The following material is excerpted from the publication, "Growing Home: A Guide to Reconnecting Agriculture, Food, and Communities". Green and Hilchey (2002) Ithaca, NY: Community, Food, and Agriculture Program, 151 pp. To order the complete publication, click here and select "Publication Order Form".

Food Circle Introduction

The Food Circle approach can be seen as taking the farm-based CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) concept to the larger community level. A food circle is a network of food production, processing and marketing enterprises (including CSAs), which, along with concerned citizens and supporting groups, fosters the growth of local food and agriculture systems.

Description
The Food Circle model has been developed by the Food Circle Networking Project at the Universityof Missouri. They provide the following description:

A Food Circle is a new way of conceiving of and organizing our food and agricultural systems. It links the many people involved in food production together in interdependent, holistic ways. When we conceive of our food system as a circle, we acknowledge that we are connected with every other part of that circle through the act of food production.
Practically, a Food Circle is concerned with promoting the consumption of safe, regionally grown food that will encourage sustainable agriculture and help to maintain farmers, who will sustain rural areas. While the concept sounds simple, it means that we must radically change the way we participate in the act of growing and consuming food. (Source:www.foodcircles.missouri.edu/vision.htm.)

Food Circle Activities
Based on this paradigm-shifting philosophy, food circle activities might include:

• Encouraging self-sufficiency, healthy lifestyles and ecologically vibrant local environments.
  
• Promoting family farms and local food businesses by helping them market food locally.
  
• Educating the public about the economic, social and environmental consequences of our food consumption choices.
  
• Publishing information on the seasonal availability of local foods.
  
• Organizing events such as church picnics and potlucks where farmers, processors, grocers and local folks
  can share information.
• Organizing a speakers bureau for community groups and local government.

Food Webs
New concepts are evolving every day in the food and agriculture system development world. Since publishing Growing Home, a similar approach to the food circle has evolved in New England-called the "Local Food Web" concept. Developed by a non-profit organization called Vital Communities in the Upper Connecticut River Valley between Vermont and New Hampshire, the local food web strives to "strengthen the fledgling self-sustaining and community-driven local food system, or interconnected 'web' that incorporates the agricultural needs and resources of all." Vital Communities' current projects include Breakfast Workshops, Tidbits: an occasional e-mail Food Web newsletter, bringing together the area's independent Farmers' Markets, assistance sourcing local foods, and development of a Local Foods Directory.

To learn more about the "food web" concept and/or Vital Communities, contact Lisa Johnson at lisa@vitalcommunities.org, or visit www.vitalcommunities.org/Agriculture/agriculture.htm

References and Resources for Food Circles

Food Circles Networking Project
Ana Montoya, Department of Rural Sociology,
University of Missouri-Columbia,
105 Sociology, Columbia, MO 65211; 573-882-3776,
e-mail: MontoyaA@missouri.edu.