Local Food Action Initiative

• Local Food Action Initiative Home
• In the Works/ Accomplishments
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• Calendar of Events

• Integrating Food Policy in Comprehensive Planning: Strategies and Resources for the City of Seattle
• Download a Local Food Action Initiative Handout
• Urban Agriculture Business Forum Video
• Local Food Action Initiative Council blog posts
• Farm Bill Council blog posts

• Seattle Farm Bill Principles
• Urban Farm Hub
• Community Food Security Coalition Recomendations for Food Systems Policy in Seattle

The Local Food Action Initiative establishes goals, creates a policy framework, and identifies specific actions to strengthen Seattle and the region’s food system in a sustainable and secure way. Resolution 31019, passed by the Seattle City Council in April 2008, outlines the Initiative. It aims to improve the local and regional food system, and in doing so, advance the City of Seattle’s interrelated goals of race and social justice, environmental sustainability, economic development, and emergency preparedness.

• Strengthen community and regional food systems

• Assess and mitigate negative environmental and ecological impacts

• Encourage the use of renewable energy resources and minimize energy waste

• Stimulate demand for healthy foods, especially in low-income communities

• Increase access to healthy and local food for all of Seattle’s residents, through:

• Increasing opportunities to purchase and grow healthy food
• Educational and community kitchen programs
• New distribution opportunities
• Addressing access disparities
• Recovering surplus edible food
• Addressing vulnerable populations’ needs
• Increasing fresh and healthy foods in the food support system (e.g. food banks and meal programs)

• Integrate food system planning and policies into City activities

• Enhance partnerships within the City and across the region

• Establish a strong interdepartmental focus among City departments

• Support procurement policies favoring local and regional sourcing

• Enhance emergency preparedness around food access and distribution

Access to food is one of the most fundamental needs of a community, yet local government involvement in addressing and assuring access to food is often poorly addressed. An increased number of local municipalities are beginning to realize the impact that the U.S. food system—characterized by heavy reliance on chemicals, increased processing of foods, long transportation times, and inequitable access to fresh food, particularly for low–income people—is having on health, local food security, hunger, emergency preparedness, climate protection, and economic development.