Network Resource Reform Letter to Governor Gregoire

On October 1, 2009, on behalf of the Good Food Coalition, the Network submitted a comment letter regarding the State's resource reform effort, which includes agriculture as a resource.

October 1, 2009

Dear Natural Resources Subcabinet,

Thank you for the opportunity to provide input on the proposed ideas regarding the reform of our Natural Resource Agencies in Washington State. We applaud the governor in initiating this broad reform effort to create greater efficiencies and promote innovation within state government.

The Good Food Coalition is comprised of non-profit organizations, local government agencies, businesses and individuals. We work in the sectors of agriculture, public health, children’s nutrition, social justice and green jobs. We are writing on behalf of thousands of individuals and organizations within the State of Washington working to improve our local food systems. Our mission is to:

Advocate for policies that build a sustainable and socially just food system that supports viable local farms, protects our air, land and water, and ensures affordable access to healthy food for all people in Washington State.

The Good Food Coalition formed in 2007 to work with the state legislature and state agencies to promote local sustainable food systems, economic development and children’s health by successfully advocating for passage of the Local Farms Healthy Kids Act last year.  This legislation established Washington as a national leader in passing the most comprehensive state law to address local food systems. 

The Good Food Coalition continues to work together to protect the public investments established by the Local Farms Healthy Kids Act as well as track new funding and policy opportunities at the local and national level that advance more sustainable food systems.  The time is ripe locally and nationally to consider local food system issues as integral to the future health and vitality of the people in Washington State.  

Resource Agency Reform Needs to Address Food
Food is a natural resource. Growing food requires healthy soil, clean water, and arable land, all of which are natural resources. We are concerned that food is not specifically addressed anywhere in your proposed ideas on agency reform. 

Growing, distributing, consuming and disposing of food are governed by numerous agencies, several that have not been involved in the natural agency reform process. Including food policies within this reform process is an opportunity to address the critical challenge of how to feed ourselves sustainably in light of climate change, population growth, oil depletion and economic challenges. 

WSDA’s “Future of Farming Strategic Plan 2020”, was released this spring and is a comprehensive assessment of how to keep agriculture competitive and profitable through 2020. This study, mandated by the Legislature in 2007, identified several key challenges including the need to incorporate agriculture’s interest in future policy making and the myriad of overlapping and inconsistent regulations that impede our ability to grow and distribute food. 

Addressing the management of food during this reform effort is a natural opportunity to face the challenges identified in the 2009 Future of Farming report. It would build on Washington State’s progressive leadership by utilizing a comprehensive food policy to address a myriad of complex issues including economic development, public health, and climate change. We encourage you to broaden your approach to include the following agencies within your reform of natural resources agencies because they manage food: the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, the Department of Social and Human Services and the Department of Transportation. 

Of the proposed ideas that have been provided, we believe sustainable food issues would best be supported through the 5 Model Agency, (Idea #4) the Unified Vision (Idea #5) and Formalize Multi-Agency Collaboration (Idea #8). We generally believe that these three ideas could help align our State’s food resources, resulting in efficiencies, improved customer service and maximization of our limited state dollars.

Idea 1-4 presents the five agency model. We believe that this structure would benefit by expanding the scope of the Agricultural Agency to administer appropriate food distribution programs. We also believe the five agency model would benefit from including a mandate to work closely with other state agencies that regulate and promote food issues such as OSPI, DOH, DSHS, and Dept of Commerce. Examples include nutrition assistance programs (SNAP, WIC, WA-Grown Snack program, school meals and snacks), food safety regulation (farms, farmers markets, food retail) and food security (food banks, meal programs).

Idea 1-5 presents a Unified Vision. The food system, including production, distribution, processing, retail, consumption and disposal, currently engages many different state agencies and therefore is well-poised to model a unified vision for the state’s natural resources agencies. A sustainable food and farming system could be an integral part of the vision, driving the development of management strategies to achieve that vision.
Idea 1-8 presents the Formalization of Multi-Agency Collaboration. As mentioned above, food issues currently engage many disparate agencies without any formal partnerships in place. A more comprehensive and efficient approach to managing food could be accomplished through the formalization of multi-agency collaboration. Food would be well situated to bring together all the different agencies that currently operate in “silos” to participate in a structured collaboration. We see this structured collaboration as ideal in its potential for overcoming key barriers identified in the Future of Farming Report such as addressing the regulatory barriers to farming, improving access to healthy foods for all communities, and strengthening linkages between the farmers that grow our food and the people that eat it. 

We thank the Governor and the Natural Resource Subcabinet for their good work in preparing these ideas to reform of our state natural resource agencies and we appreciate the opportunity to comment. We look forward to additional participation in this effort.

Sincerely,
 
Ellen Gray
On behalf of the Washington Good Food Coalition
Executive Director
The Washington Sustainable Food and Farming Network
P.O. Box 762
Mount Vernon, WA  98273-0762