Food Policy Councils meet to discuss, create, and determine
food policies for a city or state (as the name suggests). Although scant around North America, the few
that have sprouted up have mixed results. The mixed results were generally due
to a lack of sufficient funding as well as staff. This had me question whether
it’s better or worse for FPCs to be a part of the government or as a community
organization because both have their pros and cons. While people distrust
government as a whole, Toronto, one of the most successful FPCs, is part of the
government and seen as a public health initiative. Granted, this is also
Canadians and the Canadian government. On the other hand, I feel that generally
the public views community organizations as just..well…nonessential and sort of
“nice” to have around (not always, but generally this is what I’ve noticed). Additionally,
not being a part of government allows for more grant opportunities.
This week’s readings had me curious about Tallahassee’s FPC:
there’s nothing—nothing except a Blogspot domain from 2011. For a city
relatively invigorated with food movement organizations, that seems a little defeating.
Do you think that a Tallahassee FPC could be successful in creating better food
justice policies? If there was an FPC should it be a part of the government or
separate?
I think that a Tallahassee Food Policy Council would benefit by strengthening the Tallahassee healthy and local food movements. A Tally FPC could play a distinctive role in combining regional farmer's markets, healthy food initiatives, and governmental programs such as SNAP, so that the residents of Tally have a greater understanding of all the opportunities. Also, I think that a Tally FPC should be apart of the government, because it could help influence local food policies and urban/ regional zoning areas.
ReplyDeleteI think an FPC could be extremely successful in Tallahassee. There are many individuals that are very involved in the local food system in Tallahassee. I believe these individuals could be an excellent tool for creating awareness of food and health issues. I do think the government should at least be involved in an FPC in Tallahassee. This would make it easier for changes to take place.
ReplyDeleteDuring one of the presentations at the Sustainable You conference there was mention of a food policy workgroup in Tallahassee. I think it is associated with Sustainable Tallahassee (or maybe TFN), but there is absolutely no information about it floating around on the internet. Supposedly it was started in December of 2014, but it doesn't seem to have made an impact as of yet. Maybe sometime in the future this mysterious workgroup will result in a real food policy council with a real website or newsletter or something.
ReplyDeleteI guess the Tallahassee Food Network (TFN) operates as a food policy council in some sense as the Collards and Cornbread meetings allow people in Tallahassee to get together and discuss food-related issues which could include policies, but I think having an official food policy council that is part of Tallahassee's local government would be more efficient and influential in terms of changing policies.