Author: andreapetzel

Faces of Food Systems: Zach Jaffe

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Current Role: Masters in Urban Planning Candidate, University of Washington 

Zach harvesting olives with relatives at his aunt and uncle’s farm.

What’s your favorite food?

This is such a hard question, but right now I would say a ham and cheese sandwich on a baguette with lots of butter and an espresso.

What do you enjoy about your work?

Currently, I am working as a researcher studying recent housing policy in Washington State. This is a new experience for me, having never done academic research before. Most of the research is qualitative in nature, and we are interviewing stakeholders involved in the political process from advocates to lobbyists to legislators. My favorite thing has been getting to hear how different each perspective can be on the same story, and really learning how the sausage gets made at the state level in Washington.

What do you find challenging about your work?

I think the hard part is trying to take a bunch of different narratives and perspectives, sometimes conflicting, and turning it into a cohesive story. At the same time, unpacking this complexity is also very interesting and fun.

What areas of the food system do you encounter or focus on in your work? Where does food fit in with the rest of the work that you do?

I recently entered the world of planning about two years ago at the age of 30. Prior to that most of my career had been in various parts of the food industry. I’ve worked in farm-to-table restaurants, cafes, wine/cheese shops, growing, and even started an ice cream company. 

Do you consider yourself a food systems planner? Why or why not? 

Not yet, but I hope to be!

Who has had the most influence on you as a planner? As a food systems planner?

The last couple years have been a deep dive into planning and the biggest influences have come from books, podcasts, and professors at UW. The list that comes to mind is Jane Jacobs (Death and Life of Great American Cities), Nolan Grey (Arbitrary Lines), Gregg Colburn (Homelessness is a Housing Problem), Shane Philips (UCLA Housing Voice Podcast), The Urbanist (Seattle-based publication), Vince Wang (Professor at UW and mentor/advisor), and all the amazing advocates and organizers working towards more sustainable and livable urban spaces in Seattle and Washington. 

I also spent a year and a half interning with a land use consulting firm for development, which gave me the opportunity(?) to read and analyze zoning codes and development regulations around the country. This experience, often painful, gave me a lot of exposure to how planning happens today in the US.

What do you wish you would have known before going to planning school? 

I wish I had known how fast it would fly by! Also, I wish I had a more solid grasp on GIS and microeconomics.

How has your perception of food systems planning changed since you first entered the planning field?

Prior to entering the planning field, I thought that food systems planning would be a

more developed field. I imagined that most jurisdictions would have had at least one  person responsible for food systems planning, even if it wasn’t their only role. Really, it turns out that most planning departments don’t have anyone focusing on food systems. 

I guess in many ways it’s unsurprising that this is the case, since most planning happens at the local level and food systems have mostly been removed from the local sphere. Also, it seems planning departments already have so much on their plates that the resources often don’t exist, or aren’t allocated, to focus on food systems.

Do you have any advice for someone entering the food systems planning field? 

No, but I’d love to hear yours! Would love to grab a coffee (virtual or in-person if near Seattle) with anyone interested in sharing their experience.

Faces of Food Systems: Alex Narrajos

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Current Role: Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems Program Manager – City and County of Honolulu, HI

What’s your favorite food?

Sinigang Soup

What do you enjoy about your work?

Supporting my community.

What do you find challenging about your work?

Navigating politics and government bureaucracy.

What areas of the food system do you encounter or focus on in your work? Where does food fit in with the rest of the work that you do?

As a food system planner I focus on all parts of the local food system, but most heavily on production, processing, and distribution. Most recently I’ve focused on public access to food growing spaces, increasing local food purchasing and distribution, and disaster resilience and response.

Do you consider yourself a food systems planner? Why or why not? 

Yes, I am a Planner VI in classification and have a masters in Urban and Regional Planning.

What is the biggest food systems planning-related hurdle your community/organization faced in recent years and how was it dealt with?

