Food system sustainability in the southwest: Developing a regional action plan to enhance resilience livelihoods and food security across New Mexico

Food system sustainability in the southwest: Developing a regional action plan to enhance resilience livelihoods and food security across New Mexico Food system sustainability in the southwest: Developing a regional action plan to enhance resilience, livelihoods, and food security across New Mexico and Arizona Throughout the southwestern US, multiple efforts are underway to improve food systems in relation to sustainability and food security. These efforts are meant to build food systems that can contribute to resilience of food production amidst change, sustainable livelihoods for those working in the food sector, and healthy food availability for underserved populations. Unfortunately, these efforts generally occur in an uncoordinated manner. And despite the increasing activity in this area, almost no interstate collaborations exist to bolster local foods markets and food security regionally. We propose to develop a regional food system strategic plan focusing on New Mexico and Arizona. This plan would characterize activities and entities involved in local food production, distribution, access, and availability across states. It would aggregate these data to develop a regional asset map for food systems. Based on this information, the plan would provide a list of detailed case studies that represent best practices to improve local and regional resilience, livelihoods, and healthy food access in the southwest. It would also distill strategies to further improve food system sustainability and food security in the region. Finally, it would result in a number of deliverables for multiple audiences, including advocates, entrepreneurs, policy makers, and researchers.