Climate Week 2024

The Climate Crisis and Cities: The Role of Regional Food Policy

Cities have many tools they can leverage to meet their climate and sustainability goals, including values-based food procurement. Using this strategy, cities develop buying strategies that embed key values thought to be aligned with achieving climate and sustainability goals. To explore what cities are doing to support values-based food procurement, as well as the impacts of these strategies, The City Food Policy Project (CFP Project) will host three panels featuring government officials, development organizations, advocates, and researchers doing pioneering work.

Climate Week

Between the three panels, CFP Project hosted two networking sessions to offer a space for meeting fellow rural and urban stakeholders engaged in food governance, policymaking, innovation, sustainable food procurement, and supply chains. Attendees will gain invaluable insights to drive meaningful progress in their communities, build bridges, foster collaboration, and amplify their impact on a global scale.

City food policy is proving to be an agile tool in building sustainable food systems. Due to their purchasing power, cities have considerable opportunities to impact a broad range of environmental, economic, and social goals. The City Food Policy Project, a collaborative research project guided by partners in New York City government, New York State farmers, and other supply chain stakeholders, is working to develop the empirical tools that inform how cities understand tradeoffs associated with food procurement policies. In focusing on regional linkages, the CFP Project modeling approach allows researchers to simulate a variety of potential changes to New York City food procurement policies and observe the resulting effects throughout various stages of the supply chain that may affect environmental and economic outcomes.

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Photos by Ora Kemp, NYC Mayor’s Office of Food Policy

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Panel 1:

“Think Locally, Act Regionally”: NYC’s Regional Approach to Local Food Policy

Increasingly, municipalities across the world are recognizing both their capacity and fundamental responsibility to utilize public dollars and local policy to meet global sustainable development goals. However, these policies are not without tradeoffs and the best solutions may require engaging and co-creating programs with key regional actors.

Recognizing the power of a regional approach to local policy, the New York City Department of Environmental Protection has distributed millions in funding to regional farmers in the New York City watershed to support best management practices and conservation easements. In 2021, the New York City Mayor’s Office of Food Policy (NYC MOFP) launched a 10-year food plan, Food Forward NYC, which includes a values-based food procurement initiative to steer the city’s budget of more than $500 million annually in food purchases to New York State vendors. As part of the City Food Policy Project, MOFP is working with upstate producers to also understand how they would respond to different local procurement decisions. In addition, MOFP is working with leaders across local and state government, including the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets and representatives from the state House and Senate to explore new collaborations and advance shared policy goals.

This panel will spotlight how New York City and State are strategically collaborating with regional partners to support a sustainable, healthful, and resilient food system.

Moderator:

Michael Hurwitz
CFP Project

Speakers:

Kate Mackenzie
Director, City of NY Mayor’s Office of Food Policy

Lauren Williams
Special Assistant at New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets

Michelle Hinchey
NY State Senator and Chair of Committee on Agriculture

Michael Vander Werff
Deputy Director at the New York City Department of Environmental Protection

Panel 2:

The Research-Policy Integration / Feedback Loop:
The role of research for policy decision making and impact evaluation

Significant opportunity exists for researchers to support and inform policymakers in understanding implications and tradeoffs of their decisions, yet challenges exist.

This panel brings together New York-based researchers working to understand climate impacts of proposed and enacted food policies in New York City.

Moderated by staff from the Mayor’s Office of Food Policy, the goals of this session are to:

  1. Understand ways in which researchers and decision makers can work together more effectively;
  2. Improve coordination across researchers and disciplines to support NYC’s food policy-making; and
  3. Discuss what we know about the ability of food policies to meet NYC’s climate goals and where gaps remain.

Moderator:

Milagros De Hoz
NYC Mayor’s office

Speakers:

Becca Jablonski
Visiting Associate Professor, Dyson School of Applied Economics and Policy, Cornell University

Jessica Fanzo
Professor of Climate and Director of the Food for Humanity Initiative at Columbia University’s Climate School

Craig Willingham
Managing Director, Urban Food Policy Institute, City University of New York

Elsie Moore
Postdoctoral Fellow, School of Nutritional Sciences, Cornell University

Panel 3:

Understanding the Role of City Food Policy at a Global Level:
Putting public procurement food policies into a global context

Place-based solutions to global goals are receiving significant attention in international fora, including in the UN Summit of the Future during the General Assembly this September. Urban and regional governments have proven to have political agility, which can allow for rapid response to complex challenges. For city food policy, values-based procurement tools, coupled with investment in market infrastructure systems to support regional producers, can help local urban and rural communities apply solutions to crises, including those related to climate.

How can lessons from regional success be translated across continents? What are unique assets in different parts of the world that can inform and benefit other cities and regions? While every region has different priorities, this panel will bring together learnings, challenges, and principles for success from representatives across Africa, the United States, Europe, and Latin America.

Keynote speaker and Moderator:

Corinna Hawkes
Director, Agrifood Systems and Food Safety Division

Speakers:

Leticia Campos Bardi
Sustainable School Food Program Manager, State of Bahia, Brazil

Betina Madsen
Food Procurement Officer, Copenhagen, Denmark

Luana Swenson
Policy Specialist for Sustainable Public Procurement, FAO

Wawira Njiru
Founder and Executive Director, Food4Education

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