Fischer Plans New Goals for Food Policy Advisory Council

Mayor Greg Fischer is telling his Food Policy Advisory Council to refocus their energy on four very specific goals...and food justice is not among them.FPAC was created in the waning days of then-Mayor Jerry Abramson’s administration. Last month, Fischer sent the council a memo outlining his top food-related goals for this year. These include continuing to expand the city’s Farm to Table program, implementing a revolving loan program to bring local food processing companies to the city’s Portland neighborhood, and pursuing a study to quantify Louisville’s demand for healthy local foods.But those priorities raised questions about whether improving access to fresh and local food in some of Louisville’s “food desert” neighborhoods shouldn’t be a goal as well.Metro Food Policy Coordinator Theresa Zawacki says she thinks FPAC can address those access issues along with the mayor’s priorities.“I don’t think that all of those goals are out of harmony,” she said. “I think that they all work together and it’s just a question of how can we best figure out the structure and the dynamic of the group to achieve all those goals.”FPAC chairwoman Cassia Herron says she wants to make sure food access issues continue to be addressed, perhaps by embedding them into the mayor’s priorities.No action was taken at yesterday's meeting, but FPAC will continue discussing the new goals next month.