I attended a very interesting meeting today on the food system in Dakota County. It was sponsored by Homegrown South and the Public Health Law Center at William Mitchell College of Law.
Homegrown South is a network that “that seeks to positively impact the local food economy and community health of the Southern Twin Cities metro” area. For information, check out www.homegrownsouth.org.
The presenters from the Law Center went over a study that illustrated local ordinances or regulations that may impact access to healthy, affordable food. The goal of the policy brief is to identify existing local ordinances which may impact the growing, processing, selling and distribution of healthy food. Some of the topics researched include: beekeeping, gardening activities, and grocery store locations. For more information, see www.publichealthlawcenter.org
The goal is to encourage people to become more involved in planning processes and to make sure that planning for zoning, transportation, and other related topics take access to healthy foods into consideration.