The continuing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on food security and food workers, the deepening economic crisis brought by the pandemic, and the continuing disruptions from climate change demand rethinking how federal food policies can contribute to improved human and planetary health. In November 2020 voters chose their next president and Congress, creating the opportunity for food, farm, and social justice activists to shape a new federal food agenda. Key questions for that agenda in 2021 and the next four years include how the federal government can reverse the alarming rise in food insecurity as a result of COVID-19 and how federal policies can contribute to eliminating the systemic racism in our food system that leaves Black and indigenous people and other people of color with higher rates of diet-related disease, more food insecurity, less land ownership, and poorer paying and more unsafe food jobs. On December 10th, join the CUNY Urban Food Policy Institute and invited experts for a virtual Urban Food Policy Forum presenting insights into these fundamental questions and more.

Speakers

• Rev. Dr. Heber Brown, III, Senior Pastor of Pleasant Hope Baptist Church in Baltimore, Maryland and Founder of the Black Church Food Security Network
• Josh Kellermann, Director of Public Policy, Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU)
• James Parrott, Director, Economic and Fiscal Policies, Center for New York City Affairs, The New School

Moderator

• Nick Freudenberg, Distinguished Professor of Public Health at the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy and Director of the CUNY Urban Food Policy Institute