In Hawai’i, we import more than 90% of our foods, which both causes and is exacerbated by food systems weakness in the face of climate change and disasters, high food costs, high labor and input costs, and westernization of diet and culture. While there has been increasing support of local farms and producers, this hurdle is perpetual and is the wicked problem for food systems planners in Hawai’i.

What makes you successful in your work? What skills do you use the most in your food systems planning-related work?

Working as a farmer and in the non profit sector before joining the local government has made me successful because I am able to approach the work from a community member mindset (i.e., bottom up versus top down). I am also able to remain calm during chaos and can be flexible as our food system needs evolve.

Who has had the most influence on you as a planner? As a food systems planner?

My advisor, Dr. Subhashni Raj has been such a positive influence on me as a planner and community member.

What do you wish you would have known before going to planning school?

I was recently diagnosed with ADHD which would have been useful to know before becoming a master’s student – I’ve never been good at reading academic articles and I think I could have used coping mechanisms to make reading less painful for me! I also wish I would have had a stronger understanding of statistics and micro economics as I didn’t realize they would have such a presence in my master’s program!

How has your perception of food systems planning changed since you first entered the planning field?

I always knew it was a complicated field, but as I’m in it I am realizing how much more nuanced it really is.

Do you have any advice for someone entering the food systems planning field? 

My advice for someone entering the food systems planning field would be to immerse themselves in as many pieces of the food system as possible before becoming a planner. Being able to recall experiences and utilize my networks as a planner now has been instrumental to my interest and success.

Faces of Food Systems: Sebas Waldvogel

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Name: Sebas Waldvogel – newly elected treasurer for APA FOOD. Sebas fills us in on supporting food systems advocacy with daily work as a municipal land use planner.

Current Role: Associate Planner – City of Fife, WA

What’s your favorite food?

These days I’m really working on making my best bagel. Maybe I’m just too tired (or lazy) to cook something more complex, but I really enjoy seeing how something simple can be elevated with a few additions.

What do you enjoy about your work?

It’s a little mix of everything! I’m a municipal planner, so I get to work on long range plans, regional projects, as well as permit review for current projects. It’s a great way to get a holistic look at development and policy in your jurisdictions. While maybe not the most exciting, I encourage everyone to look into their jurisdictions permitting process- from how your health department conducts food safety inspections to what types of restaurants are allowed within certain zoning designations.

What do you find challenging about your work?

More so the permitting side of things. My role is less of a food systems advocate and more of a food systems regulator. I work hand in hand with our building official, which has opened my eyes to the physical infrastructure requirements of food systems in urban areas. I think food is always in the room for the work I do, however it isn’t typically the focus.

Do you consider yourself a food systems planner? Why or why not? 

Absolutely not. I wish I could, but I know I am a land use planner. What I do consider myself is a food systems advocate- land use planners have the potential to either support or condemn their local food systems, and the impacts to these local networks are something that we are making sure to acknowledge as we update our municipal code.

What is the biggest food systems planning-related hurdle your community faced in recent years and how was it dealt with?
We’re a pretty small city, dominated by industrial land uses and divided by freeways. We lost our grocery store in the early 2000s, and it became a common topic with our residents. We as a municipality were able to enter into a development agreement that allowed an existing business to expand their operations, in part by opening up a grocery store component of their new development. What has resulted is a Ukrainian Market, complete with a cafe that has quickly become one of the most popular attractions in the city. I think a lot of jurisdictions feel that they are victim to the market in terms of locating grocers, but we have more power than we think.

What makes you successful in your work? What skills do you use the most in your food systems planning-related work?

Beyond the baseline data analysis and GIS skills, I’ve found authenticity to be critical to success. Residents know when you’re rattling off prepared responses, and a project being run by a consultant with a city logo on it doesn’t land the same with residents. By establishing genuine connections with residents and local agencies, you are rewarded with direct and candid feedback. It may not always be what you want to hear, but it starts the dialogue centered around genuine thoughts and experiences.

Who has had the most influence on you as a planner? As a food systems planner?

