A New York City Food Policy Forum: Fresh Ideas on Farms and Food

Submitted by FSNYC Member Nevin Cohen, The New School

On September 5th, Food Systems Network NYC, The New School, and Farm Aid organized The New York Food Policy Forum, a meeting of leading food and farm activists, local and state policy makers and food and agriculture experts. The goal was to identify strategies to strengthen the region’s food system through policies that support family farms, increase access to healthy food, and build connections among urban consumers and the farmers within the metropolitan region’s foodshed....

Stakeholders representing grassroots, state-level and national policy interests who participated in the discussion included: New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn; New York State Senator Liz Krueger; Parks and Recreation Commissioner Adrian Benepe; City Council Members Eric Gioia and Helen Foster; NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets Chief Marketing Representative Robert Lewis and Assistant Commissioner Jerry Cosgrove; Hunger Action Network of New York State Executive Director Bich Ha Pham; New York City Department of Education, SchoolFood Executive Director David Berkowitz; New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene Assistant Commissioner Lynn Silver; National Family Farm Coalition Executive Director Kathy Ozer; Just Food Chair Kathy Lawrence; and La Familia Verde Gardening Coalition Organizer Karen Washington.

*All Food Politics is Local*

Keynote speaker Kathy Lawrence reminded the forum that public policies created the current unsustainable food system, and that policymaking was necessary to turn the system around. In Lawrence’s view, “the role of policy is to create environment in which the default choices are the right choices” in terms of the environment, rural farm communities, and our health. Lawrence added that good, enduring policymaking must start at the grassroots “because that is where people can see change,” but must also involve advocates who have in-depth knowledge of how the political system works and the strategic points of influence. She emphasized that what works is “coordinated action coupling grassroots energy and knowledge of the political system.”

*Growing the Market*

Several presenters stressed the need to expand the number of farmers markets in the city and one, John Gorzynski, Upstate Farmer and Chair, Greenmarket Farmer-Community Advisory Committee, emphasized the importance of secure, long-term tenure for the markets. Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe responded that city ought to explore the use of property that is unsuitable for parkland for permanent farmers markets and urban farms like Red Hook’s Added Value. Benepe stressed, however, that offering long-term leases in parks might be considered parkland alienation, requiring state authorization. Benepe noted that the Mayor’s PlaNYC 2030 proposes options for increasing open space and public plazas in communities including the removal of space now used for vehicles, suggesting that reclaiming such space may provide opportunities for new Greenmarkets.

Other innovative suggestions for expanding market space for farmers included linking the City’s Housing Preservation and Development agency with community development corporations to develop food cooperatives in city housing developments. One project, the proposed Via Verde housing project in the South Bronx, would incorporate some food production and a farmer’s market. The affordable housing is designed around gardens at street level that form a courtyard and plaza. The gardens will be used for fruit and vegetable cultivation, while Via Verde’s plaza will host a neighborhood farmers’ market or organic food co-op.

Other speakers discussed the importance of opening up the proposed New York City wholesale farmers market as a way to improve the marketing and distribution of family farm products to restaurants, retailers, and institutions in NYC.

*Cultivating Demand*

Several presenters noted the need to build awareness among young people about the importance of healthy, fresh food. Some discussed the value of requiring all schools to train their students in cooking with locally grown ingredients to raise appreciation and awareness of the value of seasonal food and to train students in the skills required to prepare fresh food. Programs like FoodChange’s CookShop provides curricula for a wide range of students designed to increase awareness and consumption of wholesome foods in the community.

David Berkowitz, Executive Director of the NYC Department of Education’s SchoolFood program, discussed various efforts to integrate locally grown foods into the NYC school food program. With 860,000 meals a day, New York has the largest feeding program in the country, second only to the military in the amount of food it serves. Berkowitz talked about the introduction of New York State sliced and bagged apples (called “Grab Apples”) which have proven to be much more popular than whole apples.

To expand the use of local food in the SchoolFood program, Berkowitz discussed recent efforts to try to integrate food grown in urban farms like Red Hook’s Added Value, and John Bowne High School in Queens, where more than 500 agriculture students are part of a program where they learn how to cultivate crops and raise animals, and the produce gets incorporated into the high school’s lunch menu. He also noted that expanding the capacity to process and freeze New York State vegetables would make them more easily incorporated into the school meal program. An amendment to the House version of the 2007 Farm Bill will allow geographic/local preference and increased flexibility for USDA food program purchasing, making these kinds of school food programs easier to implement across the nation. Tom Harkin has included geographic preference language in the Senate’s version.

*Creating a Food Secure City*

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn emphasized the importance of reducing food insecurity and obesity in New York City by providing access to healthy, farm-fresh foods. Quinn discussed the Council’s goal of cutting the number of hungry New Yorkers in half and bringing healthier food to every community by increasing the number of Greenmarkets and ensuring that those Greenmarkets can accept food stamps. The Council has allocated funds to provide Greenmarket farmers with electronic scanners so that residents in poorer neighborhoods can buy fresh produce with their food stamp benefits. Quinn noted that in one Greenmarket located in Poe Park in the South Bronx, food stamps now account for $500 of sales each market day.

One presenter discussed the important of expanding programs like the New York City Department of Health’s Health Bucks, which currently distributes 15,000 two-dollar vouchers to low income residents to be redeemed for fruits and vegetables at participating farmers markets. The Health Bucks are distributed through the Department’s District Public Health Offices, in partnership with local community groups, in the South Bronx, North and Central Brooklyn, and East and Central Harlem, neighborhoods with serious obesity and diabetes problems. Those food stamp recipients who shop at farmers markets receive a $2 Health Buck coupon if they spend $5 worth of food stamps. More than 30 markets are participating citywide, and half of them accept food stamps.

Doreen Wohl, Executive Director, West Side Campaign Against Hunger, a “customer choice” food pantry, suggested strengthening links between CSAs and emergency food programs so that food that is not distributed to CSA members can be provided to those in need.

*Focus on the Farm Bill*

A number of participants stressed that despite the value of local efforts to build the market for farm fresh food in New York City, the shape of the 2007 Farm Bill would have a huge impact on New York’s food system. Currently under consideration in the Senate, the Farm Bill is critical to supporting family farms in the metropolitan area, particularly because farmers do not receive an economic return on many costs, such as land conservation, which benefit society as a whole. One speaker urged the forum attendees to push Congress to enhance the bill’s conservation programs, increasing funding and improving programs such as the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) and the Farm and Ranchland Protection Program, making them more advantageous for New York’s farmers, ensuring that they require removal of only a limited quantity of land from production, and providing for federal cost sharing for farm stewardship programs that benefit the New York City watershed.

The New York Food Policy Forum: Fresh Ideas on Farms and Food was the first in a series of planned public discussions of food and farm issues facing the metropolitan area. We hope to organize a follow-up discussion in the spring about the consequences of the Farm Bill and how local advocates can work to create a more sustainable food system for the region.

To see a live recording of the event, please visit Fora TV.

Download the Program below.