Thanks to Glenda Neff and Fern Gale Estrow for sharing this announcement.

I’d like to point out that the policy process for these new guidelines was a very important feature of its success. While I and other staff researched models at the New York City Council, we looked to other places like San Francisco and Albany County and Illinois, which had all been working on policies to increase procurement of local foods.

We learned you need two things for successful policy change– first, you need to have leaders in government, like Speaker Quinn and Councilwoman Brewer, who set it as a priority, and second, these kinds of policy changes have to happen in a collaborative way. It took nearly a year’s worth of research into existing state, federal, and local laws and regulations to understand what our policy window was. Additionally, a fabulous team of legal staffs and I had countless conversations and meetings with staff in the administration. In the end, we decided the best way to move forward was to enact legislation that would provide the outline for policy change- asking for better tracking of food sourcing and requiring the administration to create the guidelines themselves and train staff, rather than unilaterally setting broad mandates. In doing so, both branches of government had ownership over the process and outcome. While this might be a slower process, I believe the outcome is much stronger.

This is indeed a proud day for all of the New York City food systems advocates- both within government and outside it!

Sarah Brannen

On Wed, Jun 13, 2012 at 11:20 PM, Fern Gale Estrow – fge2 <fge2> wrote:

A very important step and part of FoodWorks ( http://council.nyc.gov/html/action_center/food.shtml ) , a comprehensive plan for NYC that sets a bold vision for a more sustainable food system…