In Demystifying Food Systems Policy & Breaking Down Barriers to Advocacy, participants will dive into the decision-making structures that shape our food system, explore foundational food and farming policy, and learn key tools that food and climate advocates should keep in their back pocket. This course builds on Module 1: Eating for the Planet: The Food, Health, & Climate Connection and prepares nutrition professionals with the foundational knowledge they need to disrupt ineffective, inequitable, unhealthy and unsustainable food policies that impact the climate crisis  at the local, state, and federal-levels

 OBJECTIVES

• Describe the role of policy in dictating the environmental impact of our food and farming systems 
• Explain major pieces of federal food and farming policy 
• Articulate the interplay between federal, state, and local policy 
• Summarize common advocacy tools and strategies 

PRE-READING

Mandatory: 

• Food System Policy, Public Health, and Human Rights in the United States, Shannon K, Kim B, McKenzie S, Lawrence R, 2015
• The Field Report: Will the Next Farm Bill Move the Needle on Climate Action?, Civil Eats, 2022

POST MODULE ACTIVITY (OPTIONAL)

Get familiar with your local policy landscape! 

• Dive into your state or local politics by familiarizing yourself with your state or municipal legislative website and find one pending policy that relates to the connection between food and the environment. Write up a small summary that includes a summary of the policy as well as a review of optional ways folks could advocate for this policy. Look back on the slides for help! As a bonus, can you tell who is leading the advocacy on this policy in your area?

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

• ​​The Urgent Call for a U.S. National Food Strategy, the Center for Agriculture and Food Systems at Vermont Law School, the Food Law and Policy Clinic at Harvard Law School, 2020.  
• USDA ​​Action Plan for Climate Adaptation and Resilience, USDA, 2021 
• Good Laws, Good Food: Putting Local Food Policy to Work for Our Communities, the Food Law and Policy Clinic at Harvard Law School, Center for a Liveable Future at John Hopkins, 2017