1. What Did the Data Say?
FL Food Policy Council

2. Contents Background Methods Membership and Participation Findings
Issues
Discussion
Research Limitations
Next Steps

3. Background
National Food Policy Council Movement (contextual overview) background
The concept for a FL Food Policy Council arose from a side meeting that occurred during the 2015 FL Local Food Summit. This is the second iteration of this council

4. Methods 5 regional meetings
Hosted a series of info gathering exercises
Use SWAT format
Grouped issues/weaknesses identified from each meeting
Collated data and grouped according to subject responses
Blind Coded responses to establish overarching themes
2 separate coders working independently
Discussed and grouped codes
Collaborated on parent codes
Broke 5 themes into sub themes
Scrutinized identified strategies to align with parent codes
Presented results

5. Membership 142 paid members 48 organizations/entities represented
Universities , non-profits, governmental organizations, city government, farmers, public health professionals, hotels, food bloggers.

6. So What Did the Regional Meetings Tell Us?

8. Communication and Information Exchange (33%)
Flow of Communication
“Improve communication between
groups”
“Inability to speak with one voice”
“Lack of community conversation”
“Unknown duplication of services”
Research and Funding
“Not enough funding”
“Lack of collaborative grant applications”
“Coordinating research”
Policy Barriers
“Zoning changes difficult and slow

9. Food Access and Distribution/Retail (22%)
Spatial Barriers
“Long distances”
“Transportation, size of region”
Food Security
“Good food for those in need”
“Food access, EBT)
Competitive Markets
“Cottage industry support”
“Export of FL good”
Labeling
“Accurate labeling”
“Labeling improvement”
“Lack of labeling”

10. Systems of Food Production (16%)
Physical conditions
“Lack of land”
“Land access”
Scale (regional/local)
“Local food in schools”
“Affordable local feedstock”
Farm incubation
“Multi-year funding for farm startups”
“Tax incentives, ag credits”
Justice
“Farmworkers conditions”

11. Environmental Impacts (11%)
Food Waste
Soil Quality
“Sandy soil, limestone”
Sustainable Agriculture
“Monoculture”
“Need for more diversity”
“Sustainable food practices”

12. Food System Education (10%)
Nutrition
“Lack of education on nutrition and food preparation”
“Lack of education about food”
“Healthy food education”
K-12
“Lack of food education curriculum”
“Gardens in schools”
Farming/Agriculture
“Youth agriculture programs”
“Centralized information about farms”

13. Misc “Need to integrate emergency resources with culinary schools”
“Transient population, Lack of roots here”
“Potential for growth unfulfilled “
“unsustainable system”
“Improve system resilience”
“Providing accountability”
“Lack of strong business skill sets”

14. Research Limitations Delayed research protocol
Variance in data collection
Diversity of responses (clumped organizational representation)
Lack of funding (to be remedied during State Food Assessment process)

15. Discussion - Strategies
Theme (Issue)
Strategy
Partnerships w/ Public and Private Organizations
Communication and Information Exchange
Centralization of research/information; pooling resources
Food Access and Distribution/retail
Support re-localization efforts through connective networks
Systems of Food Production
Bringing local and urban farming to scale
Environmental Impacts
Focus on waste
Food System Education
Outreach and continued school food programs

16. Next Steps Finalize organizational structure Mission/vision
Leverage funds to conduct State-wide Food Systems Assessment
Build agenda off data collected during regional meetings
Determine benchmarks for evaluation
Revisit “next steps”

17. Questions?
Questions?
Contact info
Heather Henderson:
Joe England: