Faces of Food Systems Planning: Wendy Peters Moschetti

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Wendy Moschetti.jpgWendy Peters Moschetti is the Director of Food Systems for LiveWell Colorado, where she leads the development and implementation of LiveWell Colorado’s strategies related to food systems, food access and food promotion. Prior to working for LiveWell Colorado, Wendy had her own consulting firm, WPM Consulting, and collaborated with many organizations—including LiveWell Colorado, LiveWell communities across the state, Colorado State University, Rocky Mountain Farmers Union, Hunger Free Colorado, and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment—to work on a variety of projects aimed at leveraging our food systems to improve equitable access to healthy foods.

This interview was conducted by Laine Cidlowski on October 14, 2015 via telephone and edited by Kimberley Hodgson.

What is your first and last name? Wendy Peters Moschetti

What is your current position? Director of Food Systems, LiveWell Colorado, since July 2005 and former food policy consultant for over six years

What do you enjoy about your work? I really love the community partners I get to work with. They are working on food access issues all over the state. I also love that we are increasingly gettin to work on influencing state and federal policies. I love that we’re looking to lead state legislation, and we’re advocating child nutrition authorization. We’re trying to have more of a voice in state and federal policy.

Similarly, what do you find challenging about your work? One is very internal. I feel like we have a potentially great team. We have marketing, communication, policy, and community partnership staff in our organization, but there is little time for learning. I’m constantly really busy. It is challenging when there is not enough time to connect with the staff from the various teams within your own organization and learn from each other. Another challenge is having more ideas than funding to work on these ideas, which is probably everybody’s challenge.

What areas of the food system do you focus on in your work? Healthy food access. One of the five goals of our organizations is that Coloradans have access to affordable nutritious food and beverages. My work focuses on achieving this goal. We have a general sort of health equity lens overlying all that we do. My work focuses on improving access to the best quality, healthiest, food for the most underserved communities where food access really doesn’t exist. To accomplish this goal, we focus on different parts of the food system. That might mean working on community grown urban agriculture projects, or working with conventional food retailers. We try to take systems view but we’re definitely not agriculture focused, very definitely more public health focused. We shouldn’t be segregated but it’s hard to do it all.

In the work that you perform, where does addressing food systems issues fit in? How has this changed over time? We are getting a lot better at knowing how to use data, like what data do you really want and need to use that will tell the food system story and why the food system is important; and how do you use data to support actions. I think that at least in Colorado, we’re better now at defining what we do with diverse partners. I think when the terms food systems, local food systems, food policy councils and community food assessments where first used in the state, we were not very good at articulating our niche. Because there were a lot more conventional agriculture partners that felt threatened or didn’t value what we were doing or thought we were all about local local local or sustainable or organic or all these trigger words. I think we’ve just gotten better at articulating why we’re doing what we’re doing and I think we’re better at articulating why access to healthy food is an issue. I think we’re way better of using the data to show that there are real inequities in access to healthy food and healthy eating and in a lot of different ways: nutritional inequities, cultural inequities, economic inequities.

Do you consider yourself a food systems planner? Why or why not? You know, I don’t, because I have worked so much with public health and policy folks. Although I do have a degree in planning, I consider myself to be more of a food policy advocate. When I was a consultant, I always described myself as a food policy consultant.

What is the biggest food systems planning-related hurdle your community or organization faced in recent years and how was it dealt with? We are not alone on this one. The biggest food system hurdle is really figuring out distribution of fruits and vegetables. I could add actual production of fruits and vegetables, but I think farmers are pretty smart and adaptive; although we have some issues around getting farmers affordable land. But, in any corner of the state we still have significant challenges about consistent distribution of fresh healthy food products. The biggest challenge in the food system, in our perspective, of moving fresh, healthy foods where they don’t is exist is whether the location needing the product is rural and has one very small retailer, or very urban, like Denver, with many corner stores that all face the challenge of having a very consistent supply of fresh, quality products. The small rural food retailer and the urban corner stores are not on the bigger trucking routs. We really struggle with finding smaller, more nimble distribution models that are sustainable.

