The Growing Food Connections team is pleased to announce that the Planning and Policy Brief Series now has another installment, Food Aggregation, Processing, and Distribution: The Local Government’s Role in Supporting Food System Infrastructure for Fruits and Vegetables.  This new brief describes the policy, regulatory, programmatic, and funding implications of food aggregation, processing, and distribution. Through a policy lens, the brief explores diversifying and growing the ways that small and mid-sized farmers and food businesses can reach consumers, filling gaps in the current food distribution system to meet demand for local, sustainably produced products and better allowing local producers to meet the rapidly changing demands of local food markets.

The Growing Food Connections Planning and Policy Brief Series highlights promising planning and policy strategies used by local governments across North America to promote agricultural viability and/or healthy food access. Drawing heavily from the Communities of Innovation research, each brief delves into one specific food systems planning or policy issue, explains the significance of the issue and how the issue is connected to other social, economic, and ecological issues within a community, and offers 3 to 5 innovative, planning and policy examples to address the issue. This series explores a range of food systems issues such as incentivizing access to healthy food, developing local food procurement policies, financing food infrastructure, planning for the food system, and much more. Local government staff, elected and appointed officials, and non-governmental organizations alike will find this series helpful in their efforts to strengthen their community’s food system.

For more information and to download these free publications, visit http://growingfoodconnections.org/publications/briefs/planning-and-policy-briefs/