Resource Library
Browse 100+ resources on food systems law and policy.
Optimizing Food Distributor Contracts to Achieve Local Food Procurement Targets
Throughout the US, state and local governments have established local food purchasing targets for food served in public institutions like schools, hospitals, or prisons. This guide offers public sector procurement teams options and strategies to adjust their contracting processes with food distributors to support these policy aims.
Topic: Institutional Procurement Policy, Food Safety Audience: Consumers, Policymakers, ResearchersFarm to School Policy Case Study: Arizona H.B. 2518
School gardens provide a valuable opportunity to incorporate fresh produce into school means and allow students to eat what they grow, but some areas prohibit the use of school garden produce in school cafeterias due to food safety restrictions. This is where state-level policies can step in to provide support. This case study, authored by VLGS alum Raina Goldstein Bunnag MFALP’24 and developed in partnership with National Farm to School Network, tells the story of Arizona’s law H.B. 2518, which established a statewide food safety certification program for school gardens and made it possible for Arizona schools to serve their own garden-grown produce.
Topic: Institutional Procurement Policy Audience: Community Organizations, Policymakers, ResearchersState Farm to School Policy Handbook: 2002–2023
The Handbook summarizes and analyzes every farm to school and early care and education (ECE) bill and resolution introduced from January 1, 2002, to December 31, 2023, across all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and US territories.
Topic: Institutional Procurement Policy, Healthy Food Access Audience: Community Organizations, Policymakers, ResearchersState and Local Government Policy Options to Increase Procurement of Locally Grown Cultural Foods in Maui County, Hawai’i, and Beyond
This issue brief explores legislative policy opportunities at the state and local government level to increase the procurement of locally grown foods that hold cultural significance for groups of individuals who share a common cultural bond.
Topic: Institutional Procurement Policy, Healthy Food Access Audience: Community Organizations, Consumers, Policymakers, Processors & Distributors, ResearchersBoston’s Good Food Purchasing Policy, Part 2
This case study examines how the Boston's largest food purchaser, Boston Public Schools, has updated its procurement process according to the Good Food Purchasing Policy.
Topic: Farm Bill, Healthy Food Access Audience: Community Organizations, Consumers, Policymakers, ResearchersWhat is Food Policy?
This resource provides an overview of local, state, and federal laws and regulations that impact every sector of the food system.
Topic: Energy Audience: Community Organizations, Consumers, Farmers, PolicymakersENERGIZING AGRICULTURE Policy Opportunities for Beneficial Electrification on the Farm
This report explains how beneficial electrification in agriculture fosters a robust electric grid, reduces greenhouse gas emissions, and cuts energy costs for both consumers and utilities.
Topic: Resilience Audience: Community Organizations, Policymakers, ResearchersFood Systems Resilience Planning and the Climate Crisis
This resource addresses the need for equity-centered food systems resilience as an essential component of climate crisis response in the short and long term, with a focus on healthy food access.
Topic: Farmland Access, Healthy Food Access, Urban Agriculture Audience: Community Organizations, Policymakers, ResearchersZoning for Urban Agriculture
This guide includes a range of examples from cities across the country showing how zoning can support urban agriculture and provides action steps for changing zoning laws to better support urban agriculture.
Topic: Other Audience: Community Organizations, Policymakers, ResearchersLand-Use Tools to Protect Pollinators
This issue brief summarizes existing efforts to protect pollinators through federal, state, and local policies. It explores strategies to improve land-use tools, interventions that can promote pollinator populations, and options for additional policy innovations to support pollinator health.
Topic: Other Audience: Community Organizations, Policymakers, ResearchersAppealing for Relief
This report finds that farmers denied federal direct farm operating and ownership loans won only 17 percent of appeals and examines the basis for those denials. It identifies opportunities for reform at every step of the appeals process.
Topic: Farmworkers Audience: Community Organizations, Policymakers, ResearchersPrecarious Protection
This report examines the shortfalls related to compliance with the Worker Protection Standard and presents recommendations to improve farmworker safety.
