ABSTRACT
Drawing on more than five years of research into food hub innovation in Ontario, Canada, this chapter explores the limits to the aspirations of food hub actors in both logistical and structural terms. Specifically, we report findings from a 2015 survey of more than 185 food hub-related innovators as well as 22 case studies in Ontario. While the goals for those working to develop sustainable local food-value chains are in keeping with the principles of fair, green, healthy and local food, they are limited by a lack of resources including financial, infrastructure and network capacities. This chapter looks to both the Basque region and to Scotland’s Good Food Nation approach as examples that can help to create more fertile ground in Ontario by providing models of scale-appropriate policies that offer more financial resources, build relationality and strengthen networked capacities for food hub innovation.
