A new report from the Health Law and Policy Clinic of Harvard Law School recommends that Memphis’s food code be largely eliminated.
The report comes at the end of a comprehensive review of the Memphis city ordinances pertaining to food businesses from grocery stores and restaurants to produce trucks and farmers markets. The report represents a collaborative effort between the Harvard Law School Health Law and Policy Clinic, the Shelby County Health Department, and the Food Advisory Working Group for Memphis and Shelby County.
“Though they served Memphis well when first passed, with the current system of state food safety regulations, major portions of the Memphis ordinances are now unnecessary,” says Emily Broad Leib, Senior Clinical Fellow at Harvard’s Health Law and Policy Clinic. “Moreover, some of these outdated or duplicative portions of the Memphis Food Code may lead to wasted resources, reduced access to healthful foods, and stifling of economic activity among food industry entrepreneurs.”
Although Harvard Law found the current code to be largely unnecessary, the code has in no way impacted the ability of the Shelby County Health Department to protect public health and safety. Because local health departments contract with the state to conduct many inspections, the Shelby County Health Department has continued to inspect to the high standards of the Tennessee food code, even with outdated local ordinances.
The connection between Harvard Law and the Shelby County Health Department was made when Josephine Alexander, program coordinator for GrowMemphis, was working with a group of community members starting a farmers market in Midtown, now the Cooper-Young Community Farmers Market. Once she started looking at the ordinances related to food establishments, including farmers markets, it was clear that there was significant overlap and even contradiction with state law.
Concerned that inconsistencies between state and local laws might be a barrier to new businesses and community food initiatives, the Food Advisory Working Group wanted to get a better understanding of the local laws. It quickly became apparent that reviewing the entire food code was a monumental task.
Enter the Food Policy Initiative of the Health Law and Policy Clinic at Harvard Law School. The Food Policy Initiative was established in 2010 in order to link Harvard Law students with opportunities to provide pro bono legal assistance to individuals and communities on various food policy issues. They were interested in taking on the Memphis food code project, “We just got lucky,” says Alexander, “we knew someone who had worked with this project in Mississippi and were able to make a connection.”
Alexander also knew from the beginning that the success of the project hinged on the full participation of the Shelby County Health Department. “Sure, we can read the laws,” says Alexander, “but the Health Department really knows how regulations are actually playing out on the ground, for example, which ordinances have not been enforced because they are outdated or inconsistent with state law.”
Fortunately, the Health Department was equally eager to engage the law students. “We’ve been wanting to update the food code for years,” said Phyllis Moss-McNeill, Manager of Environmental Sanitation Services at Shelby County Health Department, but a comprehensive study like the one conducted by Harvard Law would have taken a huge amount of resources.
Starting in September 2010, Harvard law students talked and met with Shelby County Health Department staff, as well as numerous restaurateurs, farmers, small processors, farmers market managers, and other food entrepreneurs.
The 175-page report, titled “Creating a More Efficient and Effective Food Safety System in Memphis and Shelby County,” represents the work of 21 law students over the course of ten months. The report discusses problems with the current food code and presents a comparative analysis with sixteen other cities. The bulk of the report is a provision-by-provision analysis that discusses each individual ordinance.
The full report is available online at: http://deltadirections.
About the Food Advisory Working Group
GrowMemphis, a local non-profit devoted to turning vacant lots into thriving community gardens, received a grant in 2010 from the Healthy Eating, Active Living (HEAL) Initiative of the Community Foundation of Greater Memphis for the purpose of developing a Food Advisory Council for Memphis and Shelby County. Since spring of 2010, a Working Group has convened to research food advisory councils across the country, outline the plan for such a council, and advance policy initiatives. The Memphis and Shelby County Food Advisory Council Working Group is a collection of individuals and agencies interested in using public policy as a vehicle to ensure that all Memphis and Shelby County residents have adequate healthy food available, and to promote the development of sustainable local food in our community.
For more information see http://www.
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