Cities are net consumers of food from local and global hinterlands. Urban foodshed analysis is a quantitative approach for examining links between urban consumers and rural agricultural production by mapping food flow networks or estimating the potential for local food self-sufficiency (LFS). However, at present, the lack of a coherent methodological framework and research agenda limits the potential to compare different cities and regions as well as to cumulate knowledge. We conduct a review of 42 peer-reviewed publications on foodsheds (identified from a subset of 829 publications) from 1979 to 2019 that quantify LFS, food supply, or food flows on the urban or regional scale. We define and characterize these studies into three main foodshed types: (1) agricultural capacity, which estimate LFS potential or local foodshed size required to meet food demands; (2) food flow, which trace food movements and embodied resources or emissions; and (3) hybrid, which combine both approaches and study dynamics between imports, exports, and LFS. LFS capacity studies are the most common type but the majority of cases we found in the literature were from cities or regions in the Global North with underrepresentation of rapidly urbanizing regions of the Global South. We use a synthetic framework with ten criteria to further classify foodshed studies, which illustrates the challenges of quantitatively comparing results across studies with different methodologies. Core research priorities from our review include the need to explore the interplay between LFS capacity and interregional food trade (both imports and exports) for foodsheds. Hybrid methodologies are particularly relevant to examining such dependency relationships in food systems by incorporating food flows into LFS capacity assessment. Foodshed analysis can inform policy related to multiple components of sustainable food systems, including navigating the social and environmental benefits and tradeoffs of sourcing food locally, regionally, and globally.

Nearly one hundred years ago, a group of Mennonites left the prairies of Manitoba for the deserts of Northern Mexico. Since then, Mennonites have created over two hundred agricultural colonies across Latin America, spanning nine countries and seven biomes. In this paper, we provide the first continental-scale map and account of Mennonite expansion in Latin America over the last century. We show that Mennonite colonies today cover an area exceeding that of the Netherlands, having expanded through the conversion of uncultivated land to agriculture in remote areas. We discuss the implications of Mennonite expansion for the study of frontier land-use change. We argue that Mennonite farmers differ from both peasant and capitalist farmers, two categories of agents commonly featured in studies of frontier land-use change, in ways that have made them more likely to take a pioneering role in agricultural frontiers. We finish by proposing some avenues for future research.

Many North American cities seek to increase access to locally sourced foods. But to what degree are cities planning for and supporting peri‐urban and rural food production? We examined this question by analyzing 25 documents from 22 major United States and Canadian cities (>300,000 residents) with local food strategies or action plans, focusing on social, ecological, and technological factors relevant to local food production. Our review suggests that the following topics are often overlooked: farmland access and quality, farm viability, agricultural training and workforce, environmental and public health, processing infrastructure, climate change adaptation, and particular needs pertinent to those concerns among marginalized groups, including Black, Indigenous, and People of Color. Just under half of the cities defined how success or progress toward reaching their food‐related goals would be monitored and measured. Many municipalities considered collaboration as an important governance tool for realizing their strategies toward local food systems, including with actors from within the city and beyond, as cities’ governance scope, resources, and power are often limited. Besides illustrating ongoing municipal efforts to enhance local food systems, our study identifies focus areas in food policy and planning to avoid overlooking social and environmental trade‐offs in local foodsheds, including potentially overestimating self‐sufficiency capacity.