Blueprint for a National Food Strategy: Evaluating the Potential for a National Food Strategy in the United States

Eating is a fundamental human need, and the food and agriculture system is vital to the American economy. Yet, our food system often works at cross-purposes, providing abundance while creating inefficiencies, and imposing unnecessary burdens on our economy, environment, and overall health. Many federal policies, laws, and regulations guide and structure our food system. However, these laws are fragmented and sometimes inconsistent, hindering food system improvements. To promote a healthy, economically viable, equitable, and resilient food system, the United States needs a coordinated federal approach to food and agricultural law and policy – that is, a national food strategy.A national food strategy has the potential to offer a comprehensive, coordinated path forward to improve the food system. Specifically, it could help leaders and members of the public understand how various aspects of food and agriculture connect and are interdependent. The process of developing a strategy could clarify where agencies and legislators currently undertake overlapping or conflicting activities. In addition, the process could provide opportunities for soliciting and incorporating public and stakeholder input. Ultimately, a national food strategy could harmonize law and policymaking around food and agriculture, providing a mechanism for legislators and agencies to establish, prioritize, and pursue common goals.This report provides a roadmap for the process to develop a national food strategy. Consequently, it focuses primarily on process rather than policy, because an effective process is a critical foundation to any coordinated strategy. In developing this blueprint, this report examines several models, which collectively may chart a path for such a strategy. First, several nations have developed national food strategies that may inform American efforts. These countries generally have food system challenges similar to those in the United States – e.g., maintaining or improving the success and resilience of the food and agricultural sectors, ensuring access to healthy food, promoting sustainable food production, and harmonizing the work of numerous agencies. Their strategies also illustrate a range of methods that can be used to engage agencies, diverse stakeholders, and the general public in strategy creation.The United States also serves as a model for this blueprint, as there are many domestic national strategies addressing a range of topics. This report explores select U.S. national strategies on diverse issues from the domestic HIV/AIDS epidemic to environmental justice. These strategies serve to illustrate the legal and policy mechanisms employed by domestic efforts to address important and complex social issues in need of federal coordination. Regardless of the motivation, these domestic strategies share key components and characteristics, including utilizing an organizing authority, incorporating stakeholder and public engagement, enshrining goals in a written document, and ensuring periodic updating. These mechanisms demonstrate the capacity of the U.S. political system to address complex issues, and these key components provide a framework for the features that should structure a national food strategy.Presently, our food system struggles to serve the needs and interests of all Americans. The piecemeal policy and regulatory framework pertaining to food and agriculture also fails to accomplish needed improvements. Yet, the United States possesses the tools needed to address this vital system. A comprehensive and coordinated federal approach to law and policymaking is critical to an economically viable, resilient, equitable and food secure future for America. To that end, this report identifies four major principles to guide the creation of a national food strategy in the United States. Each principle describes the findings supporting it and includes a set of recommendations to lay the foundation for an effective comprehensive national strategy

Exposed and At Risk: Opportunities to Strengthen Enforcement of Pesticide Regulations for Farmworker Safety

In May 2021, the Center for Agriculture and Food Systems published Essentially Unprotected: A Focus on Farmworker Health Laws and Policies Addressing Pesticide Exposure and Heat-Related Illness as a companion report to the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future's report Essential and in Crisis: A Review of the Public Health Threats Facing Farmworkers in the US. Both reports focused on the public health threats facing farmworkers in the United States. Essentially Unprotected specifically addressed pesticide exposure and heat-related illness, highlighting the gaps in federal law in addition to state efforts to fill those gaps.This report was conceived by farmworker advocates to expand on the research and analysis contained in Essentially Unprotected. In continued partnership with Farmworker Justice, CAFS seeks to create resources to support the expansion of laws and policy that can improve conditions for workers throughout the food system. This report is part of a series that spotlights various issues affecting farmworkers where law and policy can play a role in offering protection.The direction of this report was influenced heavily by interviews with farmworker advocates in various states. Through these conversations, it became clear that the legal and regulatory landscape of pesticide law enforcement is complex given the cooperative relationship between federal and state governments and the myriad agencies involved at both levels. This resource is intended to provide clarity on pesticide regulation enforcement efforts to enable advocates and law and policymakers to identify opportunities for improvement. It concludes with a set of recommendations to better protect the health and safety of the farmworkers who comprise an integral part of our food syste

Forging Toward Coexistence

This Article argues that because current federal policies hamper the ability of organic and non-GE farmers to ensure the safety and authenticity of their products, the AC21 needs to meet its charge and reach consensus on USDA supported mechanisms that encourage and facilitate farmers to develop long term, viable solutions that address the interests of all parties. Without USDA support, farmers have little incentive to attempt collaboration under the umbrella of existing federal policies. Part II of this Article provides a detailed history of the regulatory scheme that governs genetically engineered plants and products and demonstrates the clear preference for the development and support of GE products. In Part III, this Article examines the scope of authority granted to the USDA under the Plant Protection Act to regulate genetically engineered organisms. Part IV addresses the issue of gene flow from GE crops to non-GE and organic crops, and provides a discussion of the cases that have brought this issue before the courts. Finally, Part V of this article concludes by analyzing the work of the AC21 and arguing that the working group needs to consider the implementation of collaborative mechanisms to aid farmers in achieving some degree of coexistence

Making the Case for a National Food Strategy in the United States

Presently, in the United States there is a fair amount of speculation regarding the future of food and agricultural laws and policies, given the recent election of a new president. Based on campaign rhetoric and comments since the election, the next four-to-eight years could signal a dramatic shift in a variety of food policy areas, including specific provisions of the Farm Bill, incentives for local food systems and organic farmers, and conservation on farms. Additionally, the new Administration has been exceedingly vocal about immigration reform, which will have significant impacts on the food and farming sectors. 

 The concept of a national food strategy is not new. Other countries, facing similar food system challenges, have developed national food strategies to address these challenges in a holistic and integrated manner. These strategies represent an acknowledgement that, like the United States, many countries have an uncoordinated set of laws and policies that impact the food system. The creation of a national food strategy is both an effort to understand myriad laws and policies related to the food system, and a means by which to chart a path forward with a clear set of goals and priorities to guide future decision making. Although the United States does not have a national food strategy, it has developed national strategies in response to other issues of national concern, such as antibiotic-resistant bacteria or HIV/AIDS, where a coordinated response was needed.

 While the incoming Administration's food and agricultural policies remain uncertain, the creation of a national strategy can address many existing food system regulatory challenges. Such a strategy could be created in one of two ways. First, the incoming Administration can commit to a national food strategy that may comprehensively address, prioritize, and set goals related to many of the issues important to American voters, including public health, the economy, immigration, the environment, and trade. Alternatively, stakeholders can begin the process--as they have done internationally--to develop their own strategy to present to the next Administration. This Article argues that either of these outcomes is superior to the status quo, yet concludes a national food strategy in the United States will ultimately require governmental engagement to achieve the benefits of long-term, coordinated food system law and policy making