How has your perception of food systems planning changed since you first entered the planning field? A lot. I went to grad school in 2001, so a long time ago. And food systems planning didn’t really exist. Now the field is recognized as a professional field. In my grad school days at Berkeley, I was the only planner taking classes in public health. For many people it seemed very weird. Public health professors thought I was this cool planner, but didn’t get the connection. Fast-forward a couple of years and Berkeley now as a dual degree in planning and public health. So academically, students can now get recognition for focusing on food systems planning. Professionally, APA started offering food systems sessions at conferences, which didn’t exist early in my career; and APA developed a food systems planning interest group (APA-FIG). Now there is academic, education, training and professional recognition for a field that didn’t exist before. I think that is a huge! So now, justifying the use of city staff time to devote to this topic isn’t the stretch it used to be. And now, they also have more resources to be able to do it well. I think this is great.

Who has had the most influence on you as a planner? As a food systems planner? When I was an undergraduate student the Community Food Security Coalition was just starting. It doesn’t exist anymore, but their founder and executive direction, Andy Fisher, had just finished his master’s degree in city planning with Robert Gottleib in Los Angles. At the time, I was 20, finishing my bachelors degree in social work, and heard about Andy’s background and the organization. It was exciting to see people as front-runners that were doing planning, and really looking systemically at how to create communities that support healthy living and support everyone in achieving a healthy life.

What do you wish you would have known before going to planning school? I wish I had been more assertive about what I wanted to do. I went to planning school because I wanted to. I was a social worker for a couple of years and really loved it, but I really wanted to work on healthy food systems. That was the original motivator for me. I wanted to work on healthy community work, but then when I got to Berkeley there was just no infrastructure for it. There was no faculty working on this.

A lesson I’m still learning is really being able to articulate the importance of working through many different approaches. Whether you grow food, you’re a farmer, you’re growing food. Whether your life passion is to grow food, to grow fruits and vegetables to feed a healthy population; or whether your life mission is to just make sure policy is conducive to healthy food systems; and so on. I think that understanding all of those pieces and articulating why you do what you do and really honor the role that others play, is something we’re not always good at.

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.

Job Opening: Planner II (CITYlab Team), Lead the implementation of “fresh”: Edmonton’s Food & Urban Agriculture Strategy

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The City of Edmonton is hiring a Planner II to lead the implementation of Edmonton’s Food and Urban Agriculture Strategy. See the link for more details.

Food Well Alliance: Changing the Food System from the Ground Up

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Food Well Alliance ATL1 Food Well Alliance ATL2

The Food Well Alliance is an Atlanta-based nonprofit organization formed in partnership with the Atlanta Community Food Bank (ACFB) that connects members of the local food movement around building healthier communities, strengthening the local food system and improving lives.   The Alliance amplifies and accelerates metro Atlanta’s local food movement by hosting and organizing events, facilitating working groups and projects, making grants, and providing resources and information to the community at large.

Food Well Alliance serves three primary roles: to connect, to promote, and to mobilize. One of its main purposes is to create a space for nonprofits, community organizers, educators, entrepreneurs, and growers to learn about what others are doing around local food in Atlanta and how the community can align its efforts, identify challenges and barriers, and work collaboratively to strengthen the local food system.  Food Well Alliance provides opportunity to use the collective impact model to hear the local food community’s voice, cooperatively design a solution or program, and then mobilize the resources and funding to implement those solutions.

Young as the Alliance may be, it is deeply rooted in Atlanta’s food system.  It’s Advisory Committee includes a veritable who’s who of Atlanta area food systems, including Bill Bolling, Founder and former Executive Director of the Atlanta Community Food Bank, representatives from the Atlanta Botanical Garden, the Atlanta Regional Commission, Captain Planet, Georgia Organics, and many others (for a full list, click here).

The Alliance has been working hard to assess the needs of the local food community and recently celebrated its first year with a Healthy Soil Festival.  Hundreds of people attended, celebrating efforts to provide greater access to healthy food and learning about the importance of healthy soil – the foundation of a sustainable garden and good food production.

The festival was part of the Alliance’s Healthy Soil, Healthy Community initiative – a series of workshops, demonstrations, soil testing, and other activities organized in partnership with numerous community organizations to support the growth of community gardens and raise awareness about the importance of healthy soil and composting. The initiative offered 30 free public workshops across 5 counties of Metro Atlanta to educate gardeners on the elements of living soil and methods to build soil.  The partners jointly designed a resource guide for Healthy Soil, provided composting signs and bins, and distributed local compost to over 50 community gardens in the region.   Click here for a list of partners.

