Local Foods Research

This site was originally set up in November 2007 as the home for a research project examining localism in alternative food networks in Scotland. It currently hosts information about the completed research project, the localfoods blog, and in the future will host more research regarding local food politics. The introduction page provides background information about the research, and the findings are detailed on the results page.

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Food Policy Councils

In many places, there is little systematic attention to local food systems and their impacts on people’s nutrition, and practically no planning for them. Yet these systems always need improvement. The issues will not be dealt with adequately if policymakers imagine that they can simply undertake a burst of activity and finish the work.

Moreover, no locality should rely on outside agencies to look after its nutrition situation. No one has as much concern for the well-being of local people as they themselves do. Without that, the issues are likely to be neglected, and forces of change that originate elsewhere will shape local conditions.

Thus, there is always a need for a central place in which nutrition issues could get the attention they require. Every locality should have a Food Policy Council, a permanent, broadly representative, well-supported agency whose primary responsibility is to ensure steady improvement in nutrition in all its dimensions. Creating such a council could be the single most important action taken to ensure good nutrition for all over the long run.

Full Document papgren.blogspot.com/2009/04/food-policy-councils-from-prof.html

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