- "Within the United States, food system policies include food labeling (or in the case of GMOs the lack thereof), regulations, organic standards, school lunch programs, hunger prevention programs (WIC, SNAP, the Emergency Food Assistance Program, etc.), federal subsidies (most famously for corn and soy), trade regulations (which largely enforce the removal of barriers to trade in the Third World while promoting protectionism of agricultural sectors in the First World), zoning laws (which can prevent the urbanization of prime agricultural land, enable or prevent urban farm projects and facilitate the creation of farmers’ markets), environmental regulations over pesticide/herbicide and fertilizer use, and transportation policies that can give low-income families access to grocery stores and farmers’ markets and govern the movement of food across state lines (and in the case of Hawaii, across vast oceans on only one service provider: Matson). These policies fall under the jurisdiction of a number of federal, state and local agencies, including the departments of Agriculture, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, and Education, the State Department, the World Trade Organization, the Environmental Protection Agency and various city agencies dealing with agriculture, health, nutrition and the environment. A quintessential case of a fractured policy environment, this complexity has made food system reform almost completely impossible through traditional policy pathways."
- "Today there are more than 40 active food policy councils across North America, with new ones forming every month. Their overall goal is to democratize the food policy system, thereby giving all people equal access not only to food but also to the policy/procedural processes that largely govern the food system and determine what options are and are not available to local communities."
- “After decades of organizing around hunger, food and nutrition issues, I’ve come to the conclusion that we need to get away from this idea that we should go to the government to solve all our problems,” says Kent. “We are the people we have been waiting for.”
- "The Food Policy Council is always going to have a problem with single agenda people who think the world revolves around their issue,” echoes Kent, “but the core function of the food policy council is to facilitate dialogue. By keeping this potential in check, while giving people a space to use their voice, we can address any range of issues.”