STRATEGIC PRIORITY: Government Performance and Financial Management
AGENDA DATE: August 25, 2021
COUNCIL DISTRICT(S): N/A
DEPARTMENT: Office of Procurement Services
EXECUTIVE: Elizabeth Reich
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SUBJECT
Title
Authorize a two-year service contract for a comprehensive food and urban agriculture plan for the Office of Environmental Quality and Sustainability - Agritecture, LLC, most advantageous proposer of three - Not to exceed $250,000 - Financing: General Fund (subject to annual appropriations)
Body
BACKGROUND
This action does not encumber funds; the purpose of a service contract is to establish firm pricing for services for a specific term, which are ordered on an as needed basis.
This service contract entails development of a comprehensive food and urban agriculture plan (Plan) for the Office of Environmental Quality and Sustainability and other City departments that are working together to increase equitable access to healthy local food in the City. The Plan builds on efforts identified in the Resilient Dallas Plan (2018) that cite addressing food deserts and healthy food access as critical to achieving optimal public health in Dallas. The Plan is also an identified action in the Comprehensive Environmental and Climate Action Plan (CECAP, 2020), and is intended as the first step towards meeting the related CECAP goals for food and urban agriculture.
Work by the U.S. Global Change Research Program on the National Climate Assessment (2018) that was used as a basis of the CECAP, indicates that up to 40 percent of greenhouse gas emissions globally are associated with food production, and that locally in Texas, there is strong potential for increases in food supply chain vulnerability posed by a changing climate. Food insecurity was also correlated with increases in violent crime in research by Clemson University (2016) and others.
The Plan, to be developed over the next 18 months, is focu...
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