Oakland Food Policy Council

"On January 12, 2010, Eric Holt-Giménez , the executive director of Food First (Institute for Food and Development Policy), which incubates the Oakland Food Policy Council, wrote an elucidating Huffington Post blog post about the role of food policy councils in this country. While food policy councils have existed for several decades in the United States, the current economic crisis has increased their visibility. As Holt-Giménez states, food policy councils “create democratic spaces for convergence of diversity.” Holt-Giménez explains, “What people refer to as "the food movement" is actually a collection of social movements: food justice, fair food, fair trade, organic food, slow food, food security, public health, food sovereignty, family farms... and local folks just trying to make things better... Food Policy Councils have a unique quality within this wide array of activists, advocates and practitioners: they create democratic spaces for convergence in diversity. The power of informed, democratic convergence--especially when linked to the specific places where people live, work and eat--has an additional, emergent quality: it can change the way we--and others--think." The Huffington Post article refers to Food Policy Councils: Lessons Learned, which was co-authored by Oakland Food Policy Council coordinator Alethea Marie Harper.

Eric Holt-Giménez is now a regular blogger for The Huffington Post. Please click on this link to read the full article about food policy councils.