What would food policy look like if it began in communities, farms, and local economies rather than distant institutions? In this video, Dr Emily Samuels-Ballantyne introduces her new white paper, The Local Food Policy Framework. Drawing on more than two decades of practical work in community food systems, regenerative agriculture, and local food economies, the paper explores how farmers, communities, and policy makers can work together to activate resilient local food systems. The framework proposes a design-led approach to food policy, where practical initiatives such as food hubs, seed libraries, compost systems, community gardens, and local distribution networks generate the “living knowledge” needed to inform better policy. These ideas are now being developed through Living Earth College, a global educational initiative exploring regenerative design, place-based governance, and food systems transformation. To bring these ideas into practice, Dr Samuels-Ballantyne has created the Activating Local Food Systems Foundation Course at Living Earth College, helping participants design and prototype real initiatives in their own communities.
Learn about the Activating Local Food Systems course: https://livingearthcollege.org/enrolment-courses/activating-food-systems
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The Local Food Policy Framework
White Paper
A 20-Year Field Guide to Activating Local Food Systems
Dr Emily Samuels-Ballantyne
Founder, Living Earth College
connect@livingearthcollege.org
Executive Summary
Across more than two decades of practice working between farms, communities, and government systems, a consistent pattern has emerged: local food policy is rarely lacking in ambition, but frequently lacking in translation. Strategies are developed, documents are published, and yet the lived experience of food systems on the ground remains fragmented, under-supported, and often disconnected from the intentions that shaped the policy itself.
This white paper introduces the Local Policy Framework (Con Viv), a practice-based model for bridging the persistent gap between policy and lived systems. Developed through 20 years of applied work across regenerative agriculture, local government, community food initiatives, and policy design, Con Viv offers a structured yet adaptive pathway for activating local food systems in ways that are economically viable, socially embedded, and ecologically regenerative.
The central insight is simple but profound: food systems are not supply chains; they are living systems. When policy treats food as logistics, it produces efficiency at the expense of resilience. When policy engages food as a relational system, connecting soil, people, economy, and governance, it produces outcomes that are both durable and adaptive.
The Local Food Policy Framework integrates seven interconnected domains: soil, body, household, community, enterprise, governance, and imagination. These domains are not theoretical categories but active layers of intervention, each grounded in real-world projects that generate what this paper terms “living data”, insights derived from implementation rather than abstraction.
For governments, the implications are significant. The framework enables more effective allocation of public funds, reduces the risk of policy failure, strengthens community engagement, and creates pathways for scaling localised solutions. Rather than investing primarily in strategy development, governments are invited to invest in demonstration, iteration, and learning through practice.
This white paper outlines the structural challenges within current food policy approaches, presents the Convivial Policy Framework in detail, and offers a clear pathway for implementation through policy briefings, pilot projects, and capacity-building programs. It is designed as both a conceptual guide and a practical tool for policy-makers, planners, and institutional leaders seeking to activate meaningful change in local food systems.
1. The Policy–Practice Gap
The global landscape of food policy is extensive. Thousands of documents exist at municipal, regional, and national levels, each articulating visions of resilience, sustainability, and food security. Yet despite this abundance of policy, the lived experience of food systems often tells a different story.
Small-scale producers struggle to access markets. Community food initiatives operate in isolation from formal systems. Public procurement processes favour large-scale suppliers, even where local alternatives exist. Food waste remains high, while food insecurity persists. The issue is not the absence of ideas; it is the absence of integration.
Over the past two decades, it has become increasingly clear that policy alone does not activate systems. Policy provides direction, but systems require participation. Policy outlines intentions, but systems evolve through relationships. The gap between these two domains is where most well-intentioned food strategies falter.
A key contributing factor is the commodification of the local food space. As interest in local food has grown, so too has the tendency to frame it within market-driven paradigms. This often results in initiatives that prioritise branding, scale, or economic metrics without adequately addressing the relational and ecological dimensions that underpin resilient food systems.
