Building Regional Food System Resilience in Southern Arizona - Learning from COVID-19
From 2020 through spring 2021, this project aimed to document the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in the local food system in Pima County, Arizona. The evolving crisis highlighted several long-standing issues in the local food system, including inequities in food access, food policy, food production and distribution, and food sovereignty. The crisis also revealed strengths in the local food system and opportunities to address these issues while building capacity and resilience. Our 2021 report synthesizes people’s experiences and lessons learned over the past year, in support of building a strong and equitable food system in southern Arizona that is resilient to future environmental, climate, economic, and health risks.
The next phase of research seeks to build on these findings through data collection, interviews, network building, and focus group discussions. Current project goals include: a) conducting in-depth analyses on cascading economic, climatic, and societal risks in the local food system over time, b) bolstering local partnerships between food businesses, organizations, and researchers, and c) developing a coordinated strategic plan for building local food system resilience and equity in the southern Arizona region.