This edited volume highlights different intersections between public administration and policy and the food system. Viewed collectively, the editors argue that the lenses and languages of public administration can and should become a common ground for scholars and practitioners to discuss food systems.

Food and the systems that produce, disrupt, prepare it are central to all human life. Yet, scholarly analysis of the food systems that support human life are highly fragmented across a variety of disciplines. Public administration, with its focus on the doing of public policy, would seem to be a logical home for analysis of food systems in action. However, food is largely ignored by public administration scholars, and scholars from other disciplines can unintentionally draw up established public administration literature. The chapters in this edited volume highlight where the lenses and languages of public administration can and should be used to analyze food systems. Viewed collectively, the editors argue that the lenses and languages of public administration can and should become a common ground for scholars and practitioners to discuss food systems.

Introduction: Setting the Table to Study Food Systems through Public Administration

A. Bryce Hoflund, John C. Jones, and Michelle C. Pautz

Section II. Politics and Policy

Chapter One. How the Farm Bill Underpins U.S. Nutrition Policy

Brent Blevins

Chapter Two. The Politics of SNAP Mathematics

Angela Babb

Chapter Three. The Role of Crop Insurance in Shaping Production Trends and Environmental Outcomes in the U.S. Agri-Food System

Kristal Jones, Daniel Tobin, Laurie Ristino, Carina Isbell, and Jake Jacobs

Chapter Four. Hating Health Meals: Policy Rollbacks and School Meals

Jennifer Rutledge

Chapter Five: Taking Students and Staff Seriously: The National School Lunch Program as Co-ProductionAmy Rosenthal

Chapter Six. Using a Multidimensional Food Insecurity Framework to Inform Public Policy

Danni Smith, Erin Feichtinger, Jodi Benenson

Chapter Seven. Growing a Greener Lens: Connecting Concepts of Public Affairs and Sustainability from a Food Systems’ Frame

Rachel Emas

Section III. Regulation

Chapter Eight. Informationism in Food Policy: How the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Came to Regulate Food Through Informative Labeling

Xaq Frohlich

Chapter Nine. Contested Regulations in the Organic Foods Sector: Public Administration’s Challenging Encounter with Alternative Food Activism

Michael Haedicke

Chapter Ten. Seed Libraries in the U.S.: Regulations, Seed Saving, Seed Sharing, and Seed Sovereignty

Nurcan Atalan-Helicke, Andrew J. Schneller, Clarivel Gonzalez, Carolyn Lois, and Helen Alemayehu Mebrate

Section IV. Budget and Finance

Chapter Eleven. Factors Affecting the Sustainability of Short-Term Collaborative Networks: A Case Study of Communities Putting Prevention to Work Nutrition Initiatives in Douglas County, Nebraska

Can Chen, A. Bryce Hoflund, and Carol Ebdon

Chapter Twelve. Framework for a Cost-Benefit Analysis of a Large-Scale Food Processing Plant in a Small Rural Community: The Case of Costco’s Poultry Plant in Fremont, Nebraska,

Sungho Park, Craig S. Maher

Section V. Emergency Management

Chapter Thirteen. Addressing Nutrition During and After a Humanitarian Emergency

Sheila Fleischhacker

Chapter Fourteen. Food Insecurity and an Economic Crisis: The Case of Omaha, Nebraska during the Coronavirus Shutdowns

Emily MacNabb and B.J. Fletcher

Section VI. Conclusion

Conclusion: Connecting Food Systems and Public Administration: Key Takeaways and Future Research

A. Bryce Hoflund, John C. Jones, Michelle C. Pautz