Table 1.

Examples of Food System Policies That Advance Public Health

Food sector	Federal	State	Local
Production Farming Gardening Aquaculture Wild foods	Authorize and appropriate agricultural legislation that provides incentives to increase production of foods that promote health (eg, fruits, vegetables, whole grains). Place a moratorium on livestock producers preventing the regular use of subtherapeutic antibiotics and synthetic growth hormones in healthy animals. Implement rules that require the foods served to children through USDA programs are produced without the use of antibiotics, synthetic hormones, pesticides, or chemical fertilizers. Remove distortions in agricultural markets by maintaining fair commodity prices. Prohibit the production of genetically engineered crops for pharmaceutical purposes in open fields. Enact food procurement policies that require a minimum of 10% of foods used in USDA food programs are from local producers.	Implement economic development plans that include fruit and vegetable production (specialty crops). Enforce land use policies that halt the excessive encroachment of urban development on agricultural land. Establish procurement priorities for local food in state-funded programs and institutions. Require gardening and food preparation programs integrated into school curriculum. Provide tax incentives for roof gardens (in urban areas). Partner with tribal governments to establish productive lands that support native food systems.	Establish city ordinances that allow residents to keep chickens, ducks, rabbits, and beehives. Enforce land use protections for urban agriculture, community gardens, and farmers markets. Create topical plan for community gardens and urban agriculture. Pass a resolution recognizing the importance of local, healthy, and sustainably produced foods. Make available compost and water to community gardens. Provide allowances for organizations to lease nondevelopable city-owned property for community gardens. Use chemical-free pest management and lawn care for city- and county- owned property. Provide business development assistance for small-scale and women and minority-owned farms. Establish edible landscaping on city and county-owned property.
Transformation Processing Packaging Labeling Marketing	Expand labeling laws to include foods that contain genetically engineered ingredients. Prohibit the marketing of foods of low nutritional value to children. Prohibit misleading health claims in advertising and on food package labels. Require franchise and fast food restaurants to provide nutritional information on menu items. Mandate that for every dollar spent by food industries on marketing foods of low-nutritional value, 25 cent must go towards a national nutrition campaign.	Offer tax incentives for small to mid-sized industries that process, store, and distribute perishable foods grown in the state. Provide safe working conditions in processing facilities.	Implement standards and secondary labels/logos for foods produced within a specific geographic region. Establish community kitchens and mobile processing units.
Distribution Transportation Wholesaling Warehousing	Leverage USDA grant programs to build local foods infrastructure. Establish procurement policies that give priority to locally produced foods in federal food programs.	Establish cooperative transportation and warehousing opportunities for local producers. Offer tax incentives for regional transportation, warehousing, and wholesaling of locally produced foods.	Ease permitting, regulatory, and other taxes for food business incubation. Develop zoning requirements that create transit routes (sidewalks, pedestrian malls, bicycle paths) from all neighborhoods to grocery stores and food assistance providers.
Access Retail Food safety Food and nutrition security	Develop coordinated food safety regulations. Appropriate funds to fully support WIC and Senior Farmers’ Market Nutrition Programs in all states.	Establish zoning restrictions limiting fast food outlets within a specified distance of schools and youth-centered facilities. Incorporate food access strategies into emergency preparedness plans to build local reserves and assure maintaining food supplies in times of crisis.	Ease licensing requirements for new farm stands. Expand access to feeding programs (breakfast, lunch, after school, summer) to all children and youth throughout the year. Establish a city ordinance allowing mobile fruit and vegetable vendors in low-income neighborhoods. Establish fast food–free zones in and near schools and hospitals.
Consumption Purchasing Preparing Preserving Eating	Food and nutrition programs (SNAP, SLP, WIC) provide food that meet current US dietary guidelines. Local and sustainably produced foods are priority versus cost Ease requirements for farmers markets to utilize electronic benefits transfer (EBT) technology for SNAP and WIC FSNPparticipants. Expand farm to school efforts through Child Nutrition Act. (US dietary guidelines that go beyond nutrients and include production and processing methods that may affect health.)	Establish minimum percentage of locally produced food purchased by public entities. Establish and expand education and training programs for culinary arts and sciences.	Preserve native/ethnic food cultures. City resolutions require city agencies to buy a minimum percentagae of their food from local farmers. Restrict the number of fast food restaurants in newly established food enterprise zones. Establish food enterprise zones that attract food retailers to underserved areas through zoning and tax incentives. Zoning regulations offer another policy option to increase the number of retailers selling healthy foods and stem the tide of closing supermarkets. Tax abatement for retail outlets that sell healthy food/eliminate tax subsidies for fast food restaurants. All schools provide (locally grown) fruit and vegetable snacks to all children. Limit the soft drink and snack industryies’ access to schools and other institutions. Provide incentives for community kitchens that can be used by schools and other institutions to preserve locally produced food. Develop provisions to expand access on public land for community gardeners. Offer food preparation courses as part of city parks and recreation activities.
Resource & waste management Disposal Recycling	Offer tax credits for food production, processing, transportation, and retail entities who use alternative energy. Establish standards for food industry water use/water recycling.	Offer tax incentives for using food waste for biofuel production. Develop an award program recognizing communities that reduce food waste in landfills.	Implement a community composting initiative that provides composting bins to residents and businesses to collect food scraps that are provided to area farms.