Another challenge lies in the separation of sectors. Food intersects with health, environment, planning, education, and economic development, yet policy frameworks frequently treat these domains independently. This fragmentation leads to duplicated efforts, missed opportunities, and inefficiencies in resource allocation.
Perhaps most significantly, there is a persistent absence of lived practitioner insight within policy design. Farmers, community organisers, and local food entrepreneurs hold deep, experiential knowledge of how systems function in practice. However, this knowledge is rarely integrated into formal decision-making processes in a meaningful way.
The result is a cycle in which policies are developed, implemented partially or inconsistently, and then revised without addressing the underlying disconnect between design and reality. Breaking this cycle requires a different approach — one that places practice at the centre of policy development.
2. A 20-Year Practice Lens
The Convivial Policy Framework emerges from sustained engagement across multiple scales and contexts. This includes work within local governments implementing food system strategies, the development of regenerative agricultural enterprises, the creation of community-based initiatives such as seed libraries and crop swaps, and the design of policy interventions linking food systems with energy and economic resilience.
This body of work has revealed that effective food system transformation does not occur through isolated interventions. It requires coherence across scales, from the soil microbiology of a farm to the procurement policies of a municipality. It also requires continuity over time, as systems evolve through cycles of experimentation, learning, and adaptation.
One of the most important lessons from this practice is that implementation is itself a form of research. Each project generates insights that cannot be fully anticipated in advance. These insights, when captured and shared, become a form of evidence that is grounded in reality rather than assumption.
This approach challenges traditional distinctions between research and practice. Instead of viewing research as a precursor to action, Con Viv positions research as an ongoing process embedded within action. This creates a feedback loop in which policy is continuously informed by lived experience.
The concept of “living data” is central to this approach. Unlike static reports, which capture a moment in time, living data evolves alongside the systems it describes. It reflects not only outcomes but processes, relationships, and unintended consequences. For policy-makers, this provides a richer and more nuanced basis for decision-making.
3. The Local Policy Framework
The Local Policy Framework is structured around seven interconnected domains. These domains represent key dimensions of a functioning food system and provide a scaffold for both analysis and intervention.
Soil
The foundation of any food system is the health of its soil. Regenerative practices that enhance soil fertility, biodiversity, and water retention are essential for long-term resilience. Policy interventions at this level may include support for regenerative agriculture, incentives for soil restoration, and the integration of soil health metrics into planning frameworks.
Body
Food systems ultimately exist to nourish people. This domain focuses on health outcomes, dietary patterns, and access to nutritious food. Policies that connect local production with public health initiatives can create synergies that improve both individual well-being and system resilience.
Household
At the household level, food systems are experienced daily through purchasing, preparation, and consumption. Accessibility, affordability, and cultural relevance are critical factors. Interventions may include support for local markets, food education programs, and infrastructure that enables households to engage with local food systems.
Community
Community networks are the connective tissue of local food systems. Initiatives such as community gardens, seed libraries, and cooperative enterprises foster participation and shared ownership. Policy can support these networks by providing resources, spaces, and enabling frameworks.
Enterprise
Viable small-scale enterprises are essential for sustaining local food systems. This includes farmers, processors, distributors, and retailers. Policies that reduce barriers to entry, support innovation, and create fair market conditions can strengthen this domain.
Governance
Governance structures shape the conditions under which food systems operate. This includes procurement policies, planning regulations, and institutional frameworks. Aligning governance with the needs of local food systems is critical for enabling transformation.
Imagination
The final domain recognises the role of culture, narrative, and vision in shaping systems. How a society imagines its food future influences what it considers possible. This domain invites the integration of storytelling, education, and cultural practices into policy design.
These seven domains are not discrete; they are interdependent. Effective intervention requires attention to their relationships as much as to their individual characteristics.
4. From Static Policy to Living Systems
Traditional policy processes often follow a linear trajectory: analysis, strategy development, implementation, evaluation. While this structure provides clarity, it can also create rigidity. Systems, by contrast, are dynamic and non-linear.
