Hello, dear Foodies,
This is amazing news! There is such an awakening of interest about local food and food security that a broad-based council has formed, and meets this week. Can you join the action in some way to bring forth all concerns in the exploratory discussions?

The Alaska Food Policy Council
The Alaska Department of Health and Social Services, with funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), is establishing an official statewide Food Policy Council to develop and implement policies and strengthen local and regional food systems to ensure access to affordable, nutritious and culturally appropriate food for all Alaskans.

A Food Policy Council consists of a group of representatives from the many sectors of the food system, such as local food production, processing and distribution; institutional and private-sector retail food purchasing; farmers’ markets, community supported agriculture (CSA) and community gardens; farm and environmental protection; subsistence; and food security. The goal of the Alaska Food Policy Council is to create an opportunity to discuss and strategize among these various interests, study our food system as a whole and then recommend changes to strengthen and improve the system.

Many important discussions about Alaska’s food system are already underway, and many stakeholders have already taken action. A Food Policy Council will further these efforts by creating the table where these actors can connect, map out the food system, and come up with solutions to make our food system stronger.

Our face-to-face meeting will be held May 18 & 19, 2010 in Anchorage, with Mark Winne of the Community Food Security Coalition (http://foodsecurity.org/) facilitating. Our goal will be to learn about Food Policy Councils, consult with experts such as yourself to establish the lay of the land in Alaska, and begin to set the direction our FPC will take.

For more information, please contact Diane Peck at 907-269-8447 or diane.peck@alaska.gov