The Massachusetts Food Policy Alliance
The Massachusetts Food Policy Alliance (MFPA) is an alliance of over thirty organizations who support the effectiveness of Food Policy
Councils at local and state levels across the country. Our mission is to bring together diverse stakeholders across the food system, from farmers to consumers, to create a sustainable, systemic, effective, and inclusive food policy for Massachusetts. The MFPA strives to bring those benefits
to Massachusetts and all of its communities, by working to educate and advise a
legislatively enacted state food policy council.
MFPA Food System Objectives:
- Increase local food production in Massachusetts.
- Sustain and enhance the Massachusetts and regional agricultural economy
- Expand access to and consumption of state-and regionally produced foods across socio-economic groups.
- Promote environmental sustainability in the Massachusetts and regional food system.
- Improve the health of Massachusetts residents as it relates to our food system.
- Protect Massachusetts farmland.
- Support the next generation of food producers in Massachusetts and the region.
Join MFPA for 2012! Please go to the "Become a Member" page for more information and to complete the form.
photo credit: (c) CISA, Community Involved in Sustaining
AgricultureThe Food System
Over four
million people live in Massachusetts, and every day each of us depends
on a
complex food system of farmers, processors, distributors and retailers
to bring
us the food we eat. For a number of
reasons—from combating global warming and reducing food miles to seeking
safer,
fresher and more nutritious food—consumers in the Commonwealth are
turning to
locally-grown foods. We see it in the
growing number of farmers markets and farm stands, in the oversubscribed
Community
Supported Agriculture (CSA) farms, and on the menus of restaurants and
school
cafeterias. And we see it in the
communities around us—from urban garden plots and community farms to new
and
expanding farm businesses raising an increasingly diverse array of
livestock
and conventional and organic crops.
Yet in Massachusetts,
as elsewhere, our food system faces challenges.
The Commonwealth continues to lose its most productive farmland,
and the
average age of its farmers continues to climb.
Rising farm input costs are reducing farm profits.
The laws affecting food, farms, and agricultural
processing and marketing are implemented by multiple federal, state and
local
boards and agencies, creating a complex web of regulatory hurdles for
large and
small farms alike. And too many of the
Commonwealth’s citizens are food insecure, lacking access to nutritional
foods
at affordable prices which contributes to high rates of obesity and
costly chronic
diseases like diabetes.
photo credit: (c) Jason Threlfall / CISA, Community Involved in Sustaining
Agriculture