Wayne’s Weekly Hacks: Policy on Policy

Sustainable food is having a moment. Global food corporations blasted by global food movements over the past three decades are lining up to pledge for sustainability (as here and here). 

A belated welcome to them! It’s a sign that a majority of people are moving toward sustainability. At long last,  we have time and space to talk food policy – the theme of this issue.

That said, I’m dismayed that the media gave the likes of Pepsi a free pass. No calls came to us for comment. Too bad, because genuine sustainability requires tough customers who can spot greenwashers. 

My hacks come out of 55 years as a social change leader, 45 years as a writer of 13 books, thousands of articles and hundreds of leaflets, and ten years as a career and social media coach for emerging food leaders.

WE NEED GOOD POLICY 
ON GOOD FOOD POLICY

Honesty is the best policy when it comes to good food policy. 

Honestly, we need to rethink food policy for this day and age in four ways.

First, I think food policies (plural) can do a lot more than the stand alone and singular capital-P Policy we have traditionally talked about.

• We need pilot policies on backyard chickens – like the one in Toronto that caused a reporter to ask What the flock? The biggest policy fear is fear itself, so why not allay fears with a pilot?
• We need ‘little p’ policies on hundreds of makeshift or stand-alone projects that can become a thing – like pollinator gardens or rain gardens, wherever they can be wedged into a space.
• In Massachusetts, there’s an inspired pilot to provide people on low income facing health risks with extra food to see if that will bring down the state’s medical costs.

Policy may be dead! Long live policies!!

Second, when problem-solving requires consistent rules, legal enforcement, and significant resources, government must be the main player. In a democracy, such heavy lifting by government is triggered by a vote on a policy. Wage and working conditions in food operations, food safety practices, and regulations on deceptive food ads are now and will forever be typical government initiatives.

Third, comprehensive food policy is inevitably linked to a strategy that links food policies to policies about health, energy, water, land use, and so on. The need of the moment is policy that responds to overlapping collapses and crises in the environment, society and economy. Whole-of-government/ whole-of-society thinking is indispensable. To succeed, such measures require vigorous popular support to overcome three entrenched forces — neoliberal and austerity-minded approaches to funding, government departments locked into separate silos, bureaucratic hierarchies preventing cooperation among government staff and with engaged citizens.

No much use starting such a project without the will and resources to run the marathon.

The fourth point is today’s bold new policy opportunity. Policy is no longer the monopoly of governments. Faith groups can adopt policies—to buy fair trade tea, coffee and cacao in bulk and sell it at congregational events, for example. Neighborhood groups, business improvement associations, and unions can adopt policy. Universities can adopt policies to buy local and sustainable food. The power of public and para-public purses is more widely available   than ever before. As well, the talents of citizens for self government and leadership are higher than ever before. We need to look ahead to a world of policy partnerships.

Policy wonks still have purpose and value. But policy belongs in fields of action.  
 

“There’s nothing more political than food. Who eats? Who doesn’t? Why do people cook what they cook? It is always the end or a part of a long story, often a painful one.”

Anthony Bourdain

These count for your Food Policy Wonk Diploma…

This is music to a policy geek’s ears. 

This explains the concept of Food in All Policies – meaning food is embedded of all departments of a government,  either because food policy helps meet the goals of that department (health, for example), or because that department can do something to promote food security (public transit, for example). 

Here’s a golden oldie by me on the core value of public policy.  

Being a reporter on grassroots projects sometimes gave me glimpses into the future — as here and also here. 

Here’s an article by me and Lori Stahlbrand on the need to shift from food policy to critical food guidance.

“But it is also clear that left entirely untouched by public policy, the capitalist system will produce more inequality than is socially healthy or than is necessary for maximum efficiency.”

Barney Frank

Not waiting for Godot

Mark Winne’s latest book, Food Town USA, grew out of his 40-plus years as a local food activist. His Pro Tip is to go local. 

Winne believes policy gains can be made by working in partnerships at the grassroots level, not by yelling into the wind that “the food system is broken. I want to see grand scheme policy change, but I’m not into spending my life waiting for Godot,” he says.

If you add up all the American changes at the local level over the last decade, Winne says, it comes to billions of dollars. 

Winne says the US federal government funds community-supported programs to double up the purchasing power of people on a low income who purchase fruits and vegetables from farmers’ markets and supermarkets. (This program, which features multiple benefits for local communities, is explained  in Oran Hesterman’s book, Fair Food.)  Many more millions of dollars flow into local communities for nutrition improvement from the federal USDA program GUSNIP, which honors local food champion Gus Schumacher. As well, money for farm-to-school and school gardens goes to hundreds of schools, Winne says. The money not only boosts local food sales, he says. It also boosts local infrastructure and organizations.

These campaigns win because “food happens at the local and community level,” Winne says.  Local community groups and governments often rely on federal grants, and the local pressure to release federal coffers for valued community programs is relentless, he argues.

We eventually need to tap into mammoth federal funds such as the Farm Bill and Child Nutrition Bill, Winne says. “But right now, the priority is to get some fundamental change happening on the ground.”

For activists, Winne says, policy is an “existential challenge. People want to know: What can I do now? and Where can I be most effective?”  

“The dream is free. The hustle is sold separately.”

(authorship contested –what else do you expect from hustlers??)

Worth a Hill of Beans

Read On

John Lanchester’s brilliant article on Universal Basic Income does three things at once. First, he calls out the left for failure to advance bold policy that chops through the Gordian Knot of complex, compound, intertwined and overlapping messes of problems. Second, he convincingly presents Universal Basic Income as such a Knot cutter. Third, he makes the case that robust and dynamic policy needs to be at-the-ready whenever opportunity arises. So get down to it, and be ready, like the neoliberals were back in the day. 

You can access the article for free, but you have to register.

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