SB 10-106 Creation of a Food Advisory Council
*This bill was introduced in the Senate on January 201, 2010 and was assigned to the Health and Human Services Committee
• Because there is no “Department of Food” in the Government, food policy is spread across the following committees:
o Human Services—food stamps
o Health Departments—increase access to healthier eating: WIC, senior nutrition programs, state-wide nutritional education programs
o School Districts—food education and promoting healthy eating behavior
o Economic Development—incentives to locate supermarkets in underserved areas, establish food processing facilities and infrastructure, account for contribution that food and farming make to their local and state economies
o City and State Planning Departments—impact transportation for those who depend on it to reach a supermarket, promote or deter sprawl that affects farmland.
• The bill will create a 17-member Food Systems Advisory Council. The executive directors or their designees from the departments of public health and environment, agriculture, human services, education, and local affairs are 5 of the members of the council. The remaining 12 members are appointed by the governor, the president of the senate, the speaker of the house of representatives, the minority leader of the senate, and the minority leader of the house of representatives
• The purposes of the council are to:
o Identify and use existing studies of the food system and examples of best practices, whenever possible Collaborate with other task forces, committees, or organizations with similar purposes;
o Develop local food policies for Colorado that contribute to building robust, resilient, and long-term local food economies;
o Develop policy recommendations regarding hunger and food access;
o Support the efforts of, be a resource to, and receive input from local and regional food policy councils in the state;
o Advise and recommend actions that state and local governments, businesses, agriculture, and consumers can take to build robust, resilient, and long-term local food economies.
• This state sanctioned Council will work across sectors—engaging with state and local government, agriculture, business, and non-profit organizations—to collaboratively establish platforms for coordinated action to advance food policy recommendations that lead to the development of a robust, resilient food system with longevity. (http://www.livewellcolorado.org/assets/pdf/home/FoodCouncil_FactSheet.pdf)
• In September 2009, The Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that no state in the US was meeting national goals for the amount of fruits and vegetables that American should be eating, and identified the creation of Food Policy Councils to support changes to improve local food economies.
• Food Policy Committees in other states have been effective in bringing together food-related government and non-government constituencies to employ a food system approach facilitating policy evaluation and program development in the process from farm to table.
o Currently Arizona, Connecticut, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Utah have Food Policy Councils in place. (You can view these councils at http://www.statefoodpolicy.org/?pageID=profiles)
• Formation of the council will increase focus on the economic development opportunities of Colorado’s food system, improve agricultural production, community well-being, and public health.
• The assembly provides that building local food economies will create jobs, stimulate statewide economic development, and circulate money from local food sales.
*This is a basic overview of the bill. The actual piece of legislation is relatively easy to read, especially for a bill. It is 11 pages long, so if you want to learn more, you can read the full bill at: http://www.leg.state.co.us/clics/clics2010a/csl.nsf/fsbillcont/1DD25CDEE...