Public Policy

Welcome, guest ( Login )

Public Policy

Version 29, changed by mark-musick@comcast.net. 12/13/2007. Show version history

Acting Food Policy Council for Seattle and King County
Contact: Sylvia Kantor, Extension Educator
Small Farms and Food Systems
WSU King County Extension
919 SW Grady Way, Suite 120
Renton, WA 98055
Phone: 206-205-3131
Email: sylvia.kantor [at] metrokc.gov
Web: http://www.king.wsu.edu/foodandfarms
Like many communities across the nation, Seattle and King County food system advocates are coordinating their approaches to develop a healthy sustainable food system through a food policy council (FPC). The Acting Food Policy Council is a diverse group of stakeholders who comprehensively examine the food system in order to develop integrated food and agriculture policy recommendations and improvement projects in Seattle and King County.

Lutheran Public Policy Office of Washington
Contact: Rev Paul Benz, Director
766 John St, Suite B
Seattle, WA 98109
Phone: 206-464-4133
Email: pbenz [at] lcsnw.org
Web: http://www.lppowa.org
The Lutheran Public Policy Office is the advocacy ministry of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). Its purpose is to be an active and listening presence in the halls of power advocating justice for all of God’s creation, with particular focus on the “least of those in our midst.” ELCA has 275 congregations across Washington state, with approximately 60% in rural settings. Consequently, the Lutheran Public Policy Office is involved with numerous agricultural organizations that promote the concept of sustainable agriculture, strives to get congregations involved in this conversation, and advocates for public policies at the state and federal level that will benefit family-based farms.

Sustainable Seattle
Contact: Viki Sonntag, Research Director
1402 Third Avenue, Suite 1220
Seattle, WA 98101
Phone: 206-622-3522
Email: viki [at] sustainableseattle.org
Web: http://sustainableseattle.org
Sustainable Seattle measures community progress along a set of sustainability indicators they first developed in 1993. At least 90 other sustainability projects around the country now use their indicators as a model for their own work. The next generation of this work involves The Sustainable Communities Multiplier Project, consisting of four linked studies, which seeks to establish the local multiplier as a measure of the benefits of locally circulating our communities’ resources. The first study of the four, the Local Food Economy Study, aims to make the economic case for investing in the development of local food economy linkages. Over forty local food economy businesses are directly participating in this project by calculating their local multipliers as a means of identifying system infrastructure needs.

Washington Sustainable Food & Farming Network
Contact: Ellen Gray or Gale Sterrett
PO Box 762
Mount Vernon, WA 98273-0762
Phone: 360-336-9694 X 100
Email: info [at] wsffn.org
Web: http://www.wsffn.org
The Network is statewide policy organization that focuses on fundamental change in the priorities of Washington’s agricultural institutions. The Network championed the creation of the Washington State Dept of Agriculture’s Small Farm and Direct Marketing Program and is leading a successful campaign to establish a sustainable agriculture curriculum at Washington State University. The Network has also challenged WSU’s increased emphasis on biotechnology, urging instead that the state’s agricultural university concentrate it’s efforts to support small family farms, which make up 87% of the farms in our state.