Inviting Everyone to the Table: Strategies for More Effective and Legitimate Food Policy via Deliberative Approaches

Article first published online: 25 MAR 2016Authors Abstract: It is well-recognized that the general public is not typically involved in food policy debates, with participation often limited to elite participants with special interests. This paper investigates potential strategies for more effective and legitimate food policy utilizing systemic approaches to deliberative democracy. Two main strands are explored: first, it is argued that food is a key domain that could benefit from the move to systematic approaches to deliberative democracy. Examination of various types of public engagement about food, including consultation by submission, consensus and citizen conferences, citizens’ juries, and local food planning, reveals a dominance of micro-public perspectives that warrant greater integration and analysis at a systemic, macro level. Second, the paper contributes to the dialogue on systemic deliberative processes by analyzing tensions that are endemic in the domain of food policy, illustrating some of the points of weakness (and potential strengths) for effective deliberation in similar complex systems as well as presenting suggestions of directions for future research to contribute to the development of a more robust analytic framework for systematic approaches to deliberative democracy.Rachel A. Anken