Food Policy Action
Food Policy Action was established in 2012 through a collaboration of national food policy leaders in order to hold legislators accountable on votes that have an effect on food and farming. Its goal is to change the national dialogue on food policy by educating the public on how elected officials are voting on these issues. Through education and the National Food Policy Scorecard, more people will be armed with the information they need to vote with their forks and elect more food policy leaders across the country.
The National Food Policy Scorecard is your go-to source for information about the most important food legislation considered by the House and Senate and how all members of Congress voted on those issues. The Scorecard reflects the consensus of top food policy experts who select the key food policy votes each year. The scored food policy issues include domestic and international hunger, food safety, food access, farm subsidies, animal welfare, food and farm labor, nutrition, food additives, food transparency, local and regional food production, organic farming and the effects of food production on the environment. The National Food Policy Scorecard lets you identify which legislators are working for sensible food policies.
The National Food Policy Scorecard: 2015 Progress Report covers votes Congress took up in 2015 that would impact the food system – for better and for worse. The House passed H.R. 1599, also known as the Deny Americans the Right to Know (DARK) Act, granting USDA the sole authority to establish a voluntary fee-based program for labeling non-GMO foods, pre-empting state and FDA authority and overriding the public’s vocal desire to know what is in their food. Congress made mixed progress on sustainable fisheries in 2015, as the House voted to re-authorize the Magnuson-Stevens fisheries management bill with relaxed provisions for environmental assessments, but also worked on legislation for more stringent enforcement of illegal fishing prohibitions.
2015 was a year for Congress to pass legislation guaranteeing healthy meals in school. Unfortunately, Congress has failed to pass a comprehensive update to the legislation that provides meals in schools for more than 30 million children each school year. This report includes proposed bills that would preserve and expand school meals, as well as some that seek to erode progress on nutrition standards and access. In the coming year, we hope to see a Child Nutrition Reauthorization bill that recognizes the crucial role of these programs, and preserves the funding and the improvements to nutrition standards created in the 2010 legislation.
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