To strengthen and expand the capacity of local food innovators and entrepreneurs, the Food Well Alliance has partnered with Atlanta’s Center for Civic Innovation to create the Food Innovation Network – a formal network of entrepreneurs, educators, and community organizers dedicated to growing and using local food, starting a food business, nutrition and health, and food access.  The network offers events, trainings, one-on-one advising, and encourages participants to share resources and ideas to help build a stronger Atlanta food system.

 

Connection to Food System Planning:

Food systems planning will be critical to the success of Food Well Alliance.  An assessment of the current landscape is needed in order to have baseline data, to evaluate and measure impact, and to create a roadmap for going forward.  But first, Food Well Alliance is working to convene all of these organizations and people together to explain how collective impact could work in this context, how it serves their needs, and how to best align efforts to bring greater participation and investment to the local food movement in Atlanta.

Throughout the course of its first year, Food Well Alliance discovered a common obstacle to improving food systems: the silo effect. So many people diligently working with local food know that they are part of an interconnected web of educators, producers, consumers, and distributors but they don’t necessarily see it within a local food system framework.  But rather than view this as a barrier, the Alliance chose to view this as an opportunity – coming to a common understanding of what the local food system is, why each piece is important, and how they are all needed for the whole to be successful.

The Community Gardens working group was the first effort to convene a group around a collective impact approach to assess and prioritize community needs.  This group of 7 nonprofit and education leaders shaped the goals and design of the Healthy Soil, Healthy Community Initiative and will do an evaluation of the process and program this winter.  Other working groups are currently in development for 2016, based on priorities and challenges identified by the community.

To learn more, visit Food Well Alliance or find us on Facebook.

 

Photos courtesy of Seanna Berry and Food Well Alliance

Seanna Berry works on research and development at Food Well Alliance and has written on food systems issues nationally and in Atlanta.  Prior to earning her graduate degree in City and Regional Planning from Georgia Tech, she worked in community food systems growing, processing, selling, and distributing fresh local food. She sees great opportunities to incorporate agriculture into how we shape our neighborhoods and regions.

Erin Thoresen (@ELThoresen) loves food, travel, and thinks a lot about what makes a “good” place. Her work has brought these interests together in food systems planning – helping launch youth-staffed farmers’ markets with Sustainable Long Island and serving on the Suffolk County Food Policy Council. She now works in transportation at Gresham, Smith and Partners in Atlanta and continues her involvement with food systems through APA-FIG.

Faces of Food Systems Planning: Martin Bailkey

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Martin Bailkey - Food for Thought Festival - CRC/GP boothMartin Bailkey is a food system consultant and former staff project manager for Growing Power, Inc. and co-director of theCommunity & Regional Food Systems Project. Martin is also an active member of the Madison Food Policy Council. He has worked in the food systems planning field over 17 years.

Marcia Caton Campbell, APA-FIG Leadership Committee Member, conducted this interview on November 17, 2015.

What is your first and last name? Martin Bailkey

What is your current position? I’m now completing my tenure as Co-Director of the Community & Regional Food Systems Project, a USDA-funded effort to document and implement food system innovations across the US. The project is run out of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I’m returning now to food system consulting after working as a staff project manager for Growing Power, Inc., which is also a major partner in the CRFS project. I’m also a member of the Madison Food Policy Council.

How long have you held this position? The CRFS project began in 2011. I was with Growing Power for nine years in one capacity or another.

What do you enjoy about your work? After 17 years in the food systems field it still feels like cutting edge work in many ways, particularly in those contexts outside of our world of daily practice where alternative food practices are still considered novel (although that’s decreasing steadily).

Similarly, what do you find challenging about your work? It’s becoming increasingly challenging to keep up with what everyone is doing nationwide and globally. It’s also a good challenge to have!

What areas of the food system do you focus on in your work? Urban agriculture is what brought me into the field, and it still is at the core of much of the work I’m involved in.

In the work that you perform, where does addressing food systems issues fit in? How has this changed over time? When I started in food systems, I worked on the “big picture,” looking at things at a systems level. But my time at Growing Power took me to the level of the individual project and/or activity. I often reminded myself to assess how what was just completed altered the larger system that provided its context. I’m also much more aware of the pervasive role of systemic racism in the availability and accessing of nutritious food.

