Students across the United States, particularly schools in urban areas, often lack sufficient time to eat lunch, leading to poor nutrition, reduced focus, and food waste. This paper proposes a minimum of 30 minutes of seated lunch time per student, aligned with CDC recommendations. Such a policy would promote equity, improve student health, and cut waste. California, with its size and leadership in school nutrition, is well-positioned to pilot and model this reform statewide.
Marion Nestle is the country’s leading expert on the role that politics play in what and how America eats. Since publishing her paradigm-shifting book Food Politics in 2002, Nestle has continued to shed light on how food companies shape nutrition policy at the state, local, and national level. She is the Paulette Goddard Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health, Emerita, at New York University and Visiting Professor of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell. She received a Ph.D. in molecular biology and Master of Public Health from the University of California, Berkeley.
Despite being a world leader in active transportation and policy innovation, Denmark’s nonfatal collision reporting suffers from common pitfalls: overreliance on police reports, lack of standardized injury classifications (like AIS/MAIS), and poor inter-agency coordination. This report analyzes the Danish state’s current mechanisms for recording nonfatal pedestrian and bicyclist injuries. Recommendations include integrating AIS/MAIS, encouraging self-reporting, and establishing clear police-hospital communication to improve data completeness and support targeted safety improvements.
Iga Andita Lestari examines Indonesia’s surge in high-interest online loan disbursement between 2018 and 2024, finding that inflation, stagnant wages, and unstable employment have driven lower-income and middle-income borrowers toward costly digital credit. To address this, Lestari proposes three policy interventions: disincentivizing predatory fintech lending, promoting low-interest public loan alternatives, and capping digital loan rates. Together, these measures aim to protect vulnerable borrowers, enhance financial inclusion, and stabilize Indonesia’s consumer credit market.
Municipal zoning has contributed to the housing crisis California faces today. This report discusses the barriers to reforming municipal zoning in California using interviews with current advocates and experts in the space. The authors find that a wide variety of strategies may be effective to reduce barriers, including advocating for incrementalism, building coalitions, and focusing on reducing costs to building new housing.
This April, the BPPJ interview team sat down with Marion Nestle, author of more than a dozen books, including 2002’s Food Politics,and leading voice regarding food system issues in the United States.
