Agency in resilient local food systems

2025/01/01 by Jim Worstell · 1 voice
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Environmental Science · #Organic Food and Agriculture #Agriculture, Land Use, Rural Development #Sustainability and Climate Change Governance

paper · pdf · doi:10.5304/jafscd.2025.151.005

openalex publication_date 2025/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/11/03 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21

Abstract

Introduction How can resilience of local food systems be strengthened? Inwood et al. (2025) recommend the CLIMATED framework (Worstell, 2020; Worstell & Green, 2017), because it emphasizes social infra­structure that is modularly connected, conserva­tively innovative, redundant, and embraces change. However, while this framework highlights self-organization, it fails to fully recognize that resilient local food systems in developing regions are invari­ably catalyzed by the emergence of entrepreneurial agency—a pattern I’ve observed from my experi­ence with rural communities in the Delta (Arkan­sas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Missouri Bootheel, Western Kentucky and Western Tennessee), Appa­lachia (Eastern Kentucky, West Virginia and East Tennessee), and 41 developing countries. Might extant models of resilience underemphasize the urgency and purpose of agency (Burnett, 2023) in catalyzing resilience? . . .

Citations

• Enhancing the analysis of rural community resilience: Evidence from community land ownership
• Agency in living systems
• Biological agency: a concept without a research program

Discussions

• A new JAFSCD commentary, Agency in resilient local food systems, argues that the most lauded models of resilient food systems in the U.S. leave out one component...entrepreneurial agency. Read the ent [bsky, 0 points, 0 comments]