Do you consider yourself a food systems planner? Why or why not? Yes and no. At the risk of appearing overly concerned with formal designations, I’ve never had “food systems planner” as a professional title as more and more folks now do. But I’ve always held the belief that anyone who acts deliberately to fulfill a vision of a better future is, in essence, a “planner.” So, yes, in that sense I’m a food systems planner.

What is the biggest food systems planning-related hurdle your community/ organization faced in recent years and how was it dealt with? It’s been a challenge for the city of Madison to move a public market district forward. I’m not directly involved in the effort, but city staff and members of the Madison Food Policy Council have diligently employed planning practices in addressing the public’s questions about siting, need/use and funding. Madison, however, is one of those places where large public projects move pretty slowly anyway.

How has your perception of food systems planning changed since you first entered the planning field? A number of years ago Marcia Caton Campbell and I wrote a paper that essentially posited that while food system planning may have looked like a new area of professional practice it actually drew on and reflected established aspects of planning theory and practice. I still stand by that view.

Who has had the most influence on you as a planner? As a food systems planner? I had the good fortune to have had Jerry Kaufman as my major advisor in planning school. But though Jerry is considered a father of food systems planning, he had a greater influence by introducing me to the areas he was engaged in before food systems – planning theory, planning ethics (another area he pioneered), and central-city planning. Within food systems planning, no single individual(s) stands out. But I’ll give a collective shout-out to those university extension personnel dedicated to food systems with whom I’ve worked over the years.

Do you have any advice for someone entering the food systems planning field? What skills do you use the most in your food systems planning related work? My best advice would be to engage, either professionally or personally, in some sort of on-the-ground food system activity that gets your hands dirty; something connected directly to food production (e.g, for-market farming) or distribution (working at a farmers’ market). To me, the core of community food systems work is direct engagement with food, and the more one does that the better. Other than that, you can’t deny the importance of critical and strategic thinking, and being able to communicate – particularly through writing – for a variety of audiences, whether school kids, grant proposal reviewers or the general public. I draw on those skills constantly.

What do you wish you would have known before going to planning school? From the outside, urban planning always seemed rather dry compared to architecture and landscape architecture, my previous fields. Until I went to planning school, I wasn’t aware of how effective planning practice is driven by a vibrant theoretical base.

Interviewer’s note: In addition to the work described above, Martin is co-author, with Kimberley Hodgson and Marcia Caton Campbell, of the 2011 monograph, Urban Agriculture: Growing Healthy Sustainable Places. Planning Advisory Service Report Number 563. Chicago, IL: American Planning Association. Martin has also published many articles on urban agriculture.

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: Erica Campbell

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Erica Campbell Farm to Plate (2)Erica Campbell, is the Director of the Farm to Plate Network in Montpelier, Vermont. She is also a member of the APA-FIG Leadership Committee and the Coordinator of the APA-FIG Policy Working Group.

Andrea Petzel, member of the APA-FIG Leadership Committee, conducted this interview in October 2015. The following responses have been edited.

Do you consider yourself a food systems planner? Why or why not? I am not a traditional planner, but I do consider myself a food system planner. In my current job I am coordinating the implementation of the Farm to Plate Strategic Plan. But I’ve also worked for a planning agency in Vermont to develop a regional food system plan for a three county region, and on a local level, I have also overseen a local food system assessment and have incorporated a food system chapter into our municipal plan.

What areas of the food system do you focus on in your work? The Farm to Plate Strategic Plan is perhaps the most comprehensive in the country; its nearly 1,000 pages include all elements of the food system. It began largely as a plan to spur economic development and jobs in the farm and food sector, but quickly broadened to include food access, health, environment, etc.

What is the biggest food systems planning-related hurdle your community/organization faced in recent years and how was it dealt with? While we have a very collaborative environment here in our little state, the diverse views of network members bring a host of challenges. For example, strategies that help make farms more viable may inadvertently be contrary to making food more accessible and affordable. Sometimes Network member organizations are in direct opposition around a policy or program initiative, such as a livable wage or paid sick days legislation. We certainly look at win-win opportunities, but sometimes we need to have challenging conversations, including issues of racial justice, equity, and working conditions.

How has your perception of food systems planning changed since you first entered the planning field? When I first worked as a transportation and land use planning consultant, I was aware of local food systems but I was unaware that food system planning was a field until I came across APA’s food system planning documents. I was really excited when I found these reports as they catalyzed a desire to focus on the food system field.

