Food policy
This often includes decision-making around production and processing techniques, marketing, availability, utilization, and consumption of food, in the interest of meeting or furthering social objectives.
[3] Food policy comprises the mechanisms by which food-related matters are addressed or administered by governments, including international bodies or networks, and by public institutions or private organizations.
[2] In a more developed country such as the United States, food and nutrition policy must be viewed in context with regional and national economic concerns, environmental pressures, maintenance of a social safety net, health, encouragement of private enterprise and innovation, and an agrarian landscape dominated by fewer, larger mechanized farms.
[4] Industrialized countries strive to ensure that farmers earn relatively stable incomes despite price and supply fluctuations and adverse weather events.
The early literature in under-nutrition involving developing countries was concerned with the effects of food shortage practices on spreading diseases such as marasmus and kwashiorkor.
Such issues are receiving greater attention from decision makers, employers, and health economists in part because of the loss of worker productivity, increased absenteeism, decreased ability for young adults to enter the military, and the life-time costs of treating associated conditions such as diabetes and hypertension.
The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is responsible for making sure that the United States' commercial supply of meat, poultry, and egg products is safe, wholesome, and correctly labeled and packaged.
[17] The widely accepted food pyramid was used as part of this dietary guidance, but more recently MyPlate has been developed to show proper nutrition practices in reference to a place setting.
[21] The USDA, EPA, and FDA signed a formal agreement in 2018 to work together to educate consumers, engage partner and stakeholders, and design and monitor solutions to reduce food loss and waste.
With authority over the nation's annual budget, Congress also plays a role in the formulation of food policies, particularly around issues related to farming and nutrition assistance.
The USDA has a variety of programs, policies, and activities that impact and relate to sustainable agriculture, natural resources, and community development including food security.
This primarily takes the form of monthly benefits that are calculated based on family income, adjusted for certain deductible living expenses and household size, and can only be used for the purchase of foods.
[32] More recently, the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 was signed into law by President Barack Obama and serves to reauthorize expenditures on food programming for children.
Nutrition standards for school breakfasts and lunches were revised for the first time in 15 years through the passage of the act to align them more closely with healthy foods recommended by the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
[33] The federal government had faced increased pressure to improve the nutritional quality of meals served in public schools over the last several decades from a wide range of advocacy groups with a goal of aligning the foods served with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans which are based on scientific research showing the benefits of whole grains, fruits, and vegetables and reductions in added sugars, refined grains, and sodium.
[35][36] This federally funded program provides grants to state and area agencies on aging to help finance the cost of congregate and home-delivered meals for older adults living independently in the community.
While the aim of ENP is to target low-income elderly in cities as well as rural settings, there is no means test to use these services; drafters of the initial legislation wanted to limit barriers to use of the program by older adults.
The framework suggests that strategies for coping with the social, psychological, geographic, economical stresses of poverty and structural factors are central to the link between poverty and its impacts on healthy lifestyles such as less access to healthy affordable foods in neighborhoods (the term food swamps have been used to describe locations with high amounts of liquor retail, convenience stores and few grocery stores with produce and lean meats), less access to safe places for physical activity, poor access to quality healthcare to screen and counsel for food security and health, and unhealthy weight status.
[42][43] A concern about lack of access to fresh produce for many recipients of SNAP benefits has led to an effort to increase the role farmers' markets can play in providing healthy fruits and vegetables to those receiving nutrition assistance.
There are seven major rules to implement FSMA that require specific actions that must be taken at different points along the supply chain to prevent contamination in human and animal food.
The potential for product liability lawsuits against manufacturers with poor safety practices offers another incentive for producers to take appropriate care when handling and processing foods.
For example, among those giving oral testimony to the committee that developed the 2010 guidelines were representatives of the sugar, fisheries, dairy, egg, pork, beef, soy foods, and produce industries.
Others offering testimony included the Council for Responsible Nutrition, the University of Washington, the American Heart Association, The Cancer Project, the Institute of Food Technologists, and the Vegetarian Union of North America.
[59] While open to public input, the development of the dietary guidelines is an example of a food policy promulgated solely within the executive branch of the federal government.
While the field of nutrition and public health works closely with a social ecological model that places individual behavior determinants and choices in the context of his or her familial, community, societal contexts including marketing, retail access, and larger agricultural policy, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans are directed at individual behaviors around food, nutritional intake and physical activity.
[65] The Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future’ s Food Policy Networks (FPN) project supports the development of FPCs as well as provides them with tools to help capacity and skill building to create effective councils across the United States.
[4] Facts Up Front is an initiative by the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) that is designed to simplify nutrition information on products with a front-of-package (FOP) label that highlights the calories, saturated fat, sodium, and sugars in a single serving of an item.
[68] Congress and the Centers for Disease Control charged the Institute of Medicine with conducting a study with an eye toward recommendations to standardize these labels, and a report was issued in October 2011.
[71] An updated review was published in 2017 including the context that in 2016, more than 20,300 food, beverage, and restaurant companies spent approximately $13.5 billion in advertising in all media.
Politics come into play on a variety of different fronts as the needs of the populace to have reliable, safe, affordable access to food are balanced against the desire to ensure farmers can earn a viable living.
