ChangeLab Solutions. Justice on the Menu: Legal & Policy Strategies to Address Structural Discrimination in the US Food System. 2024. https://www.changelabsolutions.org/product/justice-menu
Food is a basic human necessity, and access to nutritious food is essential to people’s health and well-being. However, racial injustice and oppression embedded in the US food system cause economic, environmental, and health harms for many Americans — from farmers, producers, and distributors to restaurant workers, food retailers, and consumers.

The ideas and guidance in this resource aim to foster new conversations, advocacy efforts, partnerships, and research to advance racial justice in our food system. To aid changemakers who wish to center racial equity in food systems research, policy, and action, Justice on the Menu offers the following information and tools:
- Introduction & Key Concepts: Background information on the history of racism across many dimensions of US food systems, resulting in land loss for BIPOC communities; low pay and poor working conditions for farm and food workers; and unjust racial and ethnic disparities in rates of hunger, food insecurity, and diet-related diseases
- Policy Menus: state and local policy options that can be implemented to advance health and racial justice through the food system
- Community Spotlights: stories describing how communities are putting policies into action
- Practical & Legal Considerations: notes for changemakers working at the powerful nexus of food justice, health justice, and racial justice, to inform their community partnerships and help them navigate various legal landscapes
The report can be downloaded in full or in individual sections or fact sheets to meet specific needs.
“No single policy pursued in isolation can dismantle structural racism or make transformational change in the food system. Changemakers who use this resource should consider individual policy options as “bricks in a brick wall” — meaning that over time, and when connected to broader social justice movements, they can be part of the pathway toward more transformational change.
Deliberate, racism-conscious legal and policy interventions can help to codify and institutionalize ideas and values that emerge from these movements to drive long-term food justice and racial justice. Legal and policy strategies can address the distribution of money, power, opportunities, and resources and undo fundamental drivers of inequity, including structural discrimination, which is the preeminent driver of inequity.
Efforts to address historical and ongoing harms and advance food justice, health justice, and racial justice would be incomplete without law and policy changes.”
Transparency | Diversity | Dynamism | Evidence-based |