Wendi Gosliner, senior researcher and policy advisor at the Nutrition Policy Institute, will co-present on Thursday, Apr. 14 a webinar on ‘Defining and expanding plant-based food: Why it matters and where it's headed'. Webinar participants will learn about needed food policy to support the growth and innovation of plant-based foods, the unique challenges the plant-based foods industry faces, and what questions consumers could be asking when assessing the food landscape. Gosliner will co-present with Sabina Vyas, senior director of impact strategies at the Plant Based Foods Association and Plant Based Foods Institute. The Plant Futures initiative launched in 2021 as a multidisciplinary program at the University of California Berkeley focused on plant-centric food systems and their impacts on human health, animal welfare, and planetary sustainability, with programming expanding to campuses across the globe. The webinar will take place at 5:00 p.m. Pacific Time. Registration is free, open to the public, and available online.

Wendi Gosliner, senior researcher and policy advisor at the Nutrition Policy Institute, spoke on a panel on policy and advocacy on January 28 at a virtual symposium hosted by the University of California, Berkeley and Plant Futures. ‘Symposium–2022: The Countdown: Exploring the Future of Plant-Centric Food Systems,' convened attendees for two days to discuss climate, agriculture, nutrition, and planetary health and to hear from leaders in the food system working on creative solutions to challenges in these areas. The Plant Futures initiative launched in 2021 as a multidisciplinary program at UC Berkeley focused on plant-centric food systems and their impacts on human health, animal welfare, and planetary sustainability, with programming expanding to campuses across the globe.

The Lead and Copper Rule (LCR)–a U.S. federal regulation under the administration of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)–­limits the concentration of lead and copper allowed in utility-provided tap water. The LCR provides requirements for various actions to monitor and reduce lead and copper content of tap water and to inform the public. The EPA recently undertook the first revision of the LCR in 30 years with the Trump administration publishing final revisions on January 15, 2021. However, on January 20, 2021, the Biden administration issued a Regulatory Freeze Pending Review memorandum to ensure any new or pending rules be reviewed by the new presidential appointees or designees and be re-opened for public comment. The EPA posted an extension of the effective date of the revised LCR on April 14 to enable the agency to seek further public input, particularly from communities most at-risk of exposure to lead in drinking water. Nutrition Policy Institute's (NPI) Christina Hecht and Angie Cradock of the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health submitted one of the over 20,000 public comments providing recommendations for the final revision of the LCR. Hecht and Cradock's comment focused on school drinking water safety, providing recommendations based on their findings from a comprehensive study of states' school drinking water lead testing initiatives and lead test results. Their recommendations included: testing all taps used for human consumption in school and childcare facilities, rather than the subset–5 taps in schools, 2 in child care–required by the earlier proposed revision; a faster timeline for initial testing of all taps; and a lower action level for lead in tap water.

Since the Flint Water Crisis—the 2014 watershed moment for public health and drinking water safety in Flint, Michigan—public concern over drinking water safety, especially for children, has only grown. The National Drinking Water Alliance (NDWA) maintains an interactive map that provides a database of news stories on tap water exceedances of regulated contaminants since 2015. A recent update adds over 235 new map points with links to documenting news articles, with nearly half of the incidents emerging since 2019. The map also includes information on state policies and programs to test for lead in school drinking water. Almost one-third of US states have enacted legislation providing policy to test for lead in drinking water in schools and, in some cases, in child care centers. Policies for mandatory testing have recently passed in Oregon and Vermont. New legislative proposals are underway in Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska, and Connecticut. Voluntary programs are now present in every state, funded by nationwide federal grants supporting testing in child care facilities and schools. More information on each state's actions can be found on the interactive map, which was updated by Nutrition Policy Institute intern, Laurel Denyer, a recent University of California, Davis graduate. The NDWA is coordinated by Christina Hecht of the Nutrition Policy Institute. For more information, and to propose additions to the map, please contact the NDWA at DWAalliance@ucanr.edu.