Who has had the most influence on you as a food systems planner? Wendell Berry has been a big influence on me as a person, and his writings have influenced my relationship with food, the land, and community. Donella Meadows was another big influence in terms of understanding leverage points for systems change. Growing up in a small rural state and having a close connection with the people who grew the food we ate (and growing it ourselves) also had a big influence on my understanding of food systems and community.

Do you have any advice for someone entering the food systems planning field? It’s really important to understand complex systems because plans ultimately need to be aimed at creating systems change. Even if you want to focus on one area of planning, an integrated approach that addresses the interrelatedness of issues is really helpful. Other knowledge areas that have aided me in my work include: policy analysis, research methods, public administration, economics, ecology, and sociology. Writing and communications are great skills to have too – using data to tell a story is a skill I am still working at!

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.

Produce Incentives Expand from Farmers’ Markets to Grocery Stores

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Kansas City supermarkets are testing a program that doubles low-income shoppers spending on local produce. Photo by Patty Cantrell.

A popular incentive for low-income shoppers at farmers markets is moving into grocery stores. The expansion promises nourishment for both rural and urban areas.

Around 5,000 low-income shoppers used the program from June through August in a trial run at four Price Chopper supermarkets in metro Kansas City. They spent nearly $30,000 on produce, mostly from smaller scale farmers in the region.

“This is economic development,” said Mark Holland, mayor of the Unified Government of Wyandotte County, Kansas. “It benefits the farmers selling local produce. It helps people who need it most to stretch their food dollars. It also benefits grocery stores; it brings people into the store.”

The Double Up Food Bucks retail expansion in Kansas City provides shoppers who use Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, or food stamp) benefits with a dollar-for-dollar match on their Price Chopper loyalty cards when they buy up to $25 a day of locally produced fruits and vegetables. They can then use the extra money to buy more of any produce, doubling the amount of healthy food they take home.

“It fit right in with our loyalty card program,” said Mike Beal, chief operating officer for Balls Food Stores, a regional family-owned chain with 15 Price Chopper and 11 Hen House supermarkets in the Kansas City area.

Farmers are also feeling the love.

Balls buys from more than 150 farmers through Good Natured Family Farms. The regional marketing cooperative, or food hub, supplies local products for every department, from produce, dairy and meats to honey and other items like jams and pickles.

Diana Endicott, president of Good Natured Family Farms, said the group’s produce sales are up 20 to 30 percent at the four Double Up Food Bucks test stores.

By Patty Cantrell, Regional Food Solutions

Originally Published 9/18/15 – full article at WallaceCenter.org

Faces of Food Systems Planning: Megan Horst

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Megan HorstMegan Horst is Assistant Professor at Portland State University in Portland, OR.

Andrea Petzel, member of the APA-FIG Leadership Committee, conducted this interview in October 2015. The following responses have been edited.

Do you consider yourself a food systems planner? Yes!

What do you enjoy about your work? Working with students and infiltrating their planning minds with foods systems issues. I also really like bridging the gap between research and practice.

What do you find challenging about your work? Food system work is filled with wicked problems with no one cause but rather systemic injustices. Trying to address all of these issues can be challenging, when one has little power or say over the cause. Sometimes the heaviness of the problems can be daunting; federal policy, climate change, social justice issues.

Who has had the most influence on you as a planner and as a food systems planner? I’ve really been influence by literature beyond planning –Julie Guthman, Alison Alkon, Julian Aguyeman – people who work in food justice and how the food movement isn’t paying attention to justice and is over-focused on local and sustainable food.

How has your perception of food systems planning changed since you first entered the planning field? I think I originally came to food systems planning based on my interest in sustainability issues and now I marry it much more closely to social justice issues.

What areas of the food system do you focus on in your work? I work mostly on the research side of things and right now I have an interest in farmland and farming issues – the effectiveness of urban growth boundaries, how we deal with expected growth, and whether investors are making a grab for farmland. Farmland access could be a concern; who gets to access and who’s producing the food. Is it corporate investors? Is it luxury or second homeowners? What does that mean for access by landless, young, immigrant farmers – farmers who really want to grow food sustainably for the local population? There’s lots of work happening to foster access to new farmers and that’s exciting.

