Retooling American Foodralism

Abstract

Food policy action on the state and local levels is necessary and important for at least two reasons. First, the complexity and breadth of our nation's food system requires layered policy and regulation: the system's functioning needs both national uniformity and local distinctions. Second, there are crucial gaps in national regulation that provide rich opportunities for state and local action. These gaps, in areas such as the regulation of antibiotics in animal feed and the oversight of food additives, are not priorities of the federal agencies that oversee food. Although the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has made nutrition policy a priority for 2018, the current administration's explicitly anti-regulatory agenda makes it unlikely that it will address these previously under prioritized areas.