Topic: Farmworkers Audience: Community Organizations, Policymakers, ResearchersCondiciones Precarias de protección
El Estándar para la Protección del Trabajador (WPS) es la principal regulación federal destinada a tratar los riesgos asociados con enfermedades y lesiones relacionadas con pesticidas entre los trabajadores agrícolas. El cumplimiento del WPS debería reducir los riesgos de pesticidas para los trabajadores. Muchas granjas no cumplen con el WPS.
Topic: Other Audience: Community Organizations, Policymakers, ResearchersBuilding Resilient Local Meat Supply Chains
This issue brief provides an overview of the federal and state policy landscape for meat inspections as they relate to on-farm slaughter practices and outlines policy considerations.
Topic: Healthy Food Access Audience: Community Organizations, Policymakers, ResearchersFood and Nutrition Policy at the Local Level
This report identifies recent themes and trends in U.S. laws and executive orders at the local government level that relate to improving food access and other aspects of food and nutrition security, as well as emerging priority areas that may affect this area of policymaking in the future.
Topic: Institutional Procurement Policy Audience: Community Organizations, Policymakers, ResearchersThe State of Prison Food in New England
This report examines the laws and policies that shape food in New England’s publicly operated correctional facilities. It offers recommendations for advocates and policymakers to ensure nutritious and safe meals while improving how prison food is sourced and served.
Topic: Other Audience: Community Organizations, Policymakers, ResearchersEnergy and Equity in Cannabis Cultivation
The cannabis industry already accounts for at least one percent of all electricity consumption in the United States. The resource explores how lawmakers can fairly and effectively regulate electricity use by growers.
Topic: Animal Agriculture, Resilience Audience: Community Organizations, Growers, Policymakers, ResearchersManaged Rotational Grazing Policies
This report explores how farm bill programs can be leveraged to encourage managed rotational grazing, a system of livestock management that is a more climate-friendly alternative to industrial forms of livestock production.
Topic: Healthy Food Access Audience: Community Organizations, Policymakers, ResearchersLocal Policy to Promote Healthy Food Access: A Food Systems Framework
This resource shows the range of policy options for communities seeking to increase access to healthy food and gives examples of local laws and comprehensive plans that promote access to healthy food at various points along the food system.
Topic: Farm Bill, Farmworkers, Healthy Food Access Audience: Community Organizations, Policymakers, ResearchersThe 2023 Farm Bill: FBLE Recommendations Overview
The Farm Bill Law Enterprise undertook a multi-year process identify legislative opportunities to advance shared public values through the farm bill in response to challenges in addressing the climate crisis, strengthening the U.S. food system, advancing equity and racial justice, stabilizing the food sector economy, and improving access to nutritious food. This document provides an overview of FBLE’s 2023 Farm Bill recommendations.
Topic: Farmworkers Audience: Community Organizations, Policymakers, ResearchersExposed and At Risk
This report determines that existing regulations for pesticide safety are often under-enforced due to systemic reporting issues, a complex federal and state enforcement system, and the conflicting responsibilities of some enforcing bodies. The report aims to prompt law and policy solutions formulated with the lived experience of farmworkers in mind.
Topic: Farm Bill Audience: Community Organizations, Policymakers, ResearchersEquity in Agricultural Production & Governance
This report identifies ways the farm bill can reform USDA governance, accountability, and farm support systems; land and credit access; and investments in education to promote equity in the sector.
Topic: Animal Agriculture, Energy Audience: Community Organizations, Policymakers, ResearchersRethinking Manure Biogas
This report analyzes the role that manure biogas plays in a climate mitigation strategy, specifically tackling its environmental justice impacts and how policymakers can ensure an effective and equitable climate future.
