Author: kimhodgson

RFQP: Upper Peninsula Multi-Species Processing Feasibility Study

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The Upper Peninsula Multi-species Processing Feasibility Study Project is a cooperative venture between several stakeholders including Marquette County, Upper Peninsula Food Exchange, Farm Bureau, and regional planning organizations.

MDARD awarded Marquette County an $127,300 Strategic Growth Initiative (SGI) grant aimed to address the lack of USDA multi-species processing in the Upper Peninsula. The grant will be managed and administered by the County of Marquette with a substantial portion of it to be used to fund a study to assess the feasibility of an USDA inspected multi-species processing facility(s) in the Upper Peninsula.

As part of this process, Marquette County is issuing this Request For Qualifications & Proposals (RFQP) from qualified firms to conduct a substantial portion of the work scope of MDARD SGI Grant. The deadline for proposals is December 10, 2015.

For more information and to learn how to submit a proposal, click here.

Call for Proposals: National Farm to Cafeteria Conference, June 2-4, 2016, Madison, WI

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NFC

Save the date for the 8th National Farm to Cafeteria Conference, a biennial event hosted by the National Farm to School Network that will convene more than 1,500 people working to source local food for institutional cafeterias and foster a culture of food and agricultural literacy across America.

Cafeterias in schools, childcare centers, universities, prisons and hospitals serve more than 40 million Americans every day, placing the farm to cafeteria movement at the forefront of the fight to end obesity and strengthen local food systems. The National Farm to Cafeteria Conference is the only national gathering of stakeholders from across this movement, making it the premiere opportunity to learn, network and collaborate with likeminded leaders from across the country. Registration will open Feb. 15, 2016.

Do you have expertise to share? NFC is seeking workshop, poster and lightning talk proposals from individuals and organizations working to improve our food system, strengthen community health, empower youth, build equity and increase opportunities for farmers. The Request for Proposals (RFP) is open now through Dec. 4, 2015.

Learn more here. 

Municipal Zoning for Local Foods in Iowa

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lcsaMunicipalities in Iowa and across the nation are increasingly recognizing the multiple benefits of urban agriculture; however, zoning regulations can unintentionally impede urban agriculture. To respond to this challenge the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University funded Gary Taylor and Andrea Vaage to develop the Municipal Zoning for Local Foods in Iowa guidebook. The guidebook provides science-based guidance and sample zoning code language designed to reduce the barriers to, and promote production and sales activities commonly associated with urban agriculture.  Although written for Iowa, the guidebook contains practical information and code language applicable to any local jurisdiction.

The guidebook addresses the following common urban agriculture uses: aquaculture, bees, chickens, goats, front-yard gardens, community and market gardens, gardening on vacant lots, urban farms, season extenders, composting, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) drop-sites, farm stands, farmers markets, food trucks and pushcarts, and urban agriculture districts.  Each chapter provides a general description of the activity, and the science-based information on standards and best practices associated with the activity; the public health, safety and welfare concerns commonly associated with the activity; a summary of the commonalities found among municipalities’ codes; and sample code language taken from municipalities that vary both in size and location.

For more information, click here.

Faces of Food Systems Planning: Helen Schnoes

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IMG_20150412_170915Helen Schnoes is the Food Systems Coordinator for Douglas County, Kansas. As a recent graduate of planning school, and a recent hire occupying a newly created position, Helen provides a unique perspective on defining her food systems planning work. Her work focuses on a variety of local food system development initiatives, including food hubs, farmers markets, farm to school, food policy council support, and food system assessment. She is also an active member of APA-FIG’s Policy Working Group.

To learn more about the innovative food systems planning and policy work of Lawrence and Douglas County, click here.

Kimberley Hodgson, Chair of APA-FIG, conducted this interview via email in October 2015.

