| To improve local food systems in the U.S. it is important to understand what is happening in the dominant mainstream food system, because that system poses formidable constraints to how much success local food systems can achieve. Major changes occurred in the food-system-centred part of the American landscape. The principal trends in the changes of the food system are that farmers get less of the food dollar, their numbers decrease and large farms are dominating the farming community. Accompanying changes are high pesticide use, less biodiversity in crops, more use of genetically modified organisms and booming factory farms. These trends change the rural communities and make farmland disappear from urban fringes. The consumer part is changing by the... |
