Examining social capital within a local food system.

In this article, we examine the role that social capital plays in sustainable local food networks and community development. Through a qualitative study, we explored the current local food system in the Midwest in the United States, and we began to describe the role that social capital can play in developing this community. We asked the research questions: How can local food systems contribute to the development of social capital in a community and how does the social capital contribute to the development of the local food system? We used grounded theory methods to explore and understand how to support and expand the food system for locally produced foods, including production, distribution, marketing, and promotion. The informants were local foods participants from a community who had roles as growers, producers, educators, and advocates. We found that social capital among the participants, while present and contributing to the system, is weakened by a lack of trust and divided goals. We theorize that social capital expands in a community as a consequence of the connections and reciprocity that emerge with the development of a locally grown food system when facilitated by trust and unified goals among the participants. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]