Cultivating a Food Movement : Slow Food USA’s Role in Moving Society Towards Sustainability

With society’s growing population and the earth’s limited resources, the current world food system is unsustainable. Slow Food USA (SFUSA) is an existing food-related Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) focusing on the expansion of Good, Clean, and Fair food. This research aims to help SFUSA to strategically support society’s move towards sustainability. To do this, the authors used the Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development (FSSD) to examine the current reality of SFUSA, where the opportunities and challenges for the organization to strategically plan toward sustainability were identified. The authors then used Leverage Points (LPs) to identify opportunities for how SFUSA can strategically intervene in the world food system to create change and the challenges that exist in doing so. The results of this research allowed the team to create a list of recommendations. Of these results, five were picked as the most strategic recommendations for SFUSA: 1) Co-create a shared common vision of sustainable food for society 2) Define a common language and branding among chapters that are in alignment with SFUSA 3) Implement a strategic planning process founded in a principle-based definition of sustainability 4) Expand educational outreach to specific targeted groups at the chapter level 5) Advocate for policy changes to remove barriers to widely available and affordable, sustainably produced agriculture