Convivial Food Systems: Rethinking Local Food Policy from the Ground Up

By Dr Emily Samuels-Ballantyne (Dr Demeter)

What would food policy look like if it began in communities, farms and local economies rather than distant institutions?

This question sits at the heart of my new white paper, The Local Food Policy Framework, which explores how farmers, communities and policy makers can work together to cultivate resilient local food systems.

For more than two decades my work has unfolded across farms, community gardens, seed libraries, local food hubs and regional policy initiatives. Again and again the same insight emerges: the most meaningful food policy does not begin in documents. It begins in practice.

When communities create seed libraries, compost systems, crop swaps, local food hubs or neighbourhood gardens, they are not simply delivering projects. They are generating living knowledge — practical insights about how food systems actually function within a place.

This knowledge is often missing from conventional policy processes, which tend to operate at a distance from the everyday realities of growing food, distributing it and feeding communities.

The Local Food Policy Framework proposes a design-led approach to food systems change. Rather than beginning with abstract strategies, it invites communities to develop practical initiatives that can inform policy through lived experience. In this way, policy becomes a reflection of real work already underway.

These ideas are now being explored through Living Earth College, an emerging educational initiative dedicated to regenerative design, place-based governance and convivial economies. The college brings together farmers, practitioners, policy makers and community leaders who are interested in activating local solutions while contributing to broader systemic change.

To support this work in practice, I have developed the Activating Local Food Systems Foundation Course, where participants design and prototype initiatives within their own communities while learning a design-led methodology for cultivating resilient food networks.

Food systems transformation does not arrive fully formed through policy announcements. It grows through relationships, experimentation and the quiet persistence of people working together on the ground.

The invitation now is simple: to cultivate food systems that are rooted in place, guided by practice and shaped collectively by the communities they serve.

You can explore the white paper and learn more about the course here:
https://livingearthcollege.org/activating-local-food-systems-white-paper

Dr Emily Samuels-Ballantyne (Dr Demeter) is a regenerative farmer, designer and policy practitioner exploring how communities cultivate convivial food systems through land, learning and local economies. She writes from Magical Farm in Tasmania and through Living Earth College.