Do you have any advice for someone entering the food systems planning field? Read from literature from broader food justice issues, not just planning topics. Read about international work, and learn about anti-oppression and anti-racism training. As a planner you also need to use many practical skills; you need to be good at facilitating meetings and always work on being better at communicating and being more inclusive.

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: Becky Bodonyi

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BeckyPhoto

Becky Bodonyi is a planner working as a program specialist for the Multnomah County Health Department located in Portland, Oregon. Her work focuses on bridging urban planning, public health, and food access issues. Becky is also an active member of APA-FIG’s Policy Working Group.

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

  1. What is your first and last name? Becky Bodonyi
  2. What is your current position? Program Specialist, Multnomah County Health Department, Portland, Oregon
  3. How long have you held this position? Just over three years.
  4. What do you enjoy about your work? I love working at the intersection of public health and urban planning. It’s an exciting time to be a planner at the health department, as more and more people in a wide variety of sectors are starting to realize how their organization or their work influences health. The idea that place matters is becoming more widespread and I get to help people tell this story. I also love geeking out about the data – both quantitative and qualitative – making maps and working to figure out how we’ll get from a vision to tangible change in our communities. Finally, I’m always told that planners talk in “planner speak,” and I love helping non-planners understand the world of planning, for example, deciphering maps, visualizing floor-area-ration (FAR), or how a density bonus can help us achieve multiple outcomes.
  5. Similarly, what do you find challenging about your work? Change is slow. It takes time to change systems, especially when the work is about making those systems more fair and just. The health inequities we see today, especially related to food, nutrition and chronic disease, have their roots in a long history of racism and policy decisions across all sectors, from agriculture and housing to transportation and education. The challenge is understanding how all of this is related but also accepting that not everything can be “fixed” overnight and being patient with yourself. I first heard Wes Jackson’s words nearly 17 years ago: “If your life’s work can be accomplished in your lifetime, you’re not thinking big enough.” And while it has since inspired me, I will also admit that it is ultimately my biggest challenge.
  6. What areas of the food system do you focus on in your work? I’m focused on healthy food access. My projects of late have centered on food retail and integrating food access into transportation planning.
  7. In the work that you perform, where does addressing food systems issues fit in? How has this changed over time? I work mostly on the consumer end – where do people shop and how do they get there, what’s on the shelf, do customers know how to prepare it, what is actually getting eaten. That said, working in healthy retail and helping small retailers overcome barriers has also meant I have had to engage somewhat with production and distribution through farm to store efforts, joint purchasing, and learning what wholesale produce suppliers serve the region.
  8. Do you consider yourself a food systems planner? Why or why not? Yes and no. I am an urban planner by training and I work on issues directly connected to food systems. But my focus within the food system has been so narrow that I don’t immediately identify as a food systems planner. Rightly or wrongly, in my head, I’ve reserved that title for folks who are working at a systems level, say convening a process to integrate food systems into a comprehensive (or general) plan or to develop a multi-sector food action plan.
  9. How has your perception of food systems planning changed since you first entered the planning field? I was an Environmental Studies major in undergrad and I took a few sustainable agriculture classes, which opened my eyes to the world of agriculture policy and food systems. When I got to planning school, which wasn’t that long ago, I guess I was surprised to learn that food systems planning was relatively new. It seemed so obvious to me that planners should be paying attention and using their tools and planning processes to support/influence/improve the food system. I’m glad it’s getting more and more attention now.
  10. Who has had the most influence on you as a planner? As a food systems planner? I don’t have any particular influences. I am a social justice advocate and planning is just one of my tools that I use to advance equity and fairness. I was raised to believe everyone deserves to live to their full potential and to do so in a physical, social and political environment that supports their total well-being and that presents opportunity not barriers. I picked planning as a career to contribute to this vision. I also just love cities and talking with friends (and strangers) about what works and what doesn’t about a particular place. Every day conversations and observations are probably the most persistent influence I have on my planning practice. I get around mostly by walking, biking or taking transit, which gives me a lot of time to observe the city and to interact with other people. A lot of my thinking is done on the bus.
  11. 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 systems planning is a broad field – don’t just limit yourself to working for a planning agency or a firm. I didn’t expect to work for a health department but am finding it to be an interesting place to be a planner and be a bridge between urban planning, public health and healthy food advocates. Skills that have proven useful in my role have been project management, negotiation, data and policy analysis, evaluation planning, and relationship building.
  12. What do you wish you would have known before going to planning school? Planning is as much an art as it is a science. I knew I didn’t want to go into the academic world so I focused my school search on programs that offered the so-called ‘professional degree.’ I didn’t exactly know what this meant and it was kind of sold to me as a two-year program where you developed technical skills, like understanding land use laws or GIS, and boom – you’re workforce ready. While those technical skills are essential, planning is about people and communities and humans’ relationships with each other and with place. It’s also about politics, conflicting priorities, and chronically underfunded cities (or counties). It is way more complicated and messy than I expected and this is where the art comes in. Planning school helped me develop skills to navigate this part of planning, but truthfully, the art of the profession is something that is better learned in the work place not necessarily a classroom. (And, I’d argue, the skills a planner needs to succeed in the art of planning don’t need to be learned in an urban planning job).

