Jerry Kaufman and Food Systems Planning Leadership: The APA Policy Guide as a Microcosm of Innovative Collaboration

In 2007, the American Planning Association (APA) adopted the Policy Guide on Community and Regional Food Planning, less than a decade after the appearance of the landmark papers establishing community food systems as a legitimate topic for planners’ attention. This chapter traces the process of institutionalizing food planning within the country’s largest organization of professional planners, including related collaborations among the lead authors of the policy guide, and highlights the role of Jerry Kaufman’s visionary leadership in the process. Kaufman’s talent for bringing to planners’ attention topics of importance to communities and to professional practice that were previously ignored; his prodigious networks of current and former students, faculty colleagues, and professional planners; and his longtime leadership bridging academic and professional planning arenas all were key to the policy guide’s development and its adoption.