Topic: Other Audience: Community Organizations, Policymakers, ResearchersAddressing Consolidation in Agriculture
This issue brief analyzes USDA’s response to Executive Order 14036, entitled “Promoting Competition in the American Economy,” and the extent to which it follows the president’s directive.
Topic: Farm Bill Audience: Community Organizations, Policymakers, ResearchersFarm Viability
The next farm bill should accelerate progress by addressing the barriers impeding a more diverse and robust rural economy. This report outlines Goals and Recommendations, including specific Legislative and Administrative Opportunities for change, tailored to advancing these objectives in the 2023 Farm Bill.
Topic: Other Audience: Community Organizations, Policymakers, ResearchersSeafood Fraud
This report examines the legal and regulatory framework for preventing, detecting, and enforcing against seafood fraud, and makes recommendations for policymakers to address the issue of seafood fraud both domestically and abroad.
Topic: Healthy Food Access Audience: Community Organizations, Policymakers, ResearchersLocal Planning and the Food System
This resource discusses how community planners can use existing and innovative tools to support and build local and regional food systems with a goal of increasing access to healthy food and presents some ideas about gaps and opportunities for improvement.
Topic: Farmland Access, Healthy Food Access, Urban Agriculture Audience: Community Organizations, Growers, Policymakers, ResearchersGrowing Food Where You Live
This resource discusses the different legal obstacles to growing food for those who rent their home, lease the land they live on, or live in common interest communities, and provides examples of local laws that support growing food where you live.
Topic: Energy Audience: Community Organizations, Policymakers, ResearchersFarmland Solar Policy State Law Database
This database provides examples of state laws, state agency regulations and guidance, and model laws related to farmland solar policy.
Topic: Institutional Procurement Policy, Food Labels Audience: Community Organizations, Policymakers, ResearchersDefining Local Food
From a legal standpoint, what is "local" food? This report describes the various definitions for "local" or other analogous terms used in state laws meant to incentivize or otherwise promote the purchase of agricultural products that meet those definitions. The appendix includes a 50-state scan of "local food" definitions.
Topic: Institutional Procurement Policy Audience: Community Organizations, PolicymakersState Farm to School Policy Handbook 2002–2020
This resource summarizes and analyzes Farm to School bills and resolutions introduced between January 1, 2002, and December 31, 2020, from the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. territories.
Topic: Healthy Food Access Audience: Attorneys, Community Organizations, Policymakers, ResearchersPolicy Drafting Companion Guide
This resource introduces common elements of laws and offers recommended practices in the drafting process for those who may be exploring or entering the world of local policymaking, as well as those who want to advocate for healthy food access policies.
Topic: Food Safety Audience: Community Organizations, Growers, Policymakers, Processors & Distributors, ResearchersFood Safety and Modernization Act Produce Safety Rule State Implementation Interactive Map
This interactive map illustrates the specifics of each state’s individual produce safety program and can be filtered by common questions about state implementation of the PSR, allowing for all states to be viewed side-by-side.
Topic: Other Audience: Policymakers, ResearchersLegal Trends for Farm and Food Operations in the New England Region
This report analyzes cases placed through the Legal Food Hub and the use of an online resource library to document and analyze recurring legal issues in order to relate these regional trends to national findings.
Topic: Farmworkers Audience: Community Organizations, Farmworkers, Policymakers, ResearchersFarmworker Health Policy Database
This database includes state laws and regulations related to pesticide and heat exposure across the country.
Topic: Farmworkers Audience: Community Organizations, Policymakers, ResearchersEssential and In Crisis
This report, published by the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future, reviews available research on a variety of public health threats that farmworkers face and demonstrates how these health burdens are, in part, the result of laws, policies, and practices intentionally designed to limit this workforce's resources and recourse to fight against unsafe working conditions.
Topic: Farmworkers Audience: Community Organizations, Policymakers, ResearchersEssentially Unprotected
This report explores gaps in U.S. laws and policies that put farmworkers at risk, specifically focusing on those that affect two of farmworkers’ most critical workplace hazards: pesticide exposure and heat-related illness. This report provides an overview of the findings as well as policy recommendations.