  1. What is your first and last name? Helen Schnoes
  2. What is your current position? Food Systems Coordinator, Douglas County, KS
  3. How long have you held this position? Since April, 2015
  4. What do you enjoy about your work? I enjoy working with a wide range of people throughout the community, and the chance to balance an appreciation for the local context with bringing new ideas to the table and learning from the work happening elsewhere. I get to staff our food policy council, a group of 23 stakeholders who advise our county and city commissions on food systems issues. It has also been rewarding to provide a supporting role to increase public input into policy change–and learn on the ground about the technical details of these processes/policies at the same time.
  5. Similarly, what do you find challenging about your work? Defining what it is! With just under 6 months at this job, I’ve learned a lot, but am still figuring out how to define the “scope” of what I’m doing. As a new role in county government, I talk a lot with my boss about what our place in the community is to support local food development and community health–and what “food systems” issues we can actually meaningfully address at the local scale. Recently, figuring out how to frame issues, especially how food “connects” issues beyond its materiality, has been on my mind. There’s a lot of powerful writing and thinking nationally about food issues and planning–but translating that into practical, on the ground action is an intellectual and professional challenge–though quite an exciting one to have the chance to tackle! On a practical level, too, I’m in a grant-funded position, so its tenure is limited in its initial composition, and dependent upon Congress. (But we are thinking about future options.)
  6. What areas of the food system do you focus on in your work? It’s a mix: Local food system development, including food hub creation and fostering wholesale opportunities for small-scale farmers; supporting farmers markets; farm to school purchasing processes; food policy council support/facilitation; communications and public messaging, including a focus on health; local food system assessment (across sectors) and planning.
  7. In the work that you perform, where does addressing food systems issues fit in? How has this changed over time? It’s everywhere! My role is funded by a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) grant our health department received, so some of my key priorities are guided by that (wholesale local food purchasing, including farm to school and public promotion for local, healthy foods). But that work is also closely tied to other opportunities that arise in the community–including the food plan that the steering committee leading our comprehensive plan update tasked the food policy council to create for the next year, and the revision to our local urban agriculture policies, which the city commission tasked Planning with this summer. I’ve helped with public outreach and draft review.
  8. Do you consider yourself a food systems planner? Why or why not? With just over a year since completing my planning master’s degree, I do find that the planning lens really influences how I think about the work and how I see myself relating to the various stakeholders and community members I engage with. Attending the national APA conference in Seattle and participating with APA-FIG further help me maintain this identification with food systems planning even though some of my days are not as closely related to “planning,” per se. The chance over the coming months to help create a local food plan and update our food system assessment, however, present an exciting opportunity to really delve into food systems planning and, hopefully, anchor it locally in our long-range planning and policy priorities.
  9. What is the biggest food systems planning-related hurdle your community/organization faced in recent years and how was it dealt with? When our first food system assessment was conducted over five years ago, after our food policy council formed, the report pointed to local food infrastructure and food security as key areas needing attention. This has guided a lot of work since then, including creating a community garden program on city land, receiving a USDA grant to conduct an in-depth feasibility study and farmer/buyer outreach about building a regional food hub, and creating a matching program for SNAP at Farmers Markets–launched by and still partially-funded by local government. Since arriving this past April, I’m working with the core group of farmers leading the formation of the food hub and we worked with them to apply for additional USDA funds to help launch their aggregation business. Our Chamber is working with them to disburse other start-up funds our food policy council received to support the effort. Now that we’re launching an update of that first food system assessment, we’re talking about how we can integrate labor concerns, river environmental health, and even housing affordability to continue pushing how we (and our leaders) understand and address food security. Both local food aggregation (and growing the production/viability of small-scale farmers), especially in Kansas, and food security are long-term issues with many non-local influences. However, I’ve been impressed by the continued energy in this community to maintain commitment to these efforts.
  10. How has your perception of food systems planning changed since you first entered the planning field? Not a lot of people know what food systems planning is! (Although I do think my mom gets it now.) I’m still working on how to simply talk about the type of work I’m doing. However, as a young professional, I’m very excited to be entering the planning field at this time that food systems issues really are further establishing themselves within the profession. The question of scale is also very clear in my mind since taking a job in local government, and how influential state and regional dynamics can be–yet at times beyond our immediate sphere of action for the majority of our work. But, this intrigues me to continue thinking about alternative approaches, opportunities for coordination and collaboration, etc. Also: There’s often an urban (big city urban) bias to a lot of “national” conversations about food planning.
