This briefing paper discusses how planners can become involved in planning for food production, processing, and distribution, while also improving access to healthy foods. A good resource to share with upper management, elected officials, and interested stakeholders to provide a succinct overview of the topic and the opportunities and challenges it brings.
Blog Archives
The Food System: A Stranger to the Planning Field
This article, widely regarded as a seminal piece of food systems literature and research, helped spark conversations about food within the planning field at the turn of the twenty-first century. After a comprehensive examination of planning literature and a survey of planning agencies, the researchers concluded that the food system was largely ignored by the planning community. As a result, this article helped lay the foundations for planning intervention on the grounds of food as a basic necessity and as a component of interconnected community systems.
Getting to Grocery: Tools for Attracting Healthy Food Retail to Underserved Neighborhoods
This report identifies the challenges and opportunities of bringing a grocery store into low-income neighborhoods. The report presents various ideas to attract more businesses to open in these types of neighborhoods, and offers tools to help advocates and public agencies coordinate their efforts.
Food Policy Councils: Food Systems Planning Briefing Paper
This report provides an overview of food policy councils, charts the functions of planners on food policy councils in a detailed matrix, highlights common ways that planning departments support food policy councils, and offers lessons learned. It draws upon the experience of four food policy councils
Shifting Plates in the Agrifood Landscape: The Tectonics of Alternative Agrifood Initiatives in California
This article reviews the discussion of agrifood initiatives within the academic literature, analyzes the history of such initiatives in the context of California, and discusses the results of the researchers.
Licensing for Lettuce: A Guide to the Model Licensing Ordinance for Healthy Food Retailers
This resource provides a model ordinance that requires food retailers, especially corner stores, to stock healthier products. The ordinance changes business licensing policies to require all food stores (not including restaurants) to carry a minimum selection of healthy food and meet other basic operating standards. This resource also provides business owners with information on how they can partner with local government, health professionals, and community organizations to develop a beneficial relationship for business owners and consumers.
Planning for Agriculture: A Guide for Connecticut Municipalities
This guide provides a primer and introductory toolkit for planners and municipal officials in Connecticut on planning for agriculture. It outlines a broad range of tools and resources available to help local governments plan for agriculture. The guide focuses on the current challenges facing agriculture and provides specific ways the practice of agriculture, from planting and cultivating to processing and marketing, is affected and sometimes hindered by current rules and regulations.
Practicing Food Democracy: A Pragmatic Politics of Transformation
This article explores the tensions between stakeholders of the alternative agrifood movement. The author makes the case for
Green for Greens: Finding Public Financing for Healthy Food Retail
This guide provides a general overview of economic development and ideas for how to approach economic development agencies with healthy food retail proposals. It also provides a comprehensive overview of local, state, and federal economic development programs that have been or could be used for healthy food retail projects.
Planning for Agriculture in New York: A toolkit for Towns and Counties
This guide helps communities engage farmers and rural landowners in local planning efforts; assesses current town policies and their effectiveness; and provides a range of tools available to help New York towns and counties support local farms. The guide contains case studies demonstrating how towns and counties are successfully planning for agriculture. Publications, state laws, local plans and ordinances are available online by opening the resource index.