NESAWG’s annual It Takes a Region Conference brings together farm and food systems practitioners across the 12-state Northeast region to learn, debate, collaborate, and innovate solutions to critical food systems issues. Each year, we look at the trajectory of the food and farm movement and the role our network can play in shaping its future. We offer in-depth working sessions that tackle important questions about our regional food system and how to strengthen it, drawing from the collective expertise and wisdom of conference attendees.

This year’s conference theme is Tackling Wicked Problems in Food Systems.Wicked problems are not any old problems that just won’t go away. They are longstanding, complex, and difficult to define. “Wicked” does not imply “evil,” rather it means “hard to fix.”  Wicked problems are caused by multiple factors and lack agreed-upon solutions. The complex and uncertain nature of these issues requires broad engagement and dialogue from all who are impacted. In our collective work towards food system sustainability and justice, we constantly encounter wicked problems: food insecurity, farm viability, racism, and climate change to name a few. While we cannot expect immediate solutions, we can collaborate across sectors to mitigate short-term impacts and develop workable, longer-term approaches to these intractable issues.