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.

The Historic Legacy of the Food-Income Poverty Model

Nathanael Rosenheim Leave a comment
1939 Food Stamp

The first food stamp issued in 1939.

Urban planners depend on the Official Poverty Measure (OPM), but few understand the relationship between the OPM and food budgets. In the 1960’s, Mollie Orshansky, a statistician working at the Social Security Administration, was instrumental in coming up with a scientific definition for what she called the “undoubted poor”. To provide scientific justification for defining poverty, Orshansky argued that a nutritious diet was the most basic need families should not go without. Orshansky used the USDA’s economic food plan, which was considered the minimum budget a family could use to purchase an adequate diet, and the 1955 USDA Household Food Consumption Survey to determine how much the average family spent on food. Together, Orshansky defined poverty as any family that had a total income less than three times the economic food plan. This definition rested on two critical assumptions:

The first assumption set the food-income multiplier at three. Since the average household in 1955 spent one out of every three dollars on food, a family should be able to purchase a healthy diet with a third of their income and have enough money left over for the undefined needs. Today’s OPM still uses a multiplier of three to determine the minimum level of consumption, but based on changes in consumer expenditures, the multiplier should have been four in 1960-61, six by 1988, and around seven today.

The second assumption was that the USDA’s economic food plan would allow for an adequate diet. The economic food plan, today referred to as the Thrifty Food Plan (TFP), was not designed for long-term use, but today millions of households are expected to make healthy adequate meals from an unforgiving budget year after year. In addition, the TFP, which is also used to determine food assistance benefits through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as food stamps), assumes a household produces no food waste and has an expert food preparer, with excellent menu planning and food shopping skills. The TFP’s historic foundations stressed the need for home food production, health education, and local networks to ensure the affordability of healthy food. The assumptions behind the definition of poverty provide no margin of error and demand that all meals be made from scratch.

Orshansky was the first critic of her measure of poverty and saw the food-income relationship as an “interim guide.” However, Orshansky’s standards for counting the “undoubted poor” have determined six decades of policy. In 1965 the poverty level for a family of four was $60 a week ($1,963 a month in 2014 dollars).The OPM in 2014 was $1,988 a month ($23,850 a year) for a family of four. In 2014 the monthly TFP budget for a family of four was $650, or one third of $1,988.

Since the 1960’s the food system and consumer expenditures have experienced tremendous changes. Changes such as food retail consolidation and the changing role of women in the workforce make the TFP and the food-income multiplier severely out of date. Astonishingly, the OPM can be determined by simply multiplying a 60-year-old food budget by three and adjusting for inflation.

A more appropriate food budget for a family of four would be closer to $1,000 a month and the food-income multiplier should be closer to seven. That means that any family of four earning less than $84,000 a year is probably making difficult choices been purchasing food for a healthy diet and providing for all other needs (housing, education, transportation, health care etc.). For the more than 18 million households living below the poverty level there is clearly no margin for error. In this context, government programs set up an impressive facade that does not address the true costs of poverty and reinforces an impossible food budget that very few families could make work.

What can urban planners do? Here are some recommendations:
1. Become familiar with the USDA Food Budgets
2. Find out which stores in your community provide Market Basket Prices below the Thrifty Food Plan – see an example from Portland, OR – Grocery Cart PDX
3. With an initial focus on the stores with the best Market Basket Prices, find out what the current public transportation options are and conduct a walkability audit. See if there are any immediate ways to improve mobility between people living in poverty and food retailers.
4. Work with local food retailers and local food producers to make affordable, nutritious and culturally appropriate foods readily available.

