Public policies play a determinant role in shaping the future of agricultural and food systems: they can underwrite legal frameworks to protect, respect and fulfill the Right to Food; bolster the investments made by small-scale food producers; and mobilise societal resources in support of sustainable food systems based on notions of resilience, decent work, environmental integrity and the provision of healthy food. These outcomes are however far from assured. In the current neoliberal juncture, public policies skew heavily towards a highly competitive, specialized and industrial form of agriculture that favours exclusive development and an exploitative macro-economic model. Often these policies build on a much longer history of uneven development in which agriculture and rural areas are viewed as sectors and spaces to be transitioned out of, as urbanization, industry, services and the financial economy are prioritized. This makes clear that public policies are tools, not ends in and of themselves. Without proper grounding in a solid theory of change linked to notions of a just transition democratic decision making, and a social and solidarity economy, public policies will be unable to confront the challenges facing food and agriculture in the 21st century.