Capstone Problem Statement

Capstone Problem Statement: The loss of economically viable small-scale, diversified farms in rural communities surrounding urban population concentrations has contributed to the increased dependence of both urban and rural populations on mass-produced and globally marketed food products. This increased dependence on industrial food systems has eroded the economic and social connections within American communities, both urban and rural, while also contributing to an increase in degenerative disease and food insecurity in the same populations.

Edible Forest Gardens (David Jacke and Eric Toensmeier, 2005)

Edible Forest Gardens, is both a technical design manual and a philosophical foundation text for establishing perennial polycultures.

The book

This book provides an invaluable appendix with plant properties that serves as an efficient tool to cross reference plant combinations while designing new plant installations. Rebuilding the Foodshed (Philip Ackerman-Leist, 2013)

Rebuilding the Foodshed, contextualizes the idea of local foodsheds and outlines the need for alternatives to the industrial food system to produce sustainable communities. This text is critical to this research project because it provides substantive examples of successful foodshed development while also presenting the broader policy requirements to facilitate such paradigm shifts in production and consumption. The author currently resides in Vermont but grew up in North Carolina and, while that fact may not contribute directly to this research, his familiarity with particular challenges to define local food in an agriculturally dependent state that has rapidly urbanized in the decades since the Second World War are clearly apparent. The topics tackled in this text range from policy (Food Security, Food Justice) to production (Biodiversity, Market Value) and are, therefore, excellent reference chapters