About the Author. Nathanael P. Rosenheim, Ph.D. is Assistant Research Scientist in the Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center, College of Architecture at Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas.

Faces of Food Systems Planning: Jaspal Marwah

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IMG_3963 - Version 2Jaspal Marwah is a regional planner working for Metro Vancouver, a regional planning agency, in Burnaby, BC. He is responsible for developing an action plan to implement the Metro Vancouver Regional Food System Strategy.

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

What is your first and last name? Jaspal Marwah

What is your current position? Regional Planner, Metro Vancouver, Burnaby, BC

How long have you held this position? 2 years

What do you enjoy about your work? I like the variety of assignments and projects that I’m able to participate in – from technical work like processing requests to change land use designations, or assisting municipal partners in aligning their planning processes with the regional growth strategy, or championing a new plan or strategy like the regional food system action plan. My area of focus tends to also be in social planning issues, which I find rewarding to participate in. And it’s also interesting to focus on the connections and opportunities for local governments to collectively advance initiatives that are region-wide.

Similarly, what do you find challenging about your work? Working at a regional scale doesn’t have the same level of engaging technical, hands-on, on the ground type of planning work that happens at the municipal level. And political interests are always a challenge to navigate.

What areas of the food system do you focus on in your work? I’m working on an action plan to implement our regional food system strategy. My focus is on convening all of the local governments in Metro Vancouver to assess the current state of activity related to the region’s food system, to map out what’s happening on the ground in the next 5 years, and to address areas that need more effort. This initiative focuses specifically on the dimensions of the food system that local government have immediate control over and can directly engage with.

In the work that you perform, where does addressing food systems issues fit in? How has this changed over time? My involvement with food systems planning started out working with colleagues to plan and deliver a consultation series on different aspects of the regional food system, including some analysis of the feedback and outcomes. Following that, the food system portfolio migrated from a different department into the planning department, where I was able to take the lead on moving things forward in developing a regional food system action plan. Currently, food systems planning remains one of my lead projects.

Do you consider yourself a food systems planner? Why or why not? I consider myself a planner who is fortunate enough to be involved in food policy and food system issues. Although I enjoy being engaged in the regional food system, it is only one dimension to my overall planning work.

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 biggest challenges is in securing and sustaining political and organizational support for bringing food system issues into the local government sphere of activity. Some don’t always see the important role that local governments have in supporting the food system. Building connections among local governments helps create a network of peers and practitioners to learn from, and to develop common approaches and language around integrating food system issues into local government processes. Similarly, building relationships between local government and civil society groups seems to be a very effective approach to enabling a lot of on the ground activity.

How has your perception of food systems planning changed since you first entered the planning field? I started off in the green development/ sustainability policy field, and wasn’t aware of food systems and the connection with planning at that time. Since then, I’ve seen the steady growth of food systems issues in general within my community, and increasingly in the realm of local government interests. It is now a burgeoning field with opportunities for practitioners and supporters in the public, private and non-profit sectors.

Who has had the most influence on you as a planner? As a food systems planner? The colleagues and partners I worked with when I first started out in the consulting field helped provide perspective and experience to learn from and to understand the field more holistically. For food systems planning, my peers Janine de la Salle and Mark Holland have always been passionate voices and innovators in the field, and have helped bring food systems planning to the forefront of planning practice in Vancouver.

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? Don’t feel constrained by job titles or even distinctions between public/private/non-profit sectors – there are many paths that lead to food systems planning. Look for opportunities to be involved in food systems issues in your community – there are non-profits that are always looking for assistance, and who are doing a lot of the ‘on the ground’ work; municipal advisory committees with opportunities to be involved as a citizen; attend council meetings for food systems issues to get a sense of the discussion, debate, areas of concern from a local government perspective; and, if one is working in a planning company that doesn’t have any food systems experience, there’s an opportunity to bring the issue to the table as part of other projects. Like any planning work, the skills involved are varied and depend on the nature of your work, but some skills are always helpful, such as: systems thinking (to consider how all parts of the food system interact), facilitation (sooner or later you’ll be involved in some form of consultation and group work) and relationship-building (positive and productive relationships with other agencies is key to advancing food systems issues).

What do you wish you would have known before going to planning school? Planning is a broad, generalized field and has as many dimensions as it has practitioners. The education helps give one a sense of the field, but the real learning really only happens after planning school once you’re practicing!

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.