The Convivial (Con Viv) approach introduces a different rhythm. It emphasises iteration over completion, participation over prescription, and learning over certainty. This does not mean abandoning structure but adapting it to better reflect the nature of living systems.
A key mechanism for this shift is the use of pilot projects as policy instruments. Rather than testing ideas in isolation, pilot projects are designed as integrated interventions that generate insights across multiple domains. These projects become sites of learning, where policy-makers, practitioners, and community members engage collaboratively.
The insights generated through these projects are then fed back into policy processes, creating a cycle of continuous refinement. This approach reduces the risk of large-scale implementation failures and enables more responsive and adaptive governance.
5. Implications for Government
For governments, adopting a convivial approach to food systems has several practical implications.
First, it requires a shift in how success is measured. Traditional metrics such as output volume or economic value may need to be complemented by indicators of resilience, participation, and ecological health.
Second, it involves rethinking funding allocation. Rather than investing predominantly in strategy development, resources can be directed towards implementation and learning. This includes supporting pilot projects, facilitating collaboration, and building capacity within both institutions and communities.
Third, it calls for greater integration across departments. Food systems intersect with multiple policy areas, and effective governance requires coordination rather than fragmentation.
Fourth, it necessitates new forms of engagement with stakeholders. Moving from consultation to co-creation involves deeper and more sustained interaction with practitioners and communities.
Finally, it opens opportunities for innovation. By creating space for experimentation and learning, governments can develop solutions that are tailored to local contexts while contributing to broader systemic change.
6. Implementation Pathways
The Convivial Policy Framework can be engaged through a staged approach.
Policy Briefings
Short, focused sessions provide an introduction to the framework and its application. These briefings are designed for decision-makers and offer a clear overview of opportunities and pathways.
Pilot Projects
Place-based initiatives serve as testing grounds for the framework. These projects are co-designed with local stakeholders and generate insights that inform policy.
Capacity Building
Training programs equip staff and practitioners with the skills and understanding needed to apply the framework. This includes the Activating Local Food Systems course delivered through Living Earth College. www.livingearthcollege.org
Together, these pathways create a coherent process from awareness to implementation.
7. Conclusion
The challenges facing food systems are complex and interconnected. Addressing them requires approaches that are equally integrated and adaptive. The Local Policy Framework offers one such approach, grounded in practice and oriented towards participation, resilience, and regeneration.
The opportunity now is not simply to develop better policies, but to cultivate systems that can sustain themselves over time. This requires a willingness to engage with complexity, to learn through action, and to recognise that transformation is a collective process.
The work ahead is both practical and imaginative. It involves redesigning systems while also reimagining what those systems can be. In this sense, policy becomes not just a tool for management, but a medium for cultivation.
Call to Action
Governments, institutions, and organisations seeking to activate local food systems are invited to engage with this work.
Opportunities include:
Requesting a policy briefing
Initiating a pilot project
Enrolling staff in capacity-building program Activating Local Food Systems at Living Earth College.
Further information is available through Living Earth College. www.livingearthcollege.org
Closing Reflection
The future of food systems will not be delivered through documents alone. It will emerge through the relationships we build, the practices we cultivate, and the systems we are willing to reimagine. In this work, policy is not separate from life. It is one of the ways we shape it.
Author: Dr Emily Samuels-Ballantyne is a living systems designer, practitioner academic, and founder of Living Earth College. With over 20 years of experience working across regenerative agriculture, local government, and community food systems, her work bridges the gap between policy and lived practice.
Emily has led and contributed to place-based food system initiatives, policy innovation, and regenerative enterprise development across Australia and internationally. Her approach, known as the Convivial (Con Viv) Framework, integrates ecological, social, and economic systems into practical, participatory models for change.
She is also the steward of Magical Farm Tasmania, a regenerative herb farm and living laboratory where much of this work is grounded, tested, and evolved. Through Living Earth College, she delivers courses, policy briefings, and collaborative programs that support governments, practitioners, and communities to activate local food systems in real and measurable ways.