Coming Out of the Foodshed: Phosphorus Cycles and the Many Scales of Local Food

Abstract

Systems of food production and provision face a set of complex and interdependent challenges to sustainably meet current and future nutrition needs and minimize the negative social and ecological consequences of modern agriculture. Food system localization, often in the context of specific initiatives like farmers’ markets, are frequently put forth as a promising strategy for establishing more just food systems and agroecological production that relies on regional resources and in situ ecological processes rather than agrichemical inputs. Despite a significant literature on local food, there remain critical omissions in geographic inquiry, particularly analyses of scale in regard to food system localization. This article uses scale as an analytical lens to examine phosphorus fertility on farms participating in a farmers’ market network in New York City. Through a synthesis of biogeochemical analysis, semistructured interviews, and nutrient network mapping, the work charts the complex and often contradictory interactions of material and discursive scales in local food systems. The lens of scale reveals multiple narratives of sustainability, indicating both the great potential for agroecological phosphorus management and significant structural problems that undermine the project of food system localization. These findings argue for a more expansive approach to localization that acknowledges a mosaic of overlapping scalar processes in food systems and that the sustainability promise of food system localization requires interconnected sustainabilities in multiple places and at multiple scales. Key Words: agroecology, local food systems, phosphorus, scale, sustainability.

粮食生产与提供的系统，在可持续性地满足当前及未来营养需求、并最小化现代农业的负面社会与生态影响上，面临了一系列复杂且相互依存的挑战。粮食系统的在地化，经常在诸如农夫市集等特定倡议脉络中一再被提出，作为建立仰赖区域资源与现地生态过程、而非农业化学投入的更为合理的粮食系统与生态农业生产。仅管有关在地粮食的文献众多，但地理学的探问却仍紧缺，特别是有关粮食系统在地化的尺度分析。本文运用尺度作为分析视角，检视磷肥料对于纽约市参加某农夫市集网络的农场之影响。本研究通过综合生物地理化学分析、半结构式访谈，以及营养网络製图，绘製在地粮食系统中，物质与论述尺度之间复杂且经常是相互冲突的互动。尺度的视角揭露出有关可持续性的多重叙事，同时意味着管理生态农业磷的重大潜能，以及损害粮食系统在地化计画的显着结构性问题。这些研究发现主张更广泛的在地化方法，该方法承认粮食系统中相互重叠的尺度过程镶嵌，而粮食系统在地化的可持续性承诺，必需要有在多重地方与多重尺度中相互连结的可持续性。关键词：生态农业，在地粮食系统，磷，尺度，可持续性。

Para abordar de manera sustentable las necesidades de nutrición actuales y futuras y minimizar las consecuencias sociales y ecológicas negativas de la agricultura moderna, los sistemas de producción y provisión de alimentos deben enfrentar un conjunto de retos complejos e interdependientes. La localización del sistema alimentario, con frecuencia en el contexto de iniciativas tan específicas como los mercados de los cultivadores, frecuentemente se promueve como estrategia prometedora de establecer sistemas alimentarios más justos y una producción agroecológica basada más en los recursos regionales y en los procesos ecológicos in situ que en los insumos agroquímicos. A pesar de la significativa literatura existente sobre alimentos, en perspectiva local, subsisten omisiones críticas en la indagación geográfica, en particular los análisis de escala relacionados con la localización de los sistemas alimentarios. El presente artículo usa la escala como lente analítica para examinar la fertilidad por fósforo de las granjas que participan en una red de mercados de cultivadores en la Ciudad de Nueva York. A través de una síntesis de análisis bioquímico, entrevistas semiestructuradas y mapeo del sistema de nutrientes, el artículo traza las interacciones complejas y a menudo contradictorias de las escalas materiales y discursivas en los sistemas alimentarios locales. La lente de la escala revela múltiples narrativas de sustentabilidad, al tiempo que muestra el gran potencial que tiene el manejo del fósforo agroecológico y los problemas estructurales importantes que debilitan el proyecto de localización del sistema alimentario. Estos hallazgos demandan un enfoque de localización más expansivo que reconozca el mosaico de procesos escalares concurrentes en los sistemas alimentarios, y que la promesa de sustentabilidad de la localización de los sistemas alimentarios requiera sustentabilidades interconectadas en múltiples lugares y a múltiples escalas. Palabras clave: agroecología, escala, fósforo, sistemas alimentarios locales, sustentabilidad.

Acknowledgments

I thank Zixuan Huang and Shelby Duncan, my undergraduate research assistants in the Department of Geography at Penn State, for their work on this project. Thank you to Karl Zimmerer, Erica Smithwick, Brian King, Clare Hinrichs, and the members of the Nature Society Working Group and GeoSyntheSES Lab at Penn State, as well as the editor and three anonymous reviewers, for helpful feedback on earlier versions of this article.

Notes

Notes

1 Some advocates argue that nearness facilitates intimate social interaction, but given the compression of space–time by modern technologies, even this point is debatable (Harvey 1990; Massey 1993).

2 Assay results are indicative of potential, not actual, in situ resources and processes. Primarily this is due to the fact that assays are conducted in the lab under ideal conditions, and actual results in the field might vary. Furthermore, although higher scores can be considered better for most of these assays, higher M3P values also represent greater potential for nutrient loss contributing to eutrophication in aquatic systems. In this case, M3P indicates more available phosphorus for crop production, but whether that is better in a normative sense is debatable.

3 Many agronomic recommendations suggest a target SOM level of at least 5 percent (Moebius-Clune et al. 2016). The accrual of organic matter depends on many factors, including tillage, type and timing of organic matter additions, climate, soil type and texture, topography, and many others. The regular addition of biomass is necessary to increase SOM levels, but the actual rate depends on these other factors that are beyond the scope of this analysis.

4 Several mineral sources noted in Figure 2 are local distributors of major agrichemical companies. Eight mineral source locations are noted, but two are owned by the same parent company.

5 Truly closed-loop nutrient cycling would also require the recycling of human sewage sludge (biosolids), which is currently not widely practiced in the United States. Many of the barriers to the use of this resource are social in nature, although there are real concerns over toxic compounds often found in human waste (pharmaceuticals, heavy metals, etc.). Current USDA organic rules also prohibit the use of biosolids, which is a problem for many farms already using biomass-based fertility. This topic deserves detailed consideration that is beyond the scope of this article.

Additional information

Funding

The research for this article was supported in part by grants from the National Science Foundation (Grant Nos. 1558650 & DGE1255832) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Sustainable Agriculture, Research, and Education Program (Grant No. GNE15-105), as well as graduate research grants from The Center for Landscape Dynamics at Penn State and the American Association of Geographers. All findings and opinions presented here are my own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of these organizations.

Notes on contributors

Russell C. Hedberg

RUSSELL C. HEDBERG II is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography & Earth Science at Shippensburg University, Shippensburg, PA 17257. E-mail: [email protected]. His research interests include local food systems, soil health, phosphorus biogeochemistry in agriculture, and social–ecological dimensions of farm management.