Oakland Food System Assessment
City of Oakland Mayor's Office of Sustainability
What is the Oakland Food System Assessment?
In June 2005, Mayor Jerry Brown’s Office of Sustainability initiated this study in order to begin a process of evaluating each element of the food system in Oakland, and to provide key baseline information on the various activities that represent it. On January 10, 2006, the Oakland City Council, Life Enrichment Committee unanimously passed a resolution that authorizes:
...the Mayor’s Office of Sustainability to develop an Oakland Food Policy and Plan for thirty percent local area food production, by undertaking an initial food system assessment study, conducted by a research team from the Department of City and Regional Planning, University of California at Berkeley, at no cost to the City.
This baseline analysis is therefore intended to initiate discussion among City policymakers, staff, and community members to consider the impact that the City’s food system might have on different areas of public concern. It also begins to
assess the potential for increasing the consumption of local foods among Oakland residents. This includes exploring how systems of production, distribution, processing, consumption, and waste, as well as city planning and policymaking could support the objective of having at least 30 percent of the City's food needs sourced from within the City and immediate region.
Five goals were proposed which guided this study:
Goal 1: Food Security
Ensure that no Oakland resident experiences hunger. Ensure that access to safe and nutritious food is not limited by economic status, location, or other factors beyond residents’ control.
Goal 2: Urban Agriculture and Waste Reduction
Maximize Oakland’s self reliance and capacity to grow and provide healthy local food for its citizens through community and rooftop gardens, farmer’s markets, community supported agriculture, and other urban agricultural activities; and simultaneously promote a “closed-loop” system that makes use of food waste recovery while reducing energy use.
Goal 3: Economic Development
Promote and revitalize economic development opportunities in the food sector that create jobs and recirculate financial capital within the community. Encourage marketing and processing practices that create more direct links between local producers and consumers.
Goal 4: Agricultural Preservation
Support the preservation of the region’s foodshed by encouraging consumption of regionally grown food that uses less chemical and energy-intensive production practices and emphasizes local inputs. Support Smart Growth policies that direct growth away from prime agricultural land.
Goal 5: Public Education and Capacity Building
Increase public “food literacy” and build capacity within communities to make food-related choices that positively influence public health and long-term sustainability.
Oakland Food System Assessment - DRAFT
Please find downloadable draft .pdfs of the current document here:
- Excutive Summary
- [Chapter 1. Introduction]
- [Chapter 2. Food Production: Regional Agricultural, Urgan Agricultural and Urban Gardening]
- [Chapter 3. Processing and Distribution]
- [Chapter 4. Consumption: Food Retail and Food Security]
- Waste Recovery
- Conclusions
(Adobe Acrobat Reader is required)
For more information or to make comments, please contact authors and investigators:
Serena Unger, serena_unger@berkeley.edu
Heather Wooten, heatherwooten@berkeley.edu
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