Empowering local food connections for resilient city-regions. Planning through foodsheds or terroir?

This essay explores two antinomic approaches adopted by planning to describe food production and supply systems deeply rooted in local communities. The first is based on the concept of a ‘foodshed’ and puts the accent on sustainability and ‘resilience’, while the second refers to the notion of ‘terroir’, with the emphasis on oneness and the intrinsic value of locally produced food. Through a reading of English and Italian case histories, the essay critically analyses the two approaches, their feasibility and the different results achieved in terms of efficiency and effectiveness. The analysis is organised in two sections, each of which introduces the case history with a brief theoretical introduction. In the conclusions, the antinomy between the two approaches is re-examined and possible research developments on the subject are identified