Concern about food generally begins in one of two places.
First, action often emerges from concerns on the consumption side tied to issues of food security and ensuring that people have access to healthy and nutritious food.
These concerns tend to focus on both individual-level food security related to poverty and the impact of rising food prices and also structural barriers, such as the growth of food deserts (neighbourhoods without access due to distance or costs of transport to places that sell fruit and vegetables) and the proliferation of fast-food and junk-food outlets.
A prominent global example of the former is the protests and social unrest in 2007-08 related to the global food crisis.
The protest and exploration of alternative access to food in the Port Chalmers/west harbour area over the closure of the supermarket provides a smaller-scale and local example of people coming together to address structural barriers to access.
A second source of action comes from concerns on the production side of food.
Globally, farmers and producer groups have a long history of resistance against land consolidation, trade agreements, access to markets, use of genetically modified organisms and control over production processes, fertilizer inputs, water and their related environmental impacts.
These concerns are reflected in the global Via Campesina movement that coordinates peasant organisations, small and mid-sized producers, agricultural workers and indigenous organisations.
The focus of their activities has led to the term ''food sovereignty'' as a means to shift the discussion beyond access to food to address issues of control.
Food sovereignty suggests that those people involved in producing, distributing and consuming food should have control over food production processes and policies.
The really exciting changes occur when both of these approaches come together.
One good example is from West Oakland, California.
West Oakland is a neighbourhood of about 25,000 residents who have higher-than-average poverty and obesity rates and lower life expectancy rates than surrounding neighbourhoods.
Despite numerous fast-food outlets and over 50 liquor and convenience stores, the community did not have a grocery store, a very clear problem with food security.
At the same time, small-scale farmers on the urban fringe were under-resourced and lacked access to distribution hubs that serviced the major grocery chains.
Local producers were faced with a food system in which they were no longer relevant.
A range of initiatives emerged to make the connection between access and control over the food system in West Oakland.
One of the early catalysts for change was the Healthy Neighbourhood Stores Alliance that worked with existing convenience stores to include fresh and healthy foods produced by small-scale farmers in the region.
This resulted in an alternative warehousing and distribution system that provided access for local farmers to supply fresh food and vegetables to convenience stores and to establish new mini-farmers' markets in the neighbourhood.
City Slicker Farms was another project that worked to transform vacant land into more than 80 small urban farms.
The produce from these farms now supports a weekly farm stand.
Another related initiative is the Mandela Food Cooperative, a worker-owned and worker operated full-service grocery store and education centre that sources food from small producers in the region.
The myriad responses also includes community supported agriculture schemes, backyard gardening programmes and agricultural job-training initiatives for youths, among others.
Obviously, West Oakland is a very different context than Dunedin, but it still offers many inspiring lessons.
Taken in isolation, each of the individual initiatives in West Oakland could be dismissed as being too small or insignificant.
However, when viewed as an interconnected whole, it provides a powerful alternative where a community has taken back control of its food system to improve access and outcomes for both producers and consumers.
• Sean Connelly is a lecturer in the department of geography at the University of Otago. Each week in this column, one of a panel of writers addresses issues of sustainability.
