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Tom Kelly is chief sustainability officer of the University of New Hampshire and executive director of the UNH Sustainability Institute, home of Food Solutions New England.
Two significant reports, “A Regional Approach to Food System Resilience” and “Wildlands in New England: Past, Present, and Future,” produced by the New England Food System Planners Partnership and Wildlands, Woodlands, Farmlands, and Communities, respectively, provide important insights into the supply chains of the New England food system and the preservation of wildlands.
While the reports were produced separately, at Food Solutions New England, where we collaborate with both groups, we understand that these two issue areas are inherently connected. Only by taking an integrated approach in partnership with rural and urban communities that simultaneously pursues a just and resilient food system while stewarding biodiversity through the conservation of wildlands, woodlands and more can we build a flourishing and democratic future.
The good news is that we are not far off from realizing this approach. Each report recognizes that urban and rural communities and landscapes are critical for conserving biodiversity and promoting health and well-being. “A Regional Approach to Food System Resilience,” which calls for 30 percent of food consumed in New England to be grown here, emphasizes the importance of collaboration and local decision-making. It calls for recognizing the diversity of cultural and agricultural practices that exist here. The “Wildlands in New England” report, released in support of the Wildlands, Woodlands, Farmlands, and Communities’ goal of conserving at least 10 percent of land in the region as wildlands, calls for recognizing Indigenous and local communities’ long and deep relationship with the land and consulting with those communities when setting conservation goals.
As a multiracial, six-state network, Food Solutions New England applauds the emphasis on engaging, consulting, and ultimately following the lead of the communities that will be most affected by these goals. We recognize that these communities have an inherent right to govern and control their resources, including food, wildlands, food forests, urban farms and sea coasts. It is crucial to focus attention on historically marginalized communities and shape policies that reflect their unique needs, knowledge and lived experiences.
By doing so, we strengthen the resilience of our food system, landscapes and seascapes. And through democratic decision-making and governance that centers the community, we advance a more just distribution of their many benefits. We can accomplish this by keeping our collective attention on the threads that connect sustainable food systems, biodiversity, equity and democracy, and by building collaborations and coalitions rooted in trust, shared values and goals.
The benefits of this integrative, collaborative approach are many. For instance, through the adoption of regenerative, agroecological farming practices, which includes agroforestry in sustainable, climate-smart managed woodlands, we can reduce the pressure on wildlands caused by unsustainable land use and agricultural practices while simultaneously enhancing nutritional health and resilience. And, by advocating for safeguarding more wildlands, and strengthening the protection of many existing wildlands we can ensure our forests, wetlands and other wild areas can serve as buffers against climate change, support species biodiversity and pollinators essential for agriculture, and protect coastal environments.
And that’s just two examples with easy to see benefits. By recognizing the intrinsic link between our food and wildlands, we can forge ties that allow us to accomplish much more than we can separately.
Food Solutions New England is committed and calls upon all to support integrative approaches to building a just, sustainable, and democratic future. And we look forward to engaging as a collaborative partner with both groups to advance their (shared) goals through a community-first, integrated approach to a flourishing future, and we invite others to join us.