  11. Who has had the most influence on you as a planner? As a food systems planner? I like to tell people that I chose to attend Cornell for my planning degree as much for its location in Ithaca, NY, given its strong local food scene, and its standing as a land grant university with cooperative extension, as any of its “prestige.” There were so many people there that contributed to how I think about food systems and planning: Mildred Warner was an amazing (and demanding) advisor, and John Forester imbued an important level of self-awareness about the process and place of planners. I had the great fortune to overlap in my two years there with Becca Jablonski, and meet others she works with, including Ken Meter. I have a handful of peers who also pursued their own food systems planning focus and we bonded over our shared commitment to this area that many of our classmates rarely even knew existed (at first). My program also encouraged us to take courses outside of planning, so leveraging law, business, development sociology, agricultural economics, and natural resource courses provided a breadth of perspectives about issues central to food systems work. Volunteering with a community local food networking group and interning with Martha Armstrong at Tompkins County Area Development in Ithaca were very formative and helped get a bit of reality to balance my coursework “up on the hill.” From my volunteering I met Jeanne Lecesse, who now with Growing Food Connections, has provided helpful guidance about being a young planner on the job market interested in food systems. My food systems work is also very much shaped by two summers in Sitka, Alaska, and subsequent work with Nic Mink to research wild salmon and help launch Sitka Salmon Shares, a sustainable wild seafood business built upon the community supported fishery model, adapted for Midwestern consumers. Since graduate school, I’ve had the opportunity to intern with the Sustainable Farming Association of Minnesota and work with the Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture–two pioneering groups in my home state who have worked for decades to build capacity and connections that have significantly impacted small- and medium-scale agriculture and the state’s local food system. I draw from all of these experiences for my current work.
  12. Do you have any advice for someone entering the food systems planning field? What makes you successful in your work? What skills do you use the most in your food systems planning related work? I feel I could still gain much from what others answer when asked these questions! That said, I am a strong believer in always following your passions, putting yourself out there for different opportunities (some will be dead ends, others will work out), and having a driving curiosity mixed with entrepreneurial spirit. Find people who inspire you and from whom you can learn, and ask questions. (I’m currently reading Food for City Building by Wayne Roberts and think that’s a pretty accessible and over-arching primer for thinking about this type of work, though of course context-specific to Toronto.) The ability to think critically/creatively and make connections (with people, across issues) is really important in the rather nebulous realm of food systems planning. Take an optimistic perspective, most of the time. A lot of this work comes down to communication with others, building relationships, and thinking strategically of both the short and long term. Synthesizing information and tailoring arguments for different audiences is important. Be humble and listen. I’m hoping to build my more technical skills regarding specific policy interventions, financing options, public facilitation processes, etc. Though I don’t use it, I appreciate that I persevered through a GIS course to understand data analysis and presentation better, and how to utilize it as needed. Being able to conduct meaningful evaluation is also important. I’ve done quite a bit with Survey Monkey, for example, and benefited from exposure to survey design while in school, as well as use of Excel for basic analysis and presentation. Related–knowing where to go for other examples of food systems work, data sets, etc. is helpful and something to continually develop. (And, luckily, FIG and GFC are working on this!) I personally think there’s an under-appreciated importance for food as culture and the power of stories. I reflect on this quite a bit, even though I don’t often utilize it in my day-to-day work so far. Gravy, a podcast by the Southern Foodways Alliance, is excellent on this front and one of my favorite things right now.
  13. What do you wish you would have known before going to planning school? Knowing more about local government, its processes and financial aspects, though varied across place, could have provided a richer foundation for a lot of our planning discussions. Despite getting pretty advanced with math in high school and college, I hadn’t had a statistics course until grad school, and it was a WHIRLWIND from which I learned a lot, but would have probably gotten more out of, and better leverage now, with additional coursework. When I wrote my application for planning school, I actually said that I wanted to enter the program not to be a planner, but to gain the tools of the planner to influence food systems change. However, I now have deepened my appreciation for the larger field of planning, and value that professional identity much more than I anticipated I would three years ago. So, I’m probably the opposite of a lot of planners–where I’m the food systems girl who’s enjoyed expanding my perspective through planning, instead of the planner who’s beginning to integrate a food systems perspective.

