On September 29, Emily Broad Leib, Clinical Professor of Law, Faculty Director of the Harvard Law School Food Law and Policy Clinic, and Deputy Director of the Harvard Law School Center for Health Law and Policy, and I had a conversation about food policy. Emily discussed food policy from many different altitudes- federal, state and local- and how we can all become curious and knowledgeable about food policy in our lives.

I hope you find this conversation as fascinating as I did and that this whets your appetite to explore food policy even more. I encourage you to watch the recording of our conversation here where you can dive more into Emily’s key insights, including: 

• Food policy involves a tangled web of actors, with no one “leader” who streamlines it. When you listen to Emily’s examples of how food policy shows up in our lives, you can start seeing ways that you can be involved.

• Over the past 10 to 15 years, Emily has seen an increased interest at the community level in consumers, teachers, health professionals, and producers of food to determine the priorities of our food system, which has created tremendous opportunities to shape food policy.

• Food policy and equity are not always woven together and certain groups have historically been left out of opportunities, which has long-term implications for those communities.

During our conversation Emily also gave us all two calls to action: 

• Even a small action you take can make a big impact when you take the time to dig into it. Individuals have an opportunity to make a difference in food policy and FRN’s audience has a central spot in this space already!

• Get involved in your state or local food policy council. This will help you gain more expertise and knowledge and understand more how food policy fits into the work you do.

I hope you can tune in to our conversation together and find inspiration to continue learning about and engaging with food policy. Please share this valuable information with your friends and family and we can begin to help build a better food system that works for everyone!