I come from a long line of failed farmers. Going back generations, Waldvogel’s have tried to farm and have been incredibly bad at it. What resulted? A long line of agriculture supporting roles- a milk tanker driver, a farmland appraiser, an agricultural economist. This helped teach me that you don’t have to do something to support something. I can support food systems as a land use planner. While I have had many influential professors throughout my time at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, what has continued to inspire me as a planner and as a food systems advocate is the reminder that I don’t have to be in it to support it.

What do you wish you would have known before going to planning school?

Permitting. I know I sound like a broken record, but the permitting system is complicated and is a barrier for a lot of people. Transparency with the permitting process and having a general knowledge of these requirements has allowed me to be a better advocate for our residents. It’s easy to write policy and develop a proposal, it’s a lot harder to figure out how that actually gets approved through the existing regulatory processes.

How has your perception of food systems planning changed since you first entered the planning field?

I came from an agriculture background, and a lot of what I knew going into planning was centered around the producers. Recentering my concept of food systems on ease of access, access to programs, access to restaurants and grocers, access to information. That being said, I am a full time land use planner, so I am constantly learning from specialized planners across transportation, food systems, and housing.

Do you have any advice for someone entering the food systems planning field? 

Ask questions! Of everyone. I’ve learned more about building code than I ever thought possible, and while I won’t lie and say it’s thrilling information, it has made me a better planner. Chances are most people’s work intersects with food in some way- all you have to do is ask about it.

Faces of Food System Planning: Laura Raymond

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LR head shot 1

Laura Raymond is a Commerce Specialist for Small Farm Direct Marketing with the Washington State Department of Agriculture. In her previous position at the City of Seattle, Laura founded and led the City’s Food System Interdepartmental Team to address food-related health, environmental, and social justice issues, resulting in creation of the Seattle Food Action Initiative and Plan.

Andrea Petzel, member of the APA-FIG Leadership Committee, conducted this interview in October 2015.

 

What is your current position?

My position is funded by a federal Specialty Crop Block Grant and my role is to help small and direct marketing farms extend their markets within Washington State’s local and regional food system. These are farms that are selling direct to consumers and more directly to retailers or food services. Our state is unusual because we have so many small and mid-sized farms that grow specialty produce crops and 95% of farms in Washington State are considered small farms.

Through extensive outreach I provide farmers with technical assistance to help navigate regulations and permits, and I help them develop marketing strategies and basic best practices for their businesses. There are so many levels of jurisdiction that intersect with growing and selling food, and we help make it easy for farmers to understand.

What do you enjoy about your work?

Working with farmers and learning about their particular farms, businesses, and how they’re making it work. There’s so much diversity in people, places and crops, and farmers are really committed; it’s not the easiest place to make it work and they do it because they love it and that’s really inspiring. I also really enjoy being part of re-creating a viable regional food economy.

What do you find challenging about your work?

There aren’t always easy solutions and there’s so much regulation, with good reason. But it can be difficult in the moment, when helping a farmer who is doing important, hard work, to remember there’s a good reason for a particular rule. Also, over the last 60 years agriculture and food systems have really been evolved towards to be large scale, industrially-modeled, and globally-oriented. But now there’s growing consumer interest for fresh, healthy food and this means more opportunity for small local farms. In our state increasing numbers of young people are bucking long term trends and are getting into farming. It’s exciting that people think farming is a good way to make their livelihood, and local governments are starting to pay attention and trying to be creative about creating and keeping a vibrant local farming scene.

Do you consider yourself a food systems planner?

No – I’m not sure who the food systems planners really are! Food systems are so vast and interconnected, and are really are about the overlap of food, health, culture, transportation, and land use. Good policy needs input from all those sectors.

Do you have any advice for someone entering the food systems field?

Find the thing you really care about and work on it. Find what you can do, connect with other people and do it! There are so many fields that interconnect with food; you can be a graphic designer and work in food systems!

Faces of Food Systems Planning is a series of interviews with practicing planners from across North America who are engaging in food systems planning and policy work. This series is part of APA-FIG’s efforts to highlight food systems planning as an important planning topic. Click here for more information.