Furthering food access From the cover
The approach
How we got here
System strategies
The plan’s more than 60 approaches could change where residents can get healthy food, the cost, products available and who’s involved across the food system. Preserving property for food-related uses, encouraging food production features in new developments and creating an urban farming plan are among the dozen concepts tied to land. Some other strategies are meant to break down barriers for farmers and improve conditions for the many food workers earning below a living wage.
Austin officials launched the food planning process in 2021. Recent events exposed supply chain fragility and food access barriers, said city food policy manager Edwin Marty, prompting a response to such challenges and a shifting climate. “It’s going to get hotter, drier, wetter and colder. All of these extremes are going to happen more frequently,” he said. While a regional food policy board has existed since the late 2000s, Marty said it never had a public mandate for action until governments, nonprofits and residents came together on the new collaboration. “This process is a model example of what an inclusive, intentional and meaningful community participation process can look like,” said council member Alison Alter.
The plan's nine focus areas each include up to a dozen unique strategies for food system upgrades.
Climate, health: 4
Resident food access, nutrition: 11 Emergency preparedness: 7 Food worker livelihoods: 7 Food recovery, reduced waste: 7 Collaborations, research: 5 Farm worker support: 4 Developing food facilities: 4
SOURCE: CITY OF AUSTIN/COMMUNITY IMPACT
Land use, preservation: 12
Zooming in
Those involved agreed local food access and resilience can improve if more food eaten here also comes from around Austin. Just 0.06% of food con- sumed in Travis County was grown here, according to the Department of Agriculture. Transported food can be less fresh and leaves a much higher overall carbon footprint than local production and distribution. It also puts the area at risk of supply chain disruptions and access issues, like the grocery closures and shortages experienced in recent emergencies. While Travis County still has hundreds of square miles of farmland, federal reporting shows much of it isn’t for food for consumption. Food policy stakeholders also said the area’s urban gardens and larger agricultural facilities are dwindling. Marty said those trends will likely continue due to economic factors and escalating development across
the region, which is seeing more farmland replaced with commercial space and housing. From 2017-22 alone, Travis County lost more than 200 farms and nearly 40 square miles of agricultural space. “We expect [losses] in the next Agricultural Census to drop through the floor; we’ll probably have half that number of farms in the next five years. So pretty brutal,” Marty said.
Food Plan strategies for the city, county, local nonprofits and others to tackle include: Food planning
Preserving land to lease or sell to farmers, and using public land for food production Creating economic incentives for local farming Adjusting living wage policies for farmers and food industry workers Opening more affordable food retail locations and nutritional programs in low-access areas
1,306
1,500
870
1,000
500
0
2007 2012 2017 2022
2002
SOURCES: CITY OF AUSTIN, TRAVIS COUNTY/COMMUNITY IMPACT
SOURCE: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE/COMMUNITY IMPACT
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