food policy

New York City is a food town, perhaps THE food town in the United States. Our health, economy, and environment are inextricably tied to our food system. During the past decade, undeniable progress has been made to raise awareness of, and improve, the City’s food system. But much work still remains. Climate change, the loss of regional farmland, and the lack of new farmers threaten our food system. Hunger stubbornly persists in our midst. And, our economy, still struggling back from the Great Recession, presents food system challenges and opportunities.

What better way to call for a better New York City food future than in the context of a recipe?  And so, Food Systems Network NYC (FSNYC) presents the Recipe for the Future of Food in New York City as a vision for food systems change. The Recipe offers our city’s food communities—anti-hunger, health, agriculture, distribution, labor, and eaters— the opportunity to engage in cooking up a better food system through conversation, collaboration, and advocacy that will inspire our city’s leaders to act, beginning with mayoral candidates.  FSNYC believes that a mayor and elected officials who understand the importance of food is critical to achieving a fairer and more sustainable, resilient, and economically stronger food system that will benefit every New Yorker.

by Yi Wang & Eric Weltman, Food and Water Watch
February 2012
 
American farm policy and corporate mergers have created powerful agribusiness giants with dominant market shares—corporations that control virtually every of segment of the industrial food system. A leading agricultural economist in 2002 concluded that consolidation across the food system has hurt farmers and consumers more than the efficiency gains it has generated.1  While monopolies and oligopolies have captured the bulk of the profits, small and midsized family farms have gotten squeezed out. Workers face exploitative conditions and consumers end up paying higher prices, with millions living in food deserts without access to fresh food.

There is a growing movement to (re)build food systems that are good, local, sustainable, and fair. Alternative certification schemes such as organic and Fair Trade and marketing channels such as farmers markets, food hubs, and community-supported agriculture (CSAs) offer practical examples of visions for a more equitable and sustainable food system. Unfortunately, voting with our wallets and forks alone is not enough. As the ‘alternative food movement’ works at the local level to restore links between consumers and farmers, urban and rural, and to secure justice and rights for workers, we must also address the rules that govern the food system. The next Farm Bill presents a critical opportunity to chip away at the power of agribusiness and to build fair and sustainable local food systems.

by Mark Dunlea
1/10/12

The Food and Farm Bill is up for renewal, something that occurs about once every five years. The Farm Bill is how the federal government sets overall food and agricultural policy for the country…to a great extent it determines what we eat and how it is produced. Until recently, the Farm Bill was on a fast track, slated to be passed in December as part of the late Super Committee process. Leaders of the House and Senate Agriculture Committees, arguing that they understood the needs of rhe farming community, undertook proposing $23 billion in Farm Bill Ag budget cuts over ten years to help meet the nation’s deficit reduction goals.

by Kerry Trueman

A lawsuit filed on behalf of small family farmers against agribiz behemoth Monsanto brought farmers from all over the country to downtown Manhattan's Thurgood Marshall U.S. Courthouse last Tuesday, January 31st. The lawsuit, OSGATA (Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association) et al vs. Monsanto, was filed on behalf of 300,000 organic and non-GMO farmers and citizens seeking protection "from ever being accused of infringing patents on transgenic (GMO) seed.” While the plaintiffs attended the hearing, hundreds of supporters gathered at a rally across the street at Foley Square organized by Food Democracy Now! and Occupy Big Food. Among the speakers was Lisa Stokke, co-founder and associate director for Food Democracy Now!, who read a statement from Joan Dye Gussow that neatly sums up what's at stake in this quintessentially David v. Goliath case:

by Ed Yowell
April 4, 2011

Sedgwick, Maine, a town of about 1,200 souls, on Saturday, March 5, 2011, took on the State of Maine and the United States of America in a food fight of constitutional magnitude. On that day, Sedgwick residents struck a blow for their food sovereignty by adopting their Local Food and Community Self-Governance Ordinance.

The Ordinance, probably the first of its kind in the nation, is based on a template offered by a local group, Food for Maine’s Future. It begins, “We, the People of the Town of Sedgwick, Hancock County, Maine, have the right to produce, process, sell, purchase and consume local foods thus promoting self-reliance, the preservation of family farms, and local food traditions.” Citing authority in The Declaration of Independence, the Maine Constitution, and the Maine Revised Statutes (but not the United States Constitution), the Ordinance provides that, “Producers or processors of local foods…are exempt from licensure and inspection provided that the transaction is only between the producer or processor and a patron when the food is sold for home consumption.”

The Ordinance, regarding “State and Federal Law,” provides that, “It shall be unlawful for any law or regulation adopted by the state or federal government to interfere with the rights recognized by this Ordinance.” And, regarding liability, the Ordinance provides that, “Patrons…may enter into private agreements with…producers or processors…to waive any liability for the consumption of that (local) food.”

The Farm Bill, the Field and the Players
Ed Yowell and Fern Gale Estrow
February 2011

Last month we examined the evolution of the Farm Bill, focusing particularly on the Commodity Programs and Nutrition Titles and, in the 2008 Farm Bill, initiatives supporting local and healthy food systems. This month, we will examine the field and the players that will produce the 2012 Farm Bill. 

WHO’S ON FIRST?

The beginning point of a new Farm Bill is the end point of the old Farm Bill. Old programs and new initiatives will be considered, as will the cost of it all. The beginning “baseline” budget, against which the five year costs of the new Farm Bill will be measured, is, in most instances, the result of projecting the cost of the old Farm Bill through the next five years. As with its predecessors, the likely omnibus nature of the 2012 Farm Bill, in the best of political and fiscal times, will provide for give and take among the various interested players; big agriculture, small farmers, food activists, etc. In the worst of those times, it will make for “knock down, drag out” philosophical and budget wars.

An Introduction and Brief History of the Farm Bill
January 2011
Ed Yowell and Fern Gale Estrow

The United States, for better and worse, has a long history in farm and food policy. During the 19th century we sought to fulfill our “Manifest Destiny,” the supposed pre-ordained right to expand our dominion, often by transferring Native American land to white American homesteaders, and we established land grant colleges, furthering American agricultural science and technology. During the 20th century, American policy was manifested in federal programs, the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933, supporting farmers with the establishment of farm price and income supports, and the Food Stamp Act of 1964, creating the Food Stamp Program, now known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

by Lynn Fredericks, FamilyCook Productions

Last December, New York City Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn announced “FoodWorks New York”, a new effort by the City Council to produce the first ever "comprehensive plan to use New York City’s food system to create jobs, improve public health and protect the environment. "  This was pretty exciting for those of us who have the health of our city and region's food system in the forefront of our daily efforts and look to policymakers for innovation and frameworks for positive change. This month, our FSNYC Communications Committee checked in with Speaker Quinn to learn more about the initiative and its rationale vis a vis other policy  developments intended to support healthy food systems within our region.