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For several decades, food policy councils (FPCs) have led the effort to place food on local government policy agendas. While FPCs are making progress in supporting local food systems, they also face institutional and organizational challenges. In recent years, a handful of cities and counties have endeavored to further food system reform with the establishment of full-time government staff positions focused on food policy. As of spring 2020, there were 19 confirmed food policy positions housed in local governments across the United States. While there is considerable literature on FPCs, little research has been published regarding food policy staffing in local governments. Accordingly, this study uses original in-depth interviews with 11 individuals in municipal or county food policy positions to understand the purpose and function of governmental food policy staff positions and their impact on local food systems. Our findings suggest that these positions help to coordinate and nurture local food programs and policies and have the potential to facilitate meaningful participation of individuals and groups in the community in food system reform. We discuss the potential benefits and challenges for governmental food policy positions to support food democracy, and provide the following recommendations for communities interested in establishing or strengthening similar positions: (1) identify and coordinate existing opportunities and assets, (2) foster and maintain leadership support, (3) root the work in community, (4) connect with other food policy professionals, and (5) develop a food system vision.
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This content will become publicly available on October 16, 2026
Jail incarceration across the U.S.: The role of the local state and place-based punishment vulnerability
Social scientists have highlighted jail incarceration as an important social problem in the United States. However, few national-level generalizable studies have investigated how the characteristics of communities and their local governments influence jail incarceration, despite jails being an intrinsically community-level institution largely run by county governments. In this paper, we ask how place-based community characteristics, particularly county government characteristics, are associated with jail incarceration. To answer this question, we draw primarily from two literatures, place-based punishment vulnerability and research on the local state, to develop a conceptual framework for analyzing local jail incarceration. We utilize a unique data set that includes primary data collected from county governments across the nation. We examine the extent to which socioeconomic, sociodemographic, and county government characteristics are associated with jail incarceration rates using multivariate regression analysis with state-fixed effects for 1400 counties. We find that elevated jail incarceration rates are found in high-poverty, evangelical counties of mid-level economic health with county governments that have introduced service cuts and have local leaders that engage in carceral entrepreneurship. These findings have important implications for the study of jails across the United States.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2019470
- PAR ID:
- 10655885
- Publisher / Repository:
- Sage Publications
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Punishment & Society
- ISSN:
- 1462-4745
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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