The Global Database for City and Regional Food Policies is a resource for local and sub-national governments  to learn about food system policies from around the globe. The searchable database provides copies of the legislation, plans, funding allocations, or other public actions authorized or implemented by cities, municipalities, regions, and sub-national governments. This resource allows local and sub-national governments to learn from strategies utilized in other regions or countries. Policymakers and support organizations can search policies using keywords, location, language, population size, and year to find policies that are well suited as inspirations for their own communities.  The database is updated regularly.

Use the search tools below to find one or more policies. GENERAL SEARCH by a keyword. Or for a more ADVANCED SEARCH, you can choose from a pre-determined set of terms listed in the drop-down menus. GENERAL SEARCH ADVANCED SEARCH

We recommend using the database in a Chrome browser. For technical assistance or questions regarding database, contact the Food Lab at foodsystems@ap.buffalo.edu. Users may also contact RUAF with policy-specific inquiries or for other resources related to international city and regional food systems at info@ruaf.org. For additional global food systems resources for city and regional governments, please visit the ICLEI-RUAF CITYFOOD Network.

To search for policies within the United States/Canada, please visit the Growing Food Connections policy database. 

Submit a Policy
Do you have a local government food-related policy that you would like to showcase for a global audience? We welcome submissions of local and regional government policies for inclusion in the database from across the world. The policy must touch some aspect of the food system and be officially adopted by a sub-national government such as a municipality, district, town, city, region, etc. Policies can be submitted by completing this form.

This database is a work in progress and is updated regularly. Policies included in this database have not been evaluated. Population sizes are drawn from the most recent census reports in the United Nation’s Demographic Yearbook 2015: Population of capital cities and cities of 100,000 or more inhabitants. The database is the intellectual property of the University at Buffalo and RUAF.