People Systems in Support of Food Systems: Zsuzsi Fodor Wins the APA Prize for Best Food Systems Planning Paper

A storm of congratulatory emails on the SCARP listserv followed the announcement in mid-March that Zsuzsi Fodor’s article, “People Systems in Support of Food Systems: The Neighbourhood Food Network Movement in Vancouver, Canada”, had won the American Planning Association’s competition for the best student research paper on food systems planning. The competition was stiff, and we knew Zsuzsi’s work on food systems inside and outside of the university was creating waves, but it is wonderful to have her work recognized internationally. At the recent APA Conference in Boston, Zsuzsi’s work was recognized and she was awarded a prize for her winning paper.

The article, which is now posted on the APA website as well as Zsuzsi’s profile on the SCARP website, is a taste of what’s to come in Zsuzsi’s thesis. It begins to explore the case of Vancouver’s Neighbourhood Food Networks, as ‘people systems’ that support local food systems with various normative traits, such as social justice, equity, and accessibility. Zsuzsi outlines the roles and limitations of Neighbourhood Food Networks, variously celebrating and problematizing the neighbourhood scale and the structure of the food networks, and presenting a “hope for a complex and multifaceted human landscape of food system activity” (page 6). Her paper demonstrates a nuanced understanding of the movement for food systems reform, and sheds light on the human dimension of how this reform work gets done.

Zsuzsi’s writing is informed by her activism in the food world. In addition to her extensive background in food security and food justice work in Ontario, highlights of her Vancouver food work include sitting on the Westside Food Security Collaborative Steering Committee, being active in working groups with the Neighbourhood Food Justice Coordinators and the Vancouver Food Policy Council, doing project support work with the Grandview Woodland Food Connection, volunteering at the UBC Farm, and growing with the Cedar Cottage Community Garden. This deep engagement in food activism will inform her thesis work, which is using experiential and action research methodologies to delve further into Neighbourhood Food Networks in Vancouver. Zsuzsi has now also conducted many interviews to compliment this research, and she will be writing her thesis over the summer months.

Zsuzsi brings passion, strong analysis, comprehensive knowledge of the terrain, and clear writing to the emerging field of food systems planning. We look forward to learning more as her thesis unfolds. Congratulations, Zsuzsi!

(Zsuzsi’s article can be found through http://www.scarp.ubc.ca/profiles/students/Zsuzsi%20Fodor)