Topic: Other Audience: Growers, Policymakers, ResearchersDefining and Regulating Agritourism
This report provides a comparative analysis of state legislative approaches to agritourism from 2019-2020, including definitions of agritourism, and other areas of importance, such as liability, zoning, funding, taxation, and licensing.
Topic: Healthy Food Access Audience: Community Organizations, PolicymakersAuthentic Resident Engagement in Action: Hartford, CT
This interview with a community advisory coordinator involved in healthy food access work in Hartford, Connecticut, shows what authentic resident engagement can look like in action.
Topic: Healthy Food Access Audience: Community Organizations, PolicymakersFood Access Policy Change Through Authentic Resident Engagement
This resource provides a definition of "authentic resident engagement" and describes working principles to be used throughout the policy development process.
Topic: Healthy Food Access Audience: Community Organizations, Policymakers, ResearchersLocal Government Policies to Support Food Access During the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Index
This sortable index includes formal municipal policies that accelerated, prioritized, or facilitated food access during the COVID-19 pandemic and other emergency periods through measures that exceeded ordinary non-emergency-time policies and/or specifically prioritized health and/or equity considerations.
Topic: Healthy Food Access, Resilience Audience: Community Organizations, Policymakers, ResearchersMunicipal Policies to Support Food Access During Emergencies
This resource discusses food access challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic and examines trends in local government policies addressed these challenges while prioritizing health and equity.
Topic: Healthy Food Access Audience: Community Organizations, Policymakers, ResearchersThe Minneapolis Staple Foods Ordinance
This case study examines the Minneapolis Staple Foods Ordinance which requires licensed grocery stores to carry a minimum level of certain staple foods and includes specific requirements for each mandatory category.
Topic: Healthy Food Access Audience: Community Organizations, Policymakers, ResearchersMunicipal Policy Options for Healthy Food Access in Stores and Restaurants
This resource provides a menu of policy approaches to increase access of healthy food in food stores and restaurants, as well as some new innovations and emerging opportunities.
Topic: National Food Strategy Audience: Community Organizations, PolicymakersThe Urgent Call for a U.S. National Food Strategy
This resource illustrates the need for a coordinated federal approach to food and agricultural law and policymaking through an analysis and review of new domestic strategies and coordination approaches, as well as international food strategies developed between 2017 and 2020.
Topic: Energy, Other Audience: Community Organizations, Policymakers, ResearchersConsiderations for a Shared Vision of Vermont Soil Policy
“Soil health” encompasses far more than its name discloses. There appears to be a meaningful role for the state legislature to play in developing effective healthy soils policy, building on community-led collaboration.
Topic: Healthy Food Access, Urban Agriculture Audience: Community Organizations, Policymakers, ResearchersPrince George’s County Food Equity Council
This case study discusses how the Prince George's County Food Equity Council pursued multiple policies to address inequities in the food system associated with food swamps and how they uplifted communities' voices in their work.
Topic: Energy Audience: Community Organizations, Policymakers, ResearchersFarmland Solar Policy Design Toolkit
This toolkit is intended for state and municipal lawmakers, farmers, and researchers hoping to improve or better understand their community’s farmland solar policies. It identifies key areas of state law affecting how much and what kind of solar development occurs on farmland, as well as farmers’ access to clean energy.
Topic: Healthy Food Access Audience: Community Organizations, Policymakers, ResearchersState Policy Options to Increase Access to Healthy Food
This resource explores state policy trends and opportunities related to healthy food access, including state administration of SNAP, food sovereignty, food recovery, creating healthier retail food environments, and state procurement of locally grown foods.
Topic: Institutional Procurement Policy Audience: Community Organizations, Policymakers, ResearchersRegional Trends in New England Farm to Institution Procurement Policy
This report compiles and distills the findings of six state snapshots and makes recommendations on how the states can work together to increase the amount of local food purchased by institutions throughout New England.
