This Issue of Urban Agriculture Magazine is all about Food Policy Councils!

The 36th issue of Urban Agriculture Magazine, published by the RUAF Foundation, is all about food policy councils! The issue explores the role of Food Policy Councils (FPC), the challenges they face and the impact their work has on the local community and broader food system. 

Lori Stalhbrand, previous coordinator of the Toronto Food Policy Council (TFPC) and Wayne Roberts, wrote an article on The Evolving Role of Food Policy Councils: Making the Shift from Policy to Critical Food Guidance (Read more). The article explores the importance of food beyond policy and how food can and should be used as a tool to address a variety of social and environmental issues such as climate change. Recently, the City of Toronto’s Climate Action Strategy, TransformTO, announced that it would work with the TFPC to include food in the strategy to mitigate Toronto’s greenhouse gas emissions (Read more). 

The Toronto Food Policy Council has been around since 1990 and was the first FPC to be embedded within the government of a major city. To learn more about the TFPC visit http://tfpc.to/ or visit the The Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future’s Food Policy Networks (FPN) Directory to find a food policy council in your area. The directory can be found at www.foodpolicynetworks.org/directory/online