A series of agricultural land use planning modules are now available as a resource for land use planners on such topics as farmland conservation, farm and property taxes, commercial composting, agritourism, and food system planning. The planning guide is a project of the Vermont Farm to Plate Network’s Agricultural Land Use Planning Task Force. The modules are specific to Vermont but may also be helpful to municipal, regional, and statewide planners in other states.
In recognition of growing global concerns about long-term food security, the Commonwealth Association Planners (CAP) has developed a report listing Strategic Directions that Commonwealth planners could use in food security planning. The report also contains a series of specific tools and strategies that planners can use to plan for agriculture and food security.
The full report is available to download from the CAP website.
In October 2014, the Santa Fe Food Policy Council, an advisory body to Santa Fe County, released the first food systems plan for the region. The document – Planning for Santa Fe’s Food Future: Querencia, a Story of Food, Farming, and Friends – highlights several goal areas and policy action items, focusing on how the community accesses, produces and shares knowledge about food.
The food systems plan builds upon previous work of the Santa Fe Food Policy Council and Santa Fe County, including Santa Fe Food Policy Council’s Community Food Assessment, Santa Fe County 2013: A Community Health Profile, and The City of Santa Fe’s Sustainable Santa Fe. Plan.
For more information, visit: http://www.santafefoodpolicy.org/food-plan/.
Growing Food Connections, a federally-funded research initiative to strengthen community food systems nationwide, recently released a database with over 100 newly adopted local government policies aimed to strengthen food systems. The Growing Food Connections Policy Database, hosted by the School of Architecture and Planning at the University at Buffalo, will assist local governments as they work to broaden access to healthy food and help sustain local farms and food producers.
For more information see the press release.
APA FOOD 