Transit dependent and low-income residents often have access to fewer places with fresh food, and small farms suffer from rising fuel costs in transportation of food from farm to market. This article, from the Community Food Security Coalition, argues for more attention to the connections between transportation and food, and provides examples of initiatives from across the nation which address these concerns.

Authored by the American Planning Association, this guide argues for a comprehensive food policy in local and regional planning. Food policy has often been overlooked by planners, assuming that food and food policy only indirectly affect the built environment. However, this recent document highlights the need to integrate local, regional, and sustainable food into any planning endeavors. Fitting into the paradigm of smart growth, these planners discuss the problems with industrial ag and outline seven policy guidelines to follow to implement and support local, sustainable food.

This is a link to the National Family Farm Coalition Website, a non-profit that "provides a voice for grassroots groups on farm, food, trade and rural economic issues to ensure fair prices for family farmers, safe and healthy food, and vibrant, environmentally sound rural communities here and around the world."

Food policy councils are ways for citizens to participate in creating food security on the state and local level. Though purpose differs from council to council, they are organized similarly, with a group of stakeholders arguing for more just and sustainable food policy. This article documents food policy councils from North Carolina, Knoxville, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Florida, and Oregon.

While the recent Farm Bill inacts few of the proposals in this document, "Food from Family Farm's Act" provides a window into policies that can improve the viabilty of the family farm, food security, and food soveriengty. With global food prices rising, food security has never been a more important topic. The authors suggest improving market price supports through the reimplementation of government and private-owned reserves, and providing incentives for conservation.

The author, Casey Dillon, in conjunction with the National Association of Counties, argues for integrating local food into sustainable communities to help curb the obesity epidemic. Dillon uses case studies from diverse geographic locales to argue for four methods in integrating local food into sustainable communities - food councils, farm-to-school programs, infrastructure for local producers, and agricultural conservation easements.

The authors, agricultural specialists from the Iowa State University, provide an example of food miles in conventional and local produce. With gas at 130 dollars a barrel and rising, this research is important to policy-makers looking to ensure food and economic security for their constituents. While this data is specific to Iowa, the example of conventional vs. local apples is shocking. A conventional apple travels approximately 1,726 miles while the local apple only travels 61.

This USDA article covers the obstacles facing limited-resource, small family, and sociall-disadvantaged farmers. Many of these farms do not qualify for production-based federal subsidies, and often, lack the technical and bureacratic expertise to access other governmental programs. The authors outline these problems and suggest pragmatic steps to overcoming these obstacles.