Food Policy & Politics

See also: Local and Slow Food movements

Selected Books / DVDs

For additional books, browse Food Policy.

Food (Opposing Viewpoints)
Laura K. Egendorf, book editor.
This Opposing Viewpoints book covers 4 questions: Is America's Food Supply Safe?; How Should Farms Be Operated?; What Causes Obesity?; and How Can Hunger Be Reduced?
HV6432.F64 2006

Lautenschlager, Julie L., 1973-
Food Fight!: The Battle Over the American Lunch in Schools and the Workplace
This study of the contentious history of the American lunch explains how divergent forces, from food processors and advertisers to social workers, doctors, government representatives and mothers, have influenced America's eating habits. (Book jacket)
GT2853.U5 L38 2006

Let Them Eat Precaution: How Politics is Undermining the Genetic Revolution in Agriculture
Edited by Jon Entine
This book focuses on the risk and rewards of genetic modification, the differing paths the dialogue on GM has followed in Europe and the developing world in contrast to the United States, how the debate impacts the commercial realities of companies developing new products, and strategies for a more rational and internationally coordinated public policy.
SB106.B56 L48 2006

Pawlick, Thomas
The End of Food: How the Food Industry is Destroying Our Food Supply--And What We Can Do About It
Pawlick urges the reader to take back the food supply and opt for locally grown rather than industrially produced food.
HD9000.5.P28 2006

Pollan, Michael
The Omnivore's Dilemma: a Natural History of Four Meals
Pollan holds that US government subsidies to farmers artificially hold down corn and soybean prices and benefit meat and food processors to the detriment of the environment and the American consumer, not to mention the poor cow.
GT2850.P65 2006

Simon, Michele
Appetite for Profit: How the Food Industry Undermines our Health and How to Fight Back
Michele Simon, a public health lawyer and nutrition advocate, is the founder and director of Center for Informed Food Choices (CIFC) which advocates for a diet based on whole, unprocessed, local, organically grown plant foods.
TX360.U6 S577 2006x

Singer, Peter and Jim Mason
The Way We Eat: Why our Food Choices Matter
Read why the authors feel that: "America's food industry seeks to keep Americans in the dark about the ethical components of their food choices."
TX357.S527 2006

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Web Sites

• Bread for the World
  A nationwide Christian citizens movement seeking justice for the world's hungry people by lobbying our nation's decision makers.
• The Economist: Food: The Silent Tsunami
  The April 17, 2008 issue of The Economist reports on what it sees as a growing food crisis: "Food prices are causing misery and strife around the world. Radical solutions are needed... Because food markets are in turmoil, civil strife is growing; and because trade and openness itself could be undermined, the food crisis of 2008 may become a challenge to globalisation."
• FAO: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
  FAO has worked to alleviate poverty and hunger by promoting agricultural development, improved nutrition and the pursuit of food security - the access of all people at all times to the food they need for an active and healthy life.
  • World Food Situation
    This portal offers latest information on food commodity prices, supply and demand and factors that affect world food markets. Consumers are feeling the impact of food price increases.
  • TeleFood: Food for All
  • World Food Day - October 16
    World Food Day is a day observed throughout the world on the anniversary of FAO's founding, 16 October 1945.
  • World Food Summit 1996
  • World Food Summit 5 Years Later (2002)
  • Monitoring Progress Since the World Food Summit
• Food First: Institute for Food and Development Policy
  Food First was founded in 1975 by Frances Moore Lappé and Joseph Collins, following the international success of the book, Diet For a Small Planet. It is a member-supported, nonprofit 'peoples' think tank and education-for-action center, whose work highlights root causes and value-based solutions to hunger and poverty around the world, with a commitment to establishing food as a fundamental human right.
• Food Research & Action Center
  http://www.frac.org/
  A nonprofit, nonpartisan research and public policy center working to improve public policies to eradicate hunger and undernutrition in the United States. Go here for state by state evaluations of government food programs, the latest news, and information on hunger in the US.
  • Federal Food Programs
    See if you qualify!
• Food Routes
  The FoodRoutes Web site is a project of FoodRoutes Network (FRN). FRN is a national nonprofit organization that provides communications tools, technical support, networking and information resources to organizations nationwide that are working to rebuild local, community-based food systems. FRN is dedicated to reintroducing Americans to their food – the seeds it grows from, the farmers who produce it, and the routes that carry it from the fields to their tables.
• Gourmet Magazine: Food Politics
  Recent articles on food policy issues.
• International Food Policy Research Institute
  Based in Washington DC and established in 1975 to help developing countries devise appropriate food policies and the policies needed to ensure the optimum use of new agricultural technologies. IFPRI operates as part of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), a worldwide network of institutions that seek to improve the productivity of agriculture, forestry, and fisheries in developing countries, reduce malnutrition, and enhance the well-being of poor people while preserving their environment.
• United Nations World Food Programme
  "WFP is the frontline United Nations organization fighting to eradicate world hunger -- whether it is the hunger that suddenly afflicts people fleeing ethnic conflict in Rwanda or Bosnia or the chronic hunger that affects the hungry poor in countries such as Bangladesh or India. WFP became operational in 1963 and is now the world's largest international food aid organization."
• US Department of Agriculture: Food Consumption, Prices, and Expenditures, 1970-97
  This report, from the USDA's Economic Research Service, presents historical data on food consumption, prices, expenditures, and U.S. income and population.
• The United States and World Food Security
  Information for the World Food Summit in 2002 from the USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service
• Washington Post: Global Food Crisis
  A special report that explores the causes and effects of rising food prices.
• World Food Day USA
  World Food Day, October 16th, is a worldwide event designed to increase awareness, understanding and informed, year-around action to alleviate hunger.

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Pittsburgh & Pennsylvania

• Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank
  Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank is a nonprofit organization committed to eliminating hunger and developing collaborative strategies that encourage self-reliance in our area. The Food Bank distributes over 1 million pounds of food and grocery products each month to 350 agencies in the 12 county region of Southwestern Pennsylvania.
• Just Harvest
  An Allegheny County-wide membership organization which promotes economic justice and works to influence public policy and to educate, empower, and mobilize the citizens of our community towards the elimination of hunger
• The Food Trust
  The Food Trust, based in Philadelphia, is responding to the contemporary epidemic of diet-related disease and malnutrition, by working to increase access to affordable and nutritious food and helping people to improve their diets. Founded in 1992, the Trust's mission is to ensure that everyone has access to affordable, nutritious food. On their website you can find research and reports about the food supply in Philadelphia.
• Pennsylvania Hunger Action Center
  Pennsylvania Hunger Action Center, formerly Pennsylvania Coalition for Food and Nutrition, is a non-profit political advocacy organization working with partners across the Commonwealth to end hunger. Hunger Action's mission focuses on ensuring food security for all Pennsylvanians.