Topic: Institutional Procurement Policy Audience: Community Organizations, Policymakers, ResearchersNew England State Local Food Procurement Policy Scan
This policy scan outlines key institutional procurement policies in each of the New England states. The policies include local purchasing preferences, small purchase thresholds, farm to school programs, and state food policy councils.
Topic: Healthy Food Access Audience: Community Organizations, Policymakers, ResearchersWhere Can I Find Scientific Evidence to Support a Healthy Eating Law or Policy Idea?
This resource provides a list of publicly available sources that collect or provide reviews of scientific research and evidence on the effectiveness of laws and policies (including policy ideas) to promote healthy eating and/or access to healthy food.
Topic: Resilience Audience: Community Organizations, Policymakers, ResearchersFood Systems Resilience
The report provides advocates and policymakers with a primer on food systems resilience and gives policy options for strengthening food systems resilience using a food security framework.
Topic: Institutional Procurement Policy, Healthy Food Access Audience: Community Organizations, Policymakers, ResearchersBoston’s Good Food Purchasing Policy, Part 1
This case study examines how Boston passed an ordinance that requires city agencies and departments to use a values-based procurement framework, with a strong emphasis on racial and economic justice.
Topic: Institutional Procurement Policy Audience: Community Organizations, Policymakers, ResearchersInstitutional Procurement of Local Food
These snapshots exploring demand-side policies in New England that support public institutions' ability to increase purchases of local food.
Topic: Healthy Food Access Audience: Community Organizations, Policymakers, ResearchersState Law Companion
This resource lists and summarizes state laws passed between January 1, 2015, and June 14, 2018, that address access to healthy food access.
Topic: Farm Bill Audience: Community Organizations, Policymakers, ResearchersTitle 2: Conservation
This backgrounder surveys the history and evolution of farm bill conservation programs since the 1930s, provides an overview of the Conservation Title of the 2014 and 2018 Farm Bills, and outlines and identifies several key issues that will inform debate as Congress considers conservation reform in the 2024 farm bill.
Topic: Farm Bill Audience: Community Organizations, Policymakers, ResearchersTitle 9: Energy
The purpose of this backgrounder is to outline the history, context, and content of the farm bill’s Energy Title.
Topic: Farm Bill Audience: Community Organizations, Policymakers, ResearchersTitle 6: Rural Development
This backgrounder highlights the history, context, and content of the Farm Bill’s Rural Development Title.
Topic: Healthy Food Access Audience: Community Organizations, PolicymakersDrafting Definitions in Healthy Food Access Policies
There are several reasons why governments should consider including carefully written definitions with new laws or ordinances. This guide describes what types of terms should be defined and the common practices for drafting good definitions in local laws.
Topic: Healthy Food Access Audience: Community Organizations, Policymakers, ResearchersResolution for a Food Secure San Francisco
This case study examines how the city of San Francisco established the Food Security Task Force to collect data and implement improvements to achieve better food security for its residents, and how they passed a Resolution committing to a food secure and hunger free San Francisco.
Topic: Farm Bill Audience: Community Organizations, Policymakers, ResearchersProductivity and Risk Management
This report sets goals and recommendations for the 2018 Farm Bill and explores how commodities, conservation, and crop insurance policy can support broader notions of productivity and risk management that prioritize farmer livelihoods and long-term health of natural resources.
Topic: Healthy Food Access Audience: Community Organizations, Policymakers, ResearchersHealthy Food Policy Database
This resource is a curated, searchable database of healthy food policies at the local level in the United States.
Topic: National Food Strategy Audience: Community Organizations, PolicymakersBlueprint for a National Food Strategy
The Blueprint provides an overview of U.S. food system regulation, identifies inconsistencies in some of these laws and authorities, and offers recommendations for a coordinated solution based on an analysis of selected domestic and international models.