Local and regional food economies in Canada : Économies alimentaires locales et régionales au Canada : rapport de situation

A key problem in attempting to study the benefits of local food systems initiatives relates to the lack of consensus on a definition for the term “local food”. [...] In 2002, Friends of the Earth, a national environmental NGO based in the U. K., undertook a study to identify the barriers to local food systems development in the U. K.4. [...] The authors felt that the social, economic and environmental attributes of the food were more important than the transportation distance between field and plate. [...] The purpose of this research was to explore the public’s perception, understanding, interest and behaviour in relation to the growing local food sector in the U. K. They found that people don’t have any fixed concept of the term ‘local’. [...] Christopher Stopes of Eco-Stopes Consultancy and Charles Couzens, Mark Redman and Sarah Watson of F3, The foundation for Local Food Initiatives, surveyed the extent of local food sales in Northern Ireland8.