Food Policy Discussions

Emerging efforts in Houston

Steve Hawley, Jan 09, 09.

Tagged with quality of life, food, food policy council

Several long-term efforts are emerging out of the food conference Houston Tomorrow hosted in September.

On December 4, journalist and food activist Mark Winne spoke as part of Houston Tomorrow’s Distinguished Speaker Series. He talked about his new book Closing the Food Gap, which details the widening of America’s food gap - the difference in food quality between the poor and everyone else - since the 1960s. According to Winne, low-income Americans can only afford processed industrial foods, leading to health problems such as obesity and diabetes, while more affluent Americans can afford (and increasingly prefer) local and organic foods. Closing the Food Gap provides ideas for making healthy, local food available to everyone through the use of farmers’ markets, community gardens, and food banks.

Mark Winne’s Closing the Food Gap presentation ppt, 804 kb

Brent Moon, who works with the City of Houston Parks and Recreation Department and was one of the conference panelists, is working to make the city’s vision for turning vacant lots into community gardens a reality. He has been consulting with Urban Harvest, Recipe for Success, and others to make the program benefit both the city and local communities. This program has the potential to bring fresh produce to neighborhoods across the city while also relieving the city government of the burden of caring for these tax-delinquent properties.

Finally, the Houston-Galveston Area Council is hosting a discussion group to examine the possibility for a Food Policy Council for the Houston region. The discussion group has met twice on November 5th and December 5th, the day after Winne’s talk. Below are some notes from that two-hour meeting. Please feel free to contact us if you are interested in getting involved.

Positive Aspects of the Houston-Galveston food system doc, 29 kb

Weaknesses of the Houston-Galveston food system doc, 44 kb

Framework for Food Policy Decisions doc, 26 kb

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