Over 30 years ago the interest in local food policy began in earnest with the debut of the first Food Policy Council (FPC) in North America.  Since then the growth in the number of councils and the number of policy issues addressed has been dramatic.  In a recent survey of more than 50 FPCs 85% were engaged in policy activities of some kind especially problem identification and education (Scherb et al. 2012).  Most were working on multiple topics, supporting a recent analysis which showed that local food issues are myriad, falling into eight major categories including food production, food sales, retail markets, food waste and others (Clancy 2011). 

Local issues are joined by many state and federal laws and programs which assist local areas in enhancing the security of both low-income underserved communities and the rest of the population. National nonprofits (e.g. NSAC 2010) have prepared comprehensive guides to these programs, and a version of the Local Farm, Food and Jobs Act, prepared originally for the 2012 Farm Bill discussion, is being reintroduced for the 2013 Farm Bill debate (NSAC 2013).  Another welcome addition to the guidance available to local advocates is a legal tool kit which offers an in-depth review of multiple legal instruments for topics ranging from local agriculture to zoning (Lieb 2012).

Despite these efforts there is little knowledge about their impacts.  Evaluation has been spotty and although claims of effectiveness have been made evidence needs to be collected more systematically from a large number of FPCs to verify these claims.