Building a Good Food Market

Description

The “Building a Good Food Market” Working Group is focused on how to increase the demand for good food in the Los Angeles area.  Shifting our current food system from conventional products to a greater emphasis on local, sustainable foods involves a number of strategies, such as rethinking institutional food procurement policies, encouraging restaurants to source more good food, educating the public (including children) about the benefits and joys of eating good food, and improving the selection of produce served by school meal programs.  Over time, good food purchases—from both large and small institutions—can add up to significant investments in a sustainable regional food system.

One important project of this Working Group is to clarify the definition and criteria for “good food” and to develop model language for institutional bids and contracts.  Having a common definition for good food will become a valuable tool for farms, businesses, institutions and individual consumers, allowing them to confidently distinguish which products embody values that support local agriculture, healthy diets, environmental conservation and workers’ welfare.

The “Building a Good Food Market” Working Group consists of 25 diverse food system stakeholders, including farmers, farm and food worker advocates, public health and nutrition experts, distributors, restaurateurs, school foodservice directors, the food and beverage director of national food chain, and city, county, and state representatives.

The priorities of the LAFPC “Building a Good Food Market” Working Group include:

• Create a common definition of “good food” that can be used in bids, business contracts and marketing throughout the food chain, from farm to plate. Criteria will include parameters that support local agriculture, healthy diets, environmental conservation and workers’ welfare.
• Develop a contract template with model language for transactions made by the city, county, schools and other institutions.
• Encourage and assist purchasers, especially large institutions, to adopt Good Food standards for their organizations.
• Support and promote school food initiatives to ensure students have Good Food available and they are excited and inspired to eat it.