It's been an astounding week for food! Seattle hosted the illustrious Eric Holt Gimenez from Food First. Eric was on KUOW's Weekday program before heading off to speak about food sovereignty at the UW. We had trainings on healthy retail conversions and public workshops on rule changes at WIC. We had the USDA launch of listening sessions to end childhood hunger and the "Feed a Neighbor" program. All this just on the heels of Obama declaring the week of Thanksgiving the new "National Farm-City Week." President Obama recognized the “vital ties between our urban and suburban communities and their local farmers through regional food systems, farmers markets, and community gardens.”
I think it may be fair to say that the Good Food Movement has arrived!
Friday, December 4, 2009
Access to Healthy Food Starts with Planning
Across the country an array of institutions are recognizing the important role that urban and community planning play in creating healthy environments in which to live and work. The most recent example is the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which recently awarded the American Planning Association (APA) $100,000 to identify and evaluate food access goals in comprehensive and sustainability plans.
Thanks to the work of our very own Acting Food Policy Council, in 2008 the King County Comprehensive Plan was updated to state that food is as important to health and well-being as air and water. Our comprehensive plan calls a local and regional food system that is "ecologically and economically sustainable and that improves the health of the county's residents." The plan was highlighted in a fall issue of Planning Magazine, which notes that the concepts of a sustainable food system are integrated throughout the plan and include support for small-scale and family-owned farming. In addition, the plan outlines the need for reviewing the regulatory framework in which local food systems operate, particularly land use and zoning issues. The ultimate goal is to ensure that everyone in our region has access to fresh, healthy food.
The APA's Planning and Community Health Research Center will conduct the survey over the next two years and is expected to publish their report in 2012. The Center is dedicated to integrating community health issues into local and regional planning practices by advancing a program of research, outreach, education, and policy. In the Pacific Northwest, we’re lucky to be ahead of the curve in recognizing the value of this kind of approach to improve access to healthy food. And we’ll be happy to use the results of the study to further our goals around healthy food retail and to ensure that our family farms remain viable.
Thanks to the work of our very own Acting Food Policy Council, in 2008 the King County Comprehensive Plan was updated to state that food is as important to health and well-being as air and water. Our comprehensive plan calls a local and regional food system that is "ecologically and economically sustainable and that improves the health of the county's residents." The plan was highlighted in a fall issue of Planning Magazine, which notes that the concepts of a sustainable food system are integrated throughout the plan and include support for small-scale and family-owned farming. In addition, the plan outlines the need for reviewing the regulatory framework in which local food systems operate, particularly land use and zoning issues. The ultimate goal is to ensure that everyone in our region has access to fresh, healthy food.
The APA's Planning and Community Health Research Center will conduct the survey over the next two years and is expected to publish their report in 2012. The Center is dedicated to integrating community health issues into local and regional planning practices by advancing a program of research, outreach, education, and policy. In the Pacific Northwest, we’re lucky to be ahead of the curve in recognizing the value of this kind of approach to improve access to healthy food. And we’ll be happy to use the results of the study to further our goals around healthy food retail and to ensure that our family farms remain viable.
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