Foodshed
The “farm-to-table” movement is focused on producing food locally within a foodshed, and delivering it to local consumers. Direct farm-to-table in the United States tends to comprise only a very minor segment of the food distribution system in terms of size and importance, but is growing in popularity.Nearly 5 percent of all farmers engage in some form of direct food marketing. Estimates of all farm-to-table sales within a foodshed range from roughly $550 million to $2 billion. Many local farms are family-run farms that are successful and do survive through poor economic conditions. Ecologists consider to be more adaptive and more likely to “reproduce” in highly variable and uncertain environments.
On the Table
On The Table is a social media amplified community listening program that is loosely organized, but not led, by community-based grant-making organizations in the United States. The core activity is the encouragement of individual hosts to invite a small group of people (6-12) to a conversation over food. All these conversations take place in any one community on a single day. Social media posts on that day create broad community awareness of the conversations and the topics discussed. Anyone can register to host and who they invite to their table is entirely up to them. Ideally those invited do not know each other well except for their connection to the host. There is no agenda or pre-determined outcome of the conversation except to catalog what was discussed and what actions were suggested to address the concerns of participants. The results of the conversations are summarized and reported back to the community in a formal document.