What Did the Data Say? FL Food Policy Council

Contents Background Methods Membership and Participation Findings Issues Discussion Research Limitations Next Steps

Background National Food Policy Council Movement (contextual overview) background The concept for a FL Food Policy Council arose from a side meeting that occurred during the 2015 FL Local Food Summit. This is the second iteration of this council

Methods 5 regional meetings Hosted a series of info gathering exercises Use SWAT format Grouped issues/weaknesses identified from each meeting Collated data and grouped according to subject responses Blind Coded responses to establish overarching themes 2 separate coders working independently Discussed and grouped codes Collaborated on parent codes Broke 5 themes into sub themes Scrutinized identified strategies to align with parent codes Presented results

Membership 142 paid members 48 organizations/entities represented Universities , non-profits, governmental organizations, city government, farmers, public health professionals, hotels, food bloggers.

So What Did the Regional Meetings Tell Us?

Communication and Information Exchange (33%) Flow of Communication “Improve communication between groups” “Inability to speak with one voice” “Lack of community conversation” “Unknown duplication of services” Research and Funding “Not enough funding” “Lack of collaborative grant applications” “Coordinating research” Policy Barriers “Zoning changes difficult and slow

Food Access and Distribution/Retail (22%) Spatial Barriers “Long distances” “Transportation, size of region” Food Security “Good food for those in need” “Food access, EBT) Competitive Markets “Cottage industry support” “Export of FL good” Labeling “Accurate labeling” “Labeling improvement” “Lack of labeling”

Systems of Food Production (16%) Physical conditions “Lack of land” “Land access” Scale (regional/local) “Local food in schools” “Affordable local feedstock” Farm incubation “Multi-year funding for farm startups” “Tax incentives, ag credits” Justice “Farmworkers conditions”

Environmental Impacts (11%) Food Waste Soil Quality “Sandy soil, limestone” Sustainable Agriculture “Monoculture” “Need for more diversity” “Sustainable food practices”

Food System Education (10%) Nutrition “Lack of education on nutrition and food preparation” “Lack of education about food” “Healthy food education” K-12 “Lack of food education curriculum” “Gardens in schools” Farming/Agriculture “Youth agriculture programs” “Centralized information about farms”

Misc “Need to integrate emergency resources with culinary schools” “Transient population, Lack of roots here” “Potential for growth unfulfilled “ “unsustainable system” “Improve system resilience” “Providing accountability” “Lack of strong business skill sets”

Research Limitations Delayed research protocol Variance in data collection Diversity of responses (clumped organizational representation) Lack of funding (to be remedied during State Food Assessment process)

Discussion - Strategies Theme (Issue) Strategy Partnerships w/ Public and Private Organizations Communication and Information Exchange Centralization of research/information; pooling resources Food Access and Distribution/retail Support re-localization efforts through connective networks Systems of Food Production Bringing local and urban farming to scale Environmental Impacts Focus on waste Food System Education Outreach and continued school food programs

Next Steps Finalize organizational structure Mission/vision Leverage funds to conduct State-wide Food Systems Assessment Build agenda off data collected during regional meetings Determine benchmarks for evaluation Revisit “next steps”

Questions? Questions? Contact info Heather Henderson: Gardenman@peacepatch.org Joe England: joseph68@mail.usf.edu