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.

Faces of Food Systems Planning: Robert Brown

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Bob Head Shot July 31 B - 2015 CROPRobert (Bob) Brown is the former director of city planning for the City of Cleveland and the newly appointed interim executive director of MidTown Cleveland, Inc. As Cleveland’s planning director, Bob was instrumental in developing some of the most innovative and progressive urban agriculture zoning regulations in the U.S. These regulations paved the way for allowing urban agriculture – both commercial and non-commercial – to flourish throughout the city.

Kimberley Hodgson, Chair of APA-FIG, conducted this interview via email in October 2015.

  1. What is your first and last name? Robert N. Brown, FAICP
  2. What is your current (or most recent) position? Director of City Planning for the City of Cleveland (retired May 2014); Interim Executive Director of MidTown Cleveland, Inc. (current)
  3. How long did you hold this position? I was at the Cleveland City Planning Commission for nearly 30 years and was Director for nearly 10 years. I have been at MidTown Cleveland for just 2 months.
  4. What did you enjoy about your work? I love cities and I love city planning, so my work is a perfect fit.  I enjoy coming up with creative solutions to problems in a way that betters the community.
  5. Similarly, what did you find challenging about your work? The most challenging aspects of my work as a city planner include the slow pace of change, the persistence of key problems (like poverty and housing deterioration), and the lack of funds to address key issues.
  6. What areas of the food system did you focus on in your work? Updating zoning regulations to permit expanded urban agriculture and making City-owned land available for urban agriculture.
  7. In the work that you performed, where did addressing food systems issues fit in? How did that change over time? Food systems planning was not a part of my work until late in my career – the past several years.  It had become a significant part of my work in the past several years.
  8. Do you consider yourself a food systems planner? Why or why not? Food systems planning was a small (but important) part of my job as a generalist city planner.
  9. What is the biggest food systems planning-related hurdle your community/organization faced in recent years and how was it dealt with? From my limited role, the biggest hurdles we faced were removing obstacles from the zoning code that prevented the use of vacant land for exclusive use as farming and prevented the use of most land for raising chickens and keeping bees, as well as selling produce from residentially zoned property. We successfully overcame these obstacles.
  10. How has your perception of food systems planning changed since you first entered the planning field? I have realized the importance of urban farming for several reasons including:  productive use of otherwise “vacated” land, improved nutrition for some city residents, and as a community-building activity that brings neighbors together both for the farming activities and for the farmers’ markets.
  11. Who has had the most influence on you as a planner? As a food systems planner? As a planner, I was influenced most by Jane Jacobs and by local Cleveland City Planning Directors, Norm Krumholz and Hunter Morrison.  In my limited role as a food systems planner, I was most influenced by Morgan Taggart through her former work at Ohio Extension.
  12. Do you have any advice for someone entering the food systems planning field? What makes you successful in your work? What skills do you use the most in your food systems planning related work? I would advise a person entering the field to learn about the realities and the challenges of urban food systems planning, including the financial issues associated with small-scale farming operations and the issues regarding environmental contamination.
  13. What do you wish you would have known before going to planning school? My planning career could have benefited by more knowledge of real estate and development financing.

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.

Massachusetts Completes Local Food Action Plan

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Just as the American Planning Association kicks off its November celebrations of food system planning, Massachusetts is celebrating the completion of its draft Local Food Action Plan – a plan that seeks to strengthen Massachusetts local food system – from farm to sea, and from producer to consumer.

The impetus for creating a comprehensive food system plan came from the Massachusetts Food Policy Council (FPC) that recognized the importance of developing a unified vision and coordinated strategy for strengthening the local food system. The FPC named a planning team[1] to lead the nearly two-year planning process. During the planning process nearly 1,500 food system professionals, advocates, and eaters helped identify ways to improve the local food system – including reforming regulations, improving worker conditions and wages, expanding programs that double food dollars for low income individuals, strengthening local food distribution to schools and hospitals, and building markets for lesser known seafood caught in Massachusetts.

Shaped through broadly representative input, the draft Local Food Action Plan now lays out overarching goals to increase the amount of food grown and seafood caught in the state, support jobs and business opportunities in the entire food supply chain, encourage stewardship and sustainable use of land, water and other natural resources important in food production, ensure local foods are available and affordable to Massachusetts resident and consumers, and decrease food waste and turn what food waste is produced into energy and compost to build soils. For each of these goals, the Massachusetts Local Food Action Plan spells out in detail how they should be achieved – what actions need to be taken by legislators, state agencies, community organizations, businesses, and residents to reach these goals.

As the Massachusetts Local Food Action Plan is finalized, the work will begin to make the vision for a stronger local food system a reality. Taking action to improve the local food system will involve ongoing and expanded collaboration among the committed network of food system advocates, and it will also include reaching across state boundaries, and engaging New England states also working toward food system change.

Sign up and become part of our network! And learn more about the Massachusetts Local Food Action Plan by going to www.mafoodplan.org.

About the Author. Heidi Stucker is a Food System Planner for the Metropolitan Area Planning Council in Boston, Massachusetts.

[1] The planning team that facilitated the Massachusetts Local Food Action Plan process included the Metropolitan Area Planning Council as lead, with partners Pioneer Valley Planning Commission, Franklin Regional Council of Governments, and the Massachusetts Workforce Alliance.

