The US experience in planning for community food systems: An era of advocacy, awareness, and (some) learning

The lack of public attention to community food systems is nowhere more apparent than in local and regional government policy and planning in the United States. More than 30,000 local governments in the United States are charged with ensuring provision of infrastructure and services to make communities livable. Yet given the neoliberal context within the United States, food has largely been absent from local government planning and policy agenda. Fortunately, public efforts to plan for stronger food systems-or food systems planning or community and regional food systems planning-are emerging. Drawing on experiences of local and regional governments in the United States, the chapter describes the extent to which local, regional, and metropolitan (LRM) governments are planning for stronger community food systems. Although a growing number of LRM are engaged in planning for community food systems, the engagement remains limited. Against a bleak national landscape, the chapter traces the trajectory of a planning process in the Buffalo Niagara metropolitan region that is beginning to address food systems through local government planning and policy. The chapter concludes with cautionary notes about the use of local and regional government planning in strengthening communities' food systems.