Travis County adopted the Austin/Travis County food plan Tuesday, a comprehensive vision plan seeking to improve the city and county's local food system, from where it’s produced to where it's disposed of and recovered. The Austin City Council adopted it earlier this month.
The plan is large in scope, listing nine goals and 61 strategies to be implemented over the next five years. It’s focused on creating a more reliable and community-based food production and distribution system to increase access to high-quality food and strengthen the local food supply chain in times of emergency in the area.
"I think (this is) a powerful vision for the community," County Commissioner Brigid Shea said. "(It's) one where we have resources at the county, and I think we can be creative in exploring how we can make tremendous use from that."
Data from 2022 shows that 14.6% of the Travis County population is food insecure, amounting to about 187,990 people, according to a study done by Feeding America. This is largely due to the existence of several food deserts, areas with less mobility access to affordable and healthy foods, that affect Black and Hispanic residents at higher rates.
Edwin Marty, food policy manager of Austin's Office of Sustainability, said the plan seeks to explore how the city can remove barriers to food for those living in food deserts. He said investing in different kinds of food distributors — like nonprofit food hubs, co-ops and farm stands — is just one of many strategies to increase access to high-quality food.
“The food plan calls for trying to address where those gaps are in that healthy food retail ecosystem,” Marty said. “And trying to figure out what's the role for the local government to try to incentivize or support more food retail.”
The plan also emphasizes strengthening Austin’s local food production industry. The plan states that Austin loses about 16.8 acres of farmland every day. This is due to a rapidly growing population that forces the city to expand outward and convert farmland into residential spaces, according to a city report. To combat this, the plan lists measures like protecting farmland from development and creating programs that support local farmers.
“We need to have a better support system to make sure that small farmers are able to survive (and) actually make a living,” Marty said. “And that people are able to connect to that food, and they're able to purchase that food for a reasonable price.”
The plan also states that only 0.06% of the food residents consume is locally produced. It says consuming more locally grown food increases people's options which will make food more accessible in times of emergency. It says this can also lower the food system’s carbon footprint by not relying on outside food sources brought into the city. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, transportation makes up the largest share of carbon emissions compared to other industries.
The final draft of the plan was approved by a community advisory committee before it went to council and commissioners. Mina Davis, a food activist and creator of the nonprofit Valley of Hope, served as co-chair of the committee and said the plan seeks to equally address the 1.24 million pounds of food waste the city generates each day.
The plan looks to bring together community partners and stakeholders to implement better practices to divert food from landfills and to expand and improve food composting efforts.
Although the plan is quite expansive, Davis said she is confident in it as the work of strengthening the local food system is already underway.
“We’re starting to see projects … like food banks working with local producers to try and serve farmer’s food to local schools,” Davis said. “That’s already happening.”
Marty said to get the plan’s strategies off the ground, the city will help local entities apply for and receive federal and state grants. He said the plan will be an evolving effort as the city and county work to improve the local food system.
“What we're going to try to do is prioritize, out of the 61 strategies, which ones do we feel like we can get done within the next five years that are going to have the biggest impact,” Marty said.
