College of Built Environments at the University of Washington.
Food policy starts next door
Friday May 2008In addition to the previously reported articles concerning the Food Policy Council, last week's P-I editorial looks at another function of the council's proposed work: farm acreage. While many carless Western Washington residents struggle to find healthful food choices in their neighborhoods within a 30- minute bus ride, Branden Born, CAUP's UDP Assistant Professor and a founding member of the Seattle Food Policy Council, supports taking a bigger look at local food and agriculture. In last week's editorial, the P-I reports that The Cascade Harvest Coalition, "has six times more people looking for farmland than offers to rent or sell." While King County's farmland preservation program has protected many acres of good farmland from paving, the Food Policy Council would serve to create an "overarching vision of how tax policies, land-use choices and other decisions can encourage the use of more land for food production, make farming rewarding for producers and provide healthy food for customers." A permanent food policy council would be the ideal organization to look at how best to support and encourage farmers and farmer's markets here, improve land use, and consider the particular needs of poor or disadvanteged populations. Says Siri Erickson-Brown, a 29 year old Capitol Hill apartment resident who commutes to farm and back, "It's a really good time to be a farmer in Puget Sound, but we really need a lot more to meet the demand."
For the complete story, please visit the Seattle P-I online.