The Blueprint for a National Food Strategy examines the need for a cohesive national approach to food system regulation through legal and scholarly research.
Regulation of the American food system is riddled with inequalities and inefficiencies. There is no federal “food” agency; instead, food is regulated by a range of agencies whose missions often conflict and overlap. Multiple agencies regulate food safety, production practices, agricultural workers, dietary guidelines, water pollution, and more. It’s a patchwork approach with dire consequences: simultaneous obesity and hunger; food insecurity and waste; a reliance on foreign labor and barriers to immigration; agriculture speeding climate change, which in turn threatens agriculture. And the list goes on.
This project, a partnership between CAFS and Harvard Law School Food Law and Policy Clinic with support from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, examines the potential for developing a cohesive national food strategy in the United States. Through legal and original research, the Blueprint Project considers the need for a national food strategy, how other countries have developed national food strategies in response to similar food systems challenges faced by the United States, and the process by which the United States has developed national strategies in response to other issues.
The resources created by this project provide a roadmap for the adoption of national food strategy in order to ensure a food secure future for all Americans. Visit the project website here, and read and interact with the report here.