Faces of Food Systems Planning: Heidi Stucker

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March 10, 2015. Boston, MA. The Metropolitan Planning Council staff photos. © 2015 Marilyn Humphries

March 10, 2015. Boston, MA.
The Metropolitan Planning Council staff photos.
© 2015 Marilyn Humphries

Heidi Stucker is a Food System Planner for the Metropolitan Area Planning Council in Boston, Massachusetts. She has held this position for 1.5 years.

Erica Campbell, member of the APA-FIG Leadership Committee and Coordinator of the APA-FIG Policy Working Group, conducted this interview in October 2015.

What do you enjoy about your work?

As a food system planner, I most enjoy the process of facilitating conversations between stakeholders that conclude with all contributors having a far more nuanced understanding of the food system, and what strategies are most important and practicable. To adequately understand the issues present in the food system, and to develop strategies for addressing those issues, it’s important to bring together a range of individuals and stakeholders to identify the leverage points for food systems improvements. Stakeholders include a range of people with varying perspectives to offer – consumers, food producers, supply chain workers and managers, advocacy groups, policy makers and legislators, and others.

What areas of the food system do you focus on in your work?

I am working on state food policy efforts as well as multi-municipality projects on healthy food programming in grocery stores and neighborhood markets. I am also helping develop ideas for future projects at my agency that address food waste management and local food distribution to school districts in our service region. I am a lead planner on the Massachusetts Food System Plan. This planning process, which has been ongoing for over one and a half years has focused broadly on all aspects of the food supply chain. Through convening a range of food system experts and stakeholders – from fishermen to farmers, researchers to legislators, advocates to activists – the process has led to the development of food policy recommendations that advance the local food system and contribute to achieving goals for increasing local food production and catches, improving business and job opportunities, improving the availability and affordability of local foods, and conserving and ensuring responsible stewardship of natural resources in food production.

I am also a contributing planner to a project that is partnering with a cluster of municipalities north of Boston to improve healthy food access in the cities and towns. The project team is working with neighborhood market owners to develop a business association that would enable identifying and addressing issues unique to smaller food and convenience stores, including improving healthy food distribution. The team is also working with grocery stores to pilot a healthy check out aisle.

In the work that you perform, where does addressing food systems issues fit in? How has this changed over time?

I address food system issues as a central component to my work. Over half of my time is committed to food system-related projects. Over time, I have taken on additional work in climate change adaptation planning.

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

I do consider myself a food system planner. This is a central component of my work and expertise.

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

One of the greatest challenges our planning team has faced in the process of developing a state food system plan has been to ensure a process that is representative of a diversity of stakeholders. Through our efforts we had regular input from over 300 people, and outreached to over 1500 people. Those that joined discussions were representative of all parts of the food system, and included researchers, practitioners, industry professionals, advocates, and others. Despite our great successes in developing ongoing relationships with a range of individuals that provided valuable insight into the issues and priority areas for improving our local food system, we had difficulty engaging a few groups of individuals, including those working in the food system – farmers, fishermen, food service workers, those representing mid- and larger- food production and distribution companies, and constituents of community based organizations. While these stakeholders were underrepresented in the larger group conversations, perhaps because of time and financial constraints, we remedied this by deliberately reaching out to these groups to better understand their concerns and ideas, and integrated their feedback into the shaping of the food system plan.

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

Prior to studying food system planning, I had been engaged in food system work in Massachusetts for seven years, and in that time I had observed that increasingly consumers, businesses, community organizations, and others were using food as starting point for talking about a whole range of issues – from the challenges faced by farmers and fishermen to have secure livelihoods, to the prevalence of diet-related health issues experienced by communities of color as symptomatic of systemic issues that resulted from years of racism and disinvestment in these communities.

At the time when I started my masters program there were a handful of examples nationally where cities, regions, and in some cases, states had begun prioritizing food system work, identifying strategies for addressing issues related to farming, food access, food supply chains, and others. As a budding practitioner in the field, I was excited to be a part of an emerging field, hopeful that the field would continue to grow, and intrigued to see whether the field would develop into an independent discipline within the urban planning field, or if it would be integrated into existing disciplines of the field. As it turns out, the answer is, both.

Today, food system planning is emerging as a unique and independent discipline of urban and regional planning, and it is also being integrated by other planning fields – economic development, public health, energy, environmental, transportation, and others. These planning fields are making food system advancements through projects that focus on topics like workforce and business development in the food system, developing solutions for food waste, agricultural preservation and conservation, improving food access through improved transportation systems, and others.

