Tucson, Arizona is host to a rich agricultural history as well as a rapidly expanding local culinary scene, helping earn the city of more than half a million people the coveted title of UNESCO City of Gastronomy in 2015. But what makes Tucson unique is how their thriving food scene came to be—by leveraging the efforts and innovation of community members from all parts of the food system and building from the ground up.
Read MoreTucson prides itself on being the metropolis in North America with the oldest continuous history of agriculture within its city limits: 4,100 year old corn remains and 3,500 year old irrigation ditches can be found just a few miles from its downtown. While such an extraordinary cultural heritage of cultivating and processing native foods certainly matters to UNESCO, the City of Gastronomy honor came on the basis the city’s capacity for entrepreneurial innovations grounded in social and ecological values unique to this place.
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