The 2014 Report on Legislation Related to Food and Farming [PDF], came from the California Food Policy Council, a relatively new coalition of 26 organizations from around the state. The report tracks 15 bills that made it through the legislature this year, identifying what changes the bills proposed to make, who voted for them and whether the bills were ultimately passed into law.
You can read the story at SF Gate.
When it comes to food and agriculture policy, “the important action today is most likely to occur within states, counties and cities,” says Michael Dimock, president of the Roots of Change, in a column written to accompany a 2014 grading of California’s state legislature by his group and the California Food Policy Council. “And most concrete food system innovations have been happening there anyway.” That’s why he says the CFPC began publishing its annual report on California.
You can read the story at Politico.
From the labeling of sugary drinks and genetically engineered foods to a proposed increase to the statewide minimum wage, California’s legislature has tackled no shortage of hot-button issues related to food policy in the past year. According to a new report, a total of 22 bills appeared before the state legislature that advocates believed would have a sweeping impact on making California’s food system more sustainable and equitable.
You can read the full story in the East Bay Express.
From the labeling of sugary drinks and genetically engineered foods to a proposed increase to the statewide minimum wage, California’s legislature has tackled no shortage of hot-button issues related to food policy in the past year. According to a new report, a total of 22 bills appeared before the state legislature that advocates believed would have a sweeping impact on making California’s food system more sustainable and equitable.
You can read the story at Politico.
By Justin Rausa, Roots of Change.
I live in Oakland, California, around the corner from a trendy bar that touts more than a dozen local beers on tap and even more craft brews by the bottle. Down the street from me is a homeless encampment under a freeway overpass, where people look for empathy, money and food.
You can read the full story in Al Jazeera America.
During an interview with Kim Kessler, former feader of the NYC mayor’s Office of Food Policy and host of NYC’s Heritage radio program Eating Matters, ROC’s President Michael Dimock talks about his latest projects as well as recent legislation concerning food, and what he has observed having been in the trenches lobbying for the food movement issues.
Heare more on Heritage Radio Network.
Michael Dimock, president of Roots of Change, a nonprofit working to assure healthy, ecological and affordable food in California, will share his perspective on how every person has a stake in the next phase of the food revolution.
Hear more on The Daily Journal.
A group of San Francisco organizations is holding the two candidates accountable for their positions on food and farming. On October 6, David Campos and David Chiu will debate one another at “Your Food, Your Vote,” an event organized by CUESA, the San Francisco Urban Agriculture Alliance and the SF Marin Food Bank.
Read the article in Inside Scoop SF.
The U.S. Farmers and Ranchers Alliance (US-FRA) waded deep into issues of animal welfare and GMO (genetically modified) foods during the June 10 “Food Dialogues” in Chicago, a discussion it hosted regarding the marketing efforts of food professionals in response to consumers’ increased demand for information about their food. More
It’s not easy being green. Ron Rutherford has been toiling for a year now, trying to sustain a community garden in a vacant lot. Heaped with junk, strewn with hypodermic needles, the dusty plot in Sacramento’s Oak Park was a mess in the autumn of 2012 when he bumped into a couple of neighbors clearing trash there. The neighbors saw blight; Rutherford, a resident of public housing, saw a shot at cheap produce. So they got the lot owner’s permission and on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, they did a communal planting. After a week or two, though, it became clear why so many still view urban agriculture as an oxymoron.