Do you have any advice for someone entering the food systems planning field? What makes you successful in your work? What skills do you use the most in your food systems planning related work?

Food system planning connects to nearly all fields within urban and regional planning. It is crosscutting in a way that few other areas of the field are. Furthermore, it is engaging; everyone eats and enjoys food. Beginning conversations with food can open up dialogue about a range of topics: social justice, ecological stewardship, and economic prosperity.

For an individual entering the field of food system planning, I would urge her to gain a firm understanding of the ways food systems connects to a range of issues. In opening conversation with communities about their food systems, help to make those connections and encourage examining issues from several angles, so that strategies shaped for strengthening food systems can be thoughtfully informed.

Further, food system planning is still in its early stages, and there is great diversity in how people are approaching it. In practicing as a food system planner at this time, you will be contributing to and shaping how food system planning is done. Valuable groundwork has already been laid. Do your research, and look at how others have approached food system planning – on a range of governmental levels. Let others’ work inform your food planning, and integrate these practices into your approach, as it makes sense for the context you are working in.

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.

UNFAO: Integrating Food into Urban Planning

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The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Bartlett Development Planning Unit (DPU) of the University College London have agreed to collaborate on the development of a book “Integrating food into urban planning” and to launch the call for contribution (the call is downloadable here).

Through this call, FAO and DPU welcome conceptual and practical contributions from researchers, experts, urban practitioners or local decision makers on successful experiences and case studies related to the integration of food into urban planning. The call keeps an open approach to the various planning practices be it strategic planning, sectorial or inter-sectorial or spatial planning. One of the objectives of the call is precisely to make visible and reflect upon the various ways food systems planning links up with different planning practises.

Selected papers should be submitted in English and will be published in electronic format as an ebook and most probably printed as a book.

Key dates and deadlines:

Deadline for submission of a 300 to 500 words abstract: November 30 2015.

Notification of selected abstracts: December 15 2015

Deadline for submission of full contribution [up to 5 000 words]: February 15 2016.

Notification of outcome: February 28 2016.

Faces of Food Systems Planning: Wendy Mendes

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WMendes_webWendy Mendes, PhD is one of the first local government food systems planners in North America. In 2003, the Vancouver City Council approved an innovative directive to support the development of a just and sustainable food system for the City of Vancouver, British Columbia. This directive not only resulted in the establishment of the Vancouver Food Policy Council, one of the oldest food policy councils in North America, but also established two full-time city staff positions to facilitate food system goals: a food policy coordinator and a food systems planner. In the role of food systems planner, Mendes led the development of a number of important and innovative food system plans, programs and policies for over a decade. She witnessed first-hand the field grow and change over time and reach a level where food systems issues are now commonly incorporated when planning for other urban issues. In addition to her practitioner-oriented work, Mendes is currently Adjunct Professor at the School of Community and Regional Planning at the University of British Columbia (UBC), Manager of Community-Engaged Learning at UBC’s Centre for Community Engaged Learning, Research Associate with Ryerson University’s Centre for Studies in Food Security, and Instructor for the Food Security Certificate at Ryerson University. Her work has equally inspired practicing planners, local governments, and academics across the globe. For more information about the City of Vancouver’s sustainable food systems work, visit http://vancouver.ca/people-programs/food.aspx or view the short video found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGjKPcBz9YM.

Kimberley Hodgson, Chair of APA-FIG, conducted this interview in person with Mendes in Vancouver, BC on Thursday, September 24. The following responses have been edited.

What is your first and last name? Wendy Mendes

What is your current position? From 2001 to 2006, and from 2009 to 2015, I was a social planner in the Department of Social Policy at the City of Vancouver. For the majority of that time, I had the rare privilege of focusing 100% on food policy. Until 2010, I was the only planner whose portfolio was entirely focused on advancing the city’s food systems portfolio, although I did this in close collaboration with many other departments. My work included all aspects of the food system: food production, processing, access, distribution and waste. At the height of the city’s food systems work in the early 2010s, we had 5-6 staff working on food policy, including another full-time social planner, a part-time social planner, a junior social planner, and several interns and contractors. This doesn’t include the numerous staff in other city departments with whom we regularly collaborated on food systems work – and still do. Although the mandate is based in the social policy department, it has always been decentralized in a very healthy way across the organization, which means responsibility and ownership are shared.

