ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to make a more explicit link between the food systems planning literature and sustainable regional development by placing specific emphasis on the role of the firm in food system dynamics. Food sustainability has been around at least since the 1970s when it was applied to agriculture as a production system designation that generally ran counter to the technologies of the Green revolution. Sustainable food production aims to better involve natures goods and services in the production process, while at the same time minimizing the use of non-renewable inputs. Hall and Soskice argue for a firm-centered political economy that views companies as key actors in new forms of economic development, echoing classic works in critical regional studies on the importance of the firm in local economic development. Distribution systems in general have largely been overlooked in economic geography.
