Creating Rupture through Policy: Considering the Importance of Ideas in Agrifood Change

This paper considers the potential rupture of the neoliberal food regime via engagement of civil society through policy making by analyzing the recent successful integration of Farm to School (FTS) into the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) policy domain. Data for this case study comes from historical review of the NSLP, including content analysis of congressional hearings, laws, and newspaper articles, and interviews with 15 actors employed by organizations key to contemporary federal NLSP policy making. Building on a political economy model by borrowing from political sociology and policy studies, I apply a theoretical framework which asserts that the historic focus on institutions and interests in policy making has led to the documentation of path dependency, under-theorizing processes of change (Andersen 2008; Padamsee 2009). This perspective encourages us to consider the interplay between interests, ideas and institutions in policy making processes in order to theorize policy change (Campbell 1998; 2002; Beland 2005). When applied to the case of the NSLP policy domain, it becomes clear that historically, less materially powerful actors have created change in the policy domain by utilizing the power of ideas, shifting the agenda for future policy making. My analysis demonstrates that this historical process has continued with the most recent legislation for the NSLP, which ensures mandatory funding of FTS for the first time. Thus, this case study documents the potential for scaling up of existing alternatives if we look to the power of ideas via the integration of alternatives in federal level policy making.