I am also adjunct professor for the School of Community and Regional Planning at the University of British Columbia, where I have taught a graduate seminar on urban food systems policy and planning since 2008.

COVFoodPolicyTimeline

Vancouver Food Policy Highlights Graphic by Kimberley Hodgson

What do you enjoy about your work? As a planner, the most enjoyable part of working on the food policy and food systems planning portfolio has been the creativity of developing something brand new and working with colleagues in other city departments to help them understand how food policy and food systems work can add value to the work other departments are already doing. In the early days of the mandate, these conversations typically started with “we don’t do that”, or “we can’t do that”, or “it’s not in our mandate or job description.” This provided me the opportunity to be what Wayne Roberts calls a “policy entrepreneur”; to discuss how food systems fits into work that city colleagues are already doing and how it can add value to their work. For instance, the way that urban greening goals can be advanced by building community gardens. Or the way that policy objectives around community economic development and neighborhood revitalization are supported by local farmers markets. Or the way that landfills can be reduced by building organic waste separation stations in new multi-family buildings. These conversations were always exciting. I have always maintained that food is not a new city planning concern. It’s actually one of the most ancient of urban issues. I loved witnessing the light bulb go off, and my colleagues’ recognition that food systems issues are actually not new within the urban context, and are powerful catalysts for broader system change. I have found there is a very personal component to food policy work, because food touches everyone – within and outside local government. I also really enjoy working with the community, and helping them succeed. I have always recognized that the bulk of the heavy lifting goes on outside of local government. That’s really important to remember.

Similarly, what do you find challenging about your work? Within local government, keeping my spirits up when I run into challenges can be sometimes hard. However, I have really had many more positive than negative experiences. Yes, working for a bureaucracy can be challenging at times. A local government bureaucracy can be tough to navigate. It can also be difficult to respond to shifting mandates and political administrations. As a planner of any variety, we need to be able to pivot, adjust, and be prepared for a portfolio to lose support. However, this didn’t really happen to me. That said, there were definitely challenges over the course of 3 different administrations that held office while I was with the city; but I was able to weather those changes and respond as best I could to continue the food policy work. By the time the current administration came into power, they introduced a heavy hitting policy directive – the Greenest City Action Plan – that strongly supported the food systems agenda. This really changed the game of what we could achieve in a small period of time.

Another relatively new challenge in Vancouver is tension between different groups within the food movement. Initially, there was a sense of unification between non-governmental groups advocating for policy change. However, after notable successes were achieved in a relatively short period of time, disagreements began to manifest. It has been challenging to continue engaging stakeholders in a productive way, while acknowledging their differences. I see this as a natural part of the evolution of any movement, and the evolution of public policy, but it does require a new kind of sensitivity to differences in aspirations and objectives.

What areas of the food system do you focus on in your work? I work on issues from across the food system: food production, processing, access, distribution, waste, and what we call ‘system-wide’ issues. In some ways this has been unique, or at least it was in the early days when the default in food systems planning was usually urban agriculture or food access, not food systems as a whole. When the 2003 city council motion calling for a just and sustainable food system was passed, I guarantee that no one within the organization fully understood what that meant. The community provided them with that language. Despite a clear directive, there was still a tendency to isolate urban agriculture or food access issues. So advocating for a systems approach was challenging. In the early days of my food policy work, I spent a lot of time educating colleagues about food as a system, and about how the food system is connected to other urban systems. I think there’s now a much better understanding that we can’t plan a city’s various systems in isolation; we need to consider connections between transportation, housing, economic development, public space, etc. when planning in general, and definitely where food systems are concerned. By connecting food systems to housing development, community centers, daycare, green spaces and more, we create economies of scale that increase infrastructure and human capital.

Do you consider yourself a food systems planner? Why or why not? Yes and no. On the yes side, it has been a privilege to focus on food systems planning and policy for the past decade; however, I am a strong advocate for situating food systems within broader urban priorities. So, I would also say no. I am a planner with a specialization in urban food systems. This serves a dual purpose. In both my academic and practitioner related work, I have realized that the food system offers an incredible portal into other conversations and possibilities within cities that I would argue no other issue affords us. The food system is a conversation starter, an educator, and a topic that convenes people who wouldn’t normally talk to each other about building healthy and inclusive cities. I see food as part of a broader conversation. If you are a systems planner that wants to connect the dots and work within and across systems – you aren’t going to be one particular type of planner. Personally, I think we need planners who can think using a systems approach, and connect systems, including the food system.

