The Community Food Forest Handbook: How to Plan, Organize, and Nurture Edible Gathering Places

Written by Catherine Bukowski and John Munsell, this important book deserves to be read widely. There is a renewed interest worldwide in creating places where nutured forest sanctuaries can thrive with edible harvests that change everything about how we relate to trees. These edible forests can solve both community and social problems, but they must be anchored in practical wisdom and solid strategic planning or the original charm of the idea will not take hold. ,p>This book is the type of planning tool that people interested in food forests will find timely. It is one thing to think they sound cool or find they look pretty, but forests change and demand a certain type of stewardship. As the introduction by LaManda Joy states, "planning and adaptation are particularly important for community food forests...Individuals, volunteer organizations, school clubs and the general public have helped establish community food forests...Many volunteers sign up to maintain a site, but a forest ecosystem matures slowly and visual change will gradually plateau. The same may happen to volunteer interest and even project leadership."

Part One of the book, Understanding Community Food Forests, talks about the rise of food forests and the concurrent societal shifts. The book then delves into interrelated systems. With a section titled: Systems Thinking and Community Food Forests, the authors build on the discussion of systems concepts. A the third chapter addresses community assets, finances and investing in the future. This chapter has a refreshing approach, by including discussions of social, human, cultural and financial capital, as well as ongoing food literacy.

Part 2 of the book opens with the title: Meaningful Planning, a section which supplies a number of photos and charts. It talks about independent vs nested projects, strategies for avoiding common pitfalls, safety issues, maintenance and issues around public policy, along with a number of other mini-topics of interest. The next chapter in this section addressed planning and creating a theory of change. Advocating for plans that walk backwards from the ultimate goal, the authors state, "by working in reverse, outcomes are not taken for granted but critically challenged before being included in support of previously determined steps." This chapter also discusses time planning and adresses "short-term outcomes and long-term impacts" for stakeholders. The next part of the book explores some history and examples, and is actually one of the better parts of the book in a way, because it is a really good primer on the movement itself.

Chapter 8, titled The Role of Agroecology, addresses how scientific practices that are "reflecting traditional ecological knowledge" inform both permaculture and agroecology. It explain how both practices, while different, resemble and compliment each other in a food forest project, as, similar to permaculture, "agroecology combines land management science, indigeneous knowledge, and traditional farming practice." The rest of the book is packed with inspiring case examples, presenting ideas such as collaborative leadership and other ideas presented in the earlier chapters in action with real people working on real success stories.

By the time readers arrive at the concluding chapter, Looking Back, Moving Forward, we are extremely well-versed in the food forest movement and hopefully engaged by the work needed to be done to meet it's challenges. I highly recommend reading this book, it will make you wonder how many ancient food forests may be hidden under forest canopy worldwide and how many past food forests are in danger or have already been turned into paper products and fuels by a society just awakening to the need to protect and nurture this indispensable food security solution.

Bukowski, C., & Munsell, J. (2018). The Community Food Forest Handbook: How to plan, organize, and nurture edible gathering places. Chelsea Green Publishing.