The APA-FIG Leadership Committee is pursuing status as an APA Division. To make this happen we are required to complete APA’s official petition. We need 300 signatures and, so far,  we’re over half way there with 160 signatures. Help us reach our goal of 200 by August 1!

Here’s four easy ways to help!

1. Sign the petition. (Note: you must be an APA member to sign the petition).
2. Share the petition with other APA members of your regional or state APA chapters.
3. Share with your colleagues through our Facebook and Twitter posts.
4. Support the leadership committee as we make the transition from an interest group to a division. Please email Kara Martin at kara@foodinnovationnetwork.org.

Why become a division?

Last fall we survey APA-FIG members online and over 94% were support becoming an official division. Here’s why in a nutshell:

Food is a sustaining and enduring necessity. Yet among the basic essentials for life — air, water, shelter, and food — only food has been absent as a focus of serious professional planning interest. With the 2007 adoption of the Policy Guide on Community and Regional Food Planning, the American Planning Association signaled its intent to include the food system as a critical area of planning interest. Since 2007, APA has provided a steady and growing body of guidance on community and regional food systems planning (e.g. PAS Reports, Memos, Essential Info Packets, and, importantly, the creation of APA’s Food Systems Interest Group (APA-FIG) in 2009). This collective guidance has helped bring to the forefront the cross-sectional impact of food systems on community and regional planning as a critical component of a healthy, sustainable, and resilient community.

What we will do as a division?

As a Division, our fundamental goal is to help planners build stronger, more just, equitable, and self-reliant local, community, and regional food systems. By serving as a platform for collaboration, information, and leadership, we will:

• Advance the profession of food systems planning so that it is recognized as a core area of community and regional planning practices.
• Integrate principles of food systems planning with more traditional planning practices of  land use, transportation, economic development, parks and recreation, housing, and other areas of mainstream planning practice.
• Provide leadership and intellectual resources to APA members and staff on food systems planning policies and issues.
• Host networking, resource sharing, education, and professional development and mentoring opportunities to new and seasoned planners and allied professionals.
• Engage other planners and allied professionals to shape local, state, regional, and federal food policy.

Please support APA-FIG as we take this next big step together!

Thanks,

APA-FIG Leadership Committee