What's a Food Policy Council?

Food advocates have tried for years to facilitate changes to the industry from the top down, but they’ve met with minimal success. Now, rather than waiting for food policies to meander through Congress, communities are taking matters into their own hands through the power of local organization.

Although food policy councils are currently taking off across the United States, the movement first began in Toronto, Ontario, almost four decades ago. Concerned citizens formed councils in the 1980s to facilitate conversations about the direction the local food movement was heading, and to put practices in place to address its flaws. In the past decade alone, an estimated 250 food policy councils have been established across North America. While each food policy council is working toward a different end goal, all the councils are collectively linked by an agreement that the modern food system isn’t working. These councils have the flexibility to take responsibility for the health and safety of