Indiana Local & Organic Food & Farm Task Force

does not exist.

But Indiana State Senator Sue Errington (26th District) introduced a bill proposing the idea last week: SB 194. She modeled this bill after the Food, Farms, and Jobs Act passed in Illinois in 2007, which created that state's Local & Organic Food & Farms Task Force. SB 194 was scheduled to be heard by the Small Business and Agriculture Committee of the Indiana Senate on Monday, January 25th. However, Committee Chairman Johnny Nugent (43rd District) denied a vote on it, as is his discretion, aborting any further consideration of it.

The pork producers and the poultry association had expressed their opposition to such legislation, arguing that it favors one kind of product over another.

The Indiana State Department of Agriculture (ISDA), for its part, noted that there are already several state intiatives with priorities similar to SB 194. This will be the subject of future posts, but suffice to say here that the ISDA has recognized that Indiana has a clear, underutilized advantage in producing organic field crops and livestock. Download the "Trends in Specialty Agriculture" section of the ISDA Strategic Plan here to.

The ISDA put forth an alternative bill to replace the original SB 194. Instead of a Task Force, this bill would have required that the ISDA produce a report on the local and organic food system in Indiana, including recommendations for improvements. To our knowledge, even this amendment was not seriously considered by the committee.

Rest In Peace, SB 194, we hardly knew ye.


The Case for Food Policy Councils

Q:
So why is it so great that Illinois achieved legislation that institutionalizes a Food, Farms, and Jobs Council? Why should Indiana have such an organization?

A:
Because the world energy crisis is quickly increasing the costs of mass agriculture, we need to plan for a new, more reasonable system. Local, State, National and World governments are organizations through which long range planning can be achieved with stakeholder input. In this case, the stakeholders are anyone who eats. And that's everybody.

More A:
Quoting from this recent report from the Food First Institute for Food & Development Policy:

This [Food Policy Council] model is in many ways still in its infancy, but the model itself, based on our literature review and interview data, shows five key potentials:
• Potential to address public health through improving food access, addressing hunger and food insecurity, and improving the quality of available food
• Potential to affect national and state level policy debates
• Potential to connect multiple sectors that wouldn't otherwise work together
• Potential to bring local food policy into mainstream politics
• Potential to boost local economies and combat poverty

All of these key potentials lead to one central idea – that Food Policy Councils have the potential to democratize the food system. The failings of our current food system are largely suffered in neighborhoods and constituencies with little political or economic voice. Food Policy Councils can amplify the voices of underserved communities that have traditionally had limited access to power. The Detroit Food Policy Council for example, made addressing the underlying racial and economic disparities in food access, retail ownership, food sector jobs and control over food- producing resources a cornerstone of their policy platform – explicitly attacking structural racism inherent in the food system and creating space for greater economic democracy and food justice.