Food Policy Resources

Following a brief description on food security and the roots of food policy - or the lack thereof - this paper examines the need for public participation in food policy and provides two illustrations from the Canadian experience. What emerges is the realization that the energy to engage citizens in discussions around the food system is not coming primarily from policy makers, but rather from citizens themselves who have organized and initiated processes to influence policy from the ground up.

Created by Kenton Lobe

The first national Native Food Summit was held in Albuquerque, New Mexico on November 15-17, 2002. The Native Food Summit was attended by 113 participants representing tribes, nonprofit organizations, educational institutions, foundations, and the federal government. The Native Food Summit helped participants increase their understanding of Native agriculture and food systems, build new partnerships, and strengthen networks. At the same time, the working groups provided an opportunity for participants to identify major policy issues related to Native agriculture and food systems. This report is a summary of the event sessions and policy recommendations from Summit working groups.

Created by Sarah Dewees

This report provides a toolkit of standardized measurement tools for assessing various aspects of community food security. It includes a general guide to community assessment and focused materials for examining six basic assessment components related to community food security. These include guides for profiling general community characteristics and community food resources as well as materials for assessing household food security, food resource accessibility, food availability and affordability, and community food production resources.

Created by Barbara Cohen, Margaret Andrews, and Linda Scott Kantor

This Platform provides access to a comprehensive database of resources related to urban policies and programmes, to achieve sustainable urban food systems. It covers a wide range of aspects: Governance and planning, Sustainable diets and nutrition, Social and economic equity, Food production and ecosystem management, Food supply and distribution, Food loss and waste. This collection of information and evidences from various types of organizations (FAO and non-FAO) and practitioners includes: Knowledge Documents (articles, reports, case studies, etc.) and Policy Documents (policy briefs, actions plan, guidelines, reports, etc.) in different formats.
A dedicated section lists global and regional Events. 

A searchable collection of local public policies that explicitly support community food systems. This database provides policymakers, government staff, and others interested in food policy with concrete examples of local public policies that have been adopted to address a range of food systems issues: rural and urban food production, farmland protection, transfer of development rights, food aggregation and distribution infrastructure, local food purchasing and procurement, healthy food access, food policy councils, food policy coordination, food system metrics, tax reductions and exemptions for food infrastructure, and much more.

The legislation database tracks federal policies from 2010-2019 and all state policies related to obesity and diet-related diseases in issue areas including access to healthy food, breastfeeding, farms and gardens, school nutrition and physical activity, food assistance programs, marketing/advertising to children, menu and package labeling, and food and beverage taxes.