Only Reconnect - Agri-culture: Reconnecting People, Land and Nature - page 123

environmental, community development and other food-related organiz-
ations which persuaded politicians to incorporate community food security
into the 1996 US Farm Bill. As a result, local food policy councils and
systems have become increasingly effective, most notably in Hartford,
Connecticut; Knoxville, Tennessee; St Paul, Minnesota; and Austin, Texas.
Bringing together different stakeholders with common concerns and interests
in a place works for local people, works for communities, works for
farmers, and can benefit the natural environment. 46
In Connecticut, the Hartford Food System (HFS) was set up by Mark
Winne in order to address severe poverty and food insecurity. Some four
in ten children live in poverty, and 80 per cent are eligible for free or
reduced-price school meals. In low-income neighbourhoods, 25-40 per
cent of residents experience hunger. The HFS promotes better food
education and collective food consumption in schools. Over a period of
three years, there has been a 35 per cent increase in the number of children
eating breakfast at school, and a farm-to-school programme provides
schools with fresh fruit and vegetables for their cafeterias. The HFS
promotes urban agriculture and farmers' markets, and has initiated a
coupon programme, with low-income families receiving US$10 coupons
to spend at farmers' markets. As a result, four-fifths of recipients of the
coupon report eating more fruit and vegetables. Similar innovations have
occurred in Toronto, where a Food Policy Council has brought together
an extended network of organizations concerned with food security,
sustainable agriculture, public health and community development. The
result has been increased fruit and vegetable consumption amongst
residents; more local sourcing of foods (only one quarter of food in the
social security food banks, which 150,000 people use, was sourced from
Ontario farmers in 1990); and a positive effect on school children (schools
with the Field to Table scheme have better attendance, less tardiness and
better socialization in classrooms). 47
The best example from Europe is the recent emergence of the Slow
Food movement from Italy. This arose out of local concerns over the fast
food sector's increasing homogenization and lack of responsibility towards
local distinctiveness. It was founded by journalist Carlo Petrini in the mid
1980s, and now has 70,000 members in 45 countries who seek to protect
local production from being driven into extinction by global brands. The
idea of slow food gave rise in 1999 to the Slow City movement, which
began in the four cities of Orvieto in Umbria, Greve in Tuscany, Bra in
Piedmont, and Positano on the Amalfi coast. The idea of slow and
distinctive food, resonant of place and people, has been taken up by local
authorities, with commitments to increase pedestrian zones, reduce traffic,
encourage restaurants to offer local products, directly support local