San Francisco Mayor Announces Regional Food Policy

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom has already banned spending city money on bottled water and mandated composting citywide, but now he has taken on a new cause: food. Mayor Newsom issued an executive directive on Wednesday aimed at changing how San Franciscans eat. To view the executive directive, click here. According to an article in the San Francisco Chronicle,

[a]ll city departments have six months to conduct an audit of unused land - including empty lots, rooftops, windowsills and median strips - that could be turned into community gardens or farms that could benefit residents, either by working at them or purchasing the fresh produce. Food vendors that contract with the city must offer healthy and sustainable food. All vending machines on city property must also offer healthy options, and farmers' markets must begin accepting food stamps, although some already do.

Additionally, the mayor announce plans to mandate food served in city jails, hospitals, homeless shelters and community centers be healthy. Effective immediately, however, there will be

no more runs to the doughnut shop before meetings and conferences held by city workers. Instead, city employees must use guidelines created by the Health Department when ordering food for meetings. Examples include cutting bagels into halves or quarters so people can take smaller portions and serving vegetables instead of potato chips.

The city's administration provided some directives for what it means for all food to be "healthy and sustainable":

Safe and healthy: Avoids excessive pesticide use and has high nutritional value.

Culturally acceptable: Acceptable culturally and religiously to San Francisco's diverse population. An example would be providing Chinese seniors with bok choy and other vegetables they're familiar with at local farmers' markets.

Sustainable: Grown in a way that maintains the health of agricultural lands and advances self-sufficiency among farmers and farmworkers. An example would be using manure as a fertilizer rather than chemicals.

To read the article from the San Francisco Chronicle, click here. The official press release from Mayor Newsom's office is available here.

Mayor Newsom made the announcement from a model farm in West Oakland, City Slicker Farms. The 2,000-square-foot former junkyard now produces 2,000 pounds of food every year, including lettuce, squash, tomatoes, parsley, sage, collard greens, grapes, cherries and plums.

Posted: 07/09/09