We started our initiative in 2014 with the belief that an established policy on urban agriculture would bring more investment and energy to the local food movement.
We set the following goals to help bring this forward:
- Assisting regulatory bodies in establishing guidelines so Urban Agriculture can flourish and harmonize with the Long Beach community
- Helping organizations, institutions and the private sector source locally grown food
- Supporting partners and communities who are creating health-minded and food security-related projects
- Providing resources, educational tools and hands-on exposure to urban agriculture issues for decision-makers, media and interested community members
Since then, we’ve seen the City of Long Beach modernize their policies to encourage urban agriculture, by passing new rules for animal husbandry for chickens, goats, and bees, defining urban agriculture in zoning code and expanding it to include multi-family residential zones, and implementing the Urban Agriculture Incentive Zones program. Moving forward, we are working with the City of Long Beach Office of Sustainability to help new projects succeed while identifying funding mechanisms to support urban agriculture infrastructure, including the new Kiva loan platform.
Below is a list of resources that explore the forefront of urban agriculture policy and regulation.
Seeding the City
Guidelines for establishing a policy for urban agriculture created by ChangeLab Solutions.
LA Grown
A report and toolkit for growing food in LA County, by LA Food Policy Council.
Green for Greens: Finding Public Funding for Healthy Food Retail
A helpful guide to public financing for local farmers.
Local Food for Local Government
This section of our website includes links to several resources for working with government agencies to source their food locally.
Putting Health on the Menu: A Toolkit for Creating Healthy Restaurant Programs
This guide may be useful in working with restaurants. Rio originally offered to send a TA response that she worked on; all the relevant information in that response came from this guide.
Providing Fresh Produce in Small Stores: Distribution Challenges & Solutions for Healthy Food Retail
This guide provides an overview of food distribution.
Food Policy Council Literature Review
This literature review was prepared for ChangeLab Solutions’ Food Policy Council Convening in November 2013. It includes an analysis of Food Policy Councils’ activities, challenges, and solutions. Note that FPCs work on both programs and policies.