Editorials

Last week, the Berkeley City Council passed one of the first municipal food policies in the country. The policy will bring fresh, local and organic foods to the institutional food programs run by the city. The policy will also support activities that contribute to healthful eating patterns for city residents and support small scale, regional sustainable agriculture.  

Berkeley has been and continues to be known for healthy food with internationally renowned restaurants, year-round farmers’ markets and retail outlets stocked with locally and sustainable grown foods, according to a press statement by the Berkeley Food Policy Council. “Yet many Berkeley residents still go hungry, are disconnected from the source of their food, and have diets high in fats and highly processed foods,” said Jered Lawson, a member of the BFPC, which helped author the policy.