the opportunity to define their own food and agriculture system."
Posted: August 2024
Weaving Just and Sustainable Food Futures:
Regional Approaches and Strategies
"Among the bucolic hills of Knoll Farm in Waitsfield, Vermont, 45 researchers, organizers, policymakers, and civil society actors gathered for a workshop in pursuit of building a just and sustainable food system, work that is more critical than ever."
Posted: December 2023
Building Through Integrated Approaches:
Climate Resilience and Policy
"If our work protects biodiversity at the expense of land justice, addresses the housing crisis at the expense of ecosystem protections, or works to end hunger by pumping money into a charitable food system dependent on commodity agriculture, we, at best, forgo the maximum impact of our work by remaining isolated in our individual fields, or, at worst, continue to do damage to our communities and ecosystems in which we are all embedded."
Posted: November 2023
Farming for Community and Resilience in NH
Kearsarge Food Hub Love Loval Video Series
"One thing we’ve learned here at Kearsarge Food Hub is food security IS farmer security. Our farmers and producers are absolutely fundamental to the health and wellness of our communities, supporting us with the foods they grow and make, and the ways they tend the land. Our farmers are on the front lines of not only experiencing the effects of climate change on their businesses but combating and mitigating its effects for the area they work and live.
In the Love Local Video Series, we visit four farms in New Hampshire and Vermont that have contended with the weather this year and, like all farmers, have had to find their way to make it through."
Posted: November 2023
Environmental Justice:
An Interview with Dr. Bindu Panikkar
"Environmental justice (EJ) is a fundamental movement that strives to address the disparities in the distribution of environmental burdens and benefits, ensuring that all individuals have access to a safe and healthy environment. As Food Solutions New England works toward a New England Food Vision, with the network grounding its work in the values of democratic empowerment, racial equity and dignity for all, trust, and sustainability, there is much to be learned and done in concert with the movement for environmental justice.
Posted: October 2023
Resilience from the Ground Up
New England Soil Health and Policy Action Update
"Healthy soil has far-reaching social and environmental ramifications for our regional food systems – community food security and nutrition, farmer livelihoods, farm worker health, and more."
FSNE hopes that this update serves to bridge awareness of policy and action taking place across New England, state-by-state and beyond, as it pertains to supporting the building of healthy soils.
Posted: October 2023
An Interview with
Boston Food Forest Coalition Stewards
"Boston Food Forest Coalition’s work emphasizes and brings to life the pivotal role that trees, food forests, and urban green spaces can play in response to a changing climate. Across Boston, momentum is growing in support of equitably-distributed green space as a tool in building more climate-resilient communities."
Posted: September 2023
Soil Equity & Climate Resilience
Boston Food Forest Coalition
"Climate Resilience is our collective ability to creatively respond to the impacts of our changing climate. Building climate resilience necessitates both ecological resources (like healthy soil, trees and greenery, clean air, etc.) and social resources (like access to public green space, free time to invest in climate action, etc.). In our toolbox of mechanisms for building climate resilience, healthy soil is one critically important resource."
Posted: September 2023
Beyond Business as Usual: The Farm Bill as a Catalyst for Building Climate Resilience in NE
At Food Solutions New England (FSNE), we seek true solutions that inspire innovation in the farm bill en route to a climate resilient food system for New England. We advocate for moving towards a holistic, cross-sectional approach to addressing root causes. We aim to mobilize the power of our large network to proactively engage in collective and cooperative action for a Just Transition. For this reason, we have reviewed and synthesized federal farm bill policies, platforms, priorities and calls to action that align with the New England Food Vision and values.
Food Solutions New England
Issue Briefs
"Without proper safeguards, these ('nature-based solutions') could lead to adverse outcomes, particularly for smallholder farmers. While capital is necessary to transition agricultural practices to more sustainable forms of land management, concerns arise that investment by corporate banks and funds could lead to consolidation of power, wealth, and control over farmland and its ecological assets. (...) To address these concerns (...) a critical approach to analyzing the emerging investment landscape in agriculture must be taken."
"True change towards climate resilience through agriculture is only going to come when community leadership and decision-making at all levels of governance are understood and centered – a task that will require a wholesale mindset shift."
Join the Food Solutions New England Email List
Food Solutions New England is a regional network supported and coordinated by the University of New Hampshire Sustainability Institute.
The FSNE network does not endorse or oppose specific candidates for elected office or proposed legislation. Instead, we seek to inform, educate and advocate for general policy ideas that align with the network’s stated values and vision for a just, sustainable and resilient regional food system. While FSNE receives support from the UNH Sustainability Institute, our activities do not reflect the positions of the University of New Hampshire, the University System of New Hampshire, or its Board of Trustees.
Food Solutions New England (FSNE), The Sustainability Institute at the University of New Hampshire,
131 Main Street, Nesmith 107, Durham, NH 03824 USA | Phone: +1 603-862-8564
TTY 7-1-1 (Relay NH)
