Good Laws, Good Food: Putting Local Food Policy to Work for Our Communities

Good Laws, Good Food: Putting Local Food Policy to Work for Our Communities was formulated in response to the recent growth in the number of new local food policy councils, with these food policy councils intended as our main audience. However, this toolkit should also be helpful to a wide range of individuals and groups— extending from nonprofits to city planners to local government agencies—interested in enacting change in their local food system. The information and advice provided here are general enough to assist any interested individual or organization, but as our main goal is to serve local food policy councils, specific suggestions and details geared towards these entities are emphasized throughout.

Though many aspects of this guide are applicable to policy change at several levels of government and may reference policy change at various levels of government, it is important to keep in mind that it is a local food policy toolkit. It thus assumes a focus on local policy, meaning the laws and policies that are created at the municipal city or county level, and on local systems of production, distribution, and consumption. Good Laws, Good Food: Putting Local Food Policy to Work for Our Communities is Part I of a two-part series. This guide will be followed by a state-level food policy toolkit, Good Laws, Good Food: Putting State Food Policy to Work for Our Communities, which will provide more specific guidance, opportunities, and examples for state food policy councils and state level policy change.

These food policy council toolkits are intended as part of a greater set of information to help food policy councils with their formation and success. This toolkit was produced in partnership with the Community Food Security Coalition’s Food Policy Council Division, which simultaneously published a manual entitled Getting Started: A Guide to Food Policy Council Development. Getting Started helps to provide guidance to interested stakeholders and groups hoping to form a new food policy council or expand an existing food policy council.  [Harvard Food and Law Policy Clinic in partnership with the Community Food Security Coalition, July 2012]