On 3-5 July 2017, the University of Sydney will be hosting the 2017 Australasian conference of the Regional Studies Association. One of the objectives of this conference is to bring food policy concerns into regional development governance and research agendas, and to this end, the following Special Session will be convened:

You are where you eat? What role for geography, spatial planning and regional development in the quest for healthier and more sustainable food systems

 Session Organisers: Bill Pritchard, School of Geosciences, University of Sydney bill.pritchard@sydney.edu.au,Elspeth Probyn, School of Gender and Cultural Studies, University of Sydney elspeth.probyn@sydney.edu.au, Teresa Davis, Business School, University of Sydney teresa.davis@sydney.edu.au, Belinda Reeve, Law School, University of Sydney belinda.reeve@sydney.edu.au, Alexandra Jones, George Institute for Public Health,ajones@georgeinstitute.org.au

 The aim of this session is to create an arena for cross-disciplinary consideration of how complex geographical factors help influence patterns of food production and consumption, within an overall agenda of seeking to promote healthier and more sustainable food systems. We welcome a broad range of papers including (but not limited to): the influence of environmental factors in diet and health; the potential use of urban and regional planning tools to alter production and consumption systems; the politics, economics and sociology of localism and regional food branding; the role of place in the creation, evolution and transformation of food cultures; spatial difference and inequality in diets and access to foods; food miles and sustainability metrics in the food syatem.

The session dovetails with the broader conference theme, which is to assess the varied manifestations of regional inequality and fragmentation in the contemporary world. It is co-sponsored by the Sydney Environment Institute, the Australian Food Society and Culture Network, and the Food Governance Node of the Charles Perkins Centre.

For more information, and to submit a paper for the session, please consult the conference website or contact one of the session organisers, listed above  http://www.regionalstudies.org/conferences/special-sessions/sydney-2017