Leveraging university resources to build awareness, support regional food policy, and disrupt dominant narratives guiding food-based development

Food projects have become an increasingly popular engine for economic development and branding efforts to promote “creative cities” in the neoliberal context (Joassart-Marcelli & Bosco, 2017). However, proponents of food-based devel­opment often overlook the uneven impacts of such projects and neglect underlying structural, social, and environmental issues. University researchers can play a key role in raising awareness about these issues, inform food policy needs, and create university-community partnerships that can disrupt dominant narratives and support local initiatives that build capacity, equity, and resilience in regional food systems. Located in Tucson, Arizona—a UNESCO City of Gastronomy—researchers at the University of Arizona (UA)’s Center for Regional Food Studies (CRFS), in collaboration with the Climate Assessment for the Southwest (CLIMAS), endeavor to accomplish these urgent tasks through several collaborative efforts described here.