This resource defines food systems resilience in the context of the climate crisis and explores key concepts for building equitable and resilient local and regional food systems.

As the climate crisis causes devastating emergencies across food systems, investment in and implementation of long-term equity-centered resilience planning becomes even more important. Building a shared understanding of language and concepts is an important first step.

The prevalence of “resilience” as a term and concept in research articles, government documents and programming, and media stories has increased over the last five to 10 years, with a rapid influx since 2020. Many new government-funded programs and philanthropic funding target “resilience” goals, metrics, and outcomes at community, municipal, state, Tribal, and national levels.

As more support emerges for building resilient systems—including food, transportation, energy, emergency response, and more—it may become more difficult to maintain a shared understanding of what is meant by resilience. The term resilience has always had multiple definitions and applications across sectors, so it can be difficult to be specific about what resilience means across a variety of contexts.

This resource is intended for local, regional, and state planners and policy makers, food policy councils, and advocacy groups tasked with addressing the multi-dimensional and disparate impacts of climate change in their respective jurisdictions.

This publication was made possible with support from the United States Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Library, Agricultural Research Service.