How has your perception of food systems planning changed since you first entered the planning field? When I entered planning back in 2001, I didn’t know much about food systems planning, just urban agriculture – which is common. My perception is that although there is still a lot of work to do, the general move towards systems thinking in food policy, planning, and community organizing is definitely becoming more of the norm, which is really exciting. One thing that hasn’t changed much (or as much as I had hoped) is the friction between a sustainable food system model and a charitable food system model. This tension is philosophical and ideological – and complex to navigate. For planners working in the local government context, if we aren’t sensitive to these tensions, they can lead to decisions that compromise a shift away from charitable food system. It’s important as a planner to understand your sphere of influence and focus on what you can control, but then also to push hard on things that may not be within your direct purview, like poverty, living wage, social inequality and other structural root causes of food system challenges.

Do you have any advice for someone entering the food systems planning field? What makes you successful in your work? What skills do you use the most in your food systems planning related work? It is very important to be a well-rounded planner; and that comes from both my beliefs of where food systems fit within planning and local government work, but also a pragmatic caution. The position I had at the City of Vancouver focused 100% on urban food systems planning and policy. This type of position is exceedingly rare. If you are an aspiring food systems planner, make sure that you have many skills in your toolbox. Find out what excites you; be a systems thinker, identify where you think there is the most social value or public benefit, and gain knowledge and skills in those areas. This way you won’t be a single function planner, and you can use food systems expertise to multiply beneficial outcomes in related areas.

In terms of specific skills, persuasion and entrepreneurialism are essential. Where emerging issues like food systems planning are concerned, remember that you are selling an idea both within, and sometimes outside of local government. Also remember that as municipal planners, we need to uphold a certain level of neutrality on issues so the relationship to advocacy is a tricky one. Not every food system idea is necessarily a good one, or one that should prevail over other ideas or interests. If food systems planning is what you are working towards, you should enjoy putting yourself in a position where you are communicating an unfamiliar issue, at best, or contentious issue, at worst. Also, a genuine curiosity is important, as is the ability to be a good listener. Even when I am sitting across from my harshest food system critic, there is always some element of wisdom in the criticism and something to learn. We are doing new things, breaking new ground, experimenting, and taking calculated risks. If I want to create a farm on the roof of the building, I want to know why the engineers might be worried that the roof could collapse. It’s important to not be defensive in this work.

What do you wish you would have known before going to planning school? I didn’t go to planning school. My PhD is in urban geography. I was in the middle of my doctoral work when I started working for the City of Vancouver as a social planner. I was able to learn on the job, but also be more purposeful about who to connect with and what I needed to fill in terms of gaps in planning knowledge. As adjunct faculty in a post-secondary planning school, I have been exposed to planning theories similar to the theoretical approaches I learned as a urban geographer. I think a lot of practical and technical skills can be learned on the job; however planning theories and approaches are important to learn in school, especially those that relate to equity, power imbalances, and critical approaches to inclusive participation and engagement.

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.

November: 30 Days of Food Systems Planning

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In November 2015, the American Planning Association (APA) will highlight and promote food systems planning. In an effort to support this messaging campaign, the APA Food Systems Planning Interest Group (APA-FIG) will feature interviews with practicing planners, special blog posts, and more.

Please join the conversation! We welcome comments, images, and tweets, and encourage you to use #foodsystems when you post to various social media outlets in November. Check the APA-FIG website regularly (https://apafig.wordpress.com/), and follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter (@APA_FIG, @APA_Planning), and Instagram (@foodsystemsplanning).

  • Faces of Food Systems Planning – On Monday, Wednesdays, and Fridays, APA-FIG will post a new interview with food systems planning practitioners in the public, private, and non-governmental sectors.
  • Fridays – Each Friday, APA-FIG will pose a new question on Twitter or Facebook to planners and allied professionals across North America. Please respond and join the lively conversation.
  • Special Blog Posts – The APA-FIG Research, Policy, and Outreach Working Groups will explore various food systems planning topics.
  • Tuesdays at APA – On November 10th, Debra Tropp, a deputy director within USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service will discuss a recent effort to capture and quantify  economic impacts of local food system investments.
  • Thanksgiving Week – During the week of Thanksgiving, APA-FIG will feature a special social media strategy to engage planners and allied professionals in a meaningful conversation about our food systems and Thanksgiving.