Make This Year's Farm Bill Count - Support Local Farms, Food, and Jobs Act 2013

The Farm Bill. You know, that large (about $300 billion large) legislative package that rolls around every 5 years or so, intended to shape the future of our food system by setting standards for food production, food cost, nutrition, environmental health and rural development? Oh yeah, that one.

Five years have passed since 2008 when the last Farm Bill was implemented and while it was largely geared towards supporting industrial agriculture, progress was made to add new provisions that supported local and regional food systems in the United States. But like every Farm Bill, this one came with an expiration date of September 30th, 2012 and when Congress failed to agree on a new Farm Bill before that date (no surprise here) the bill was extended, returning the bill to it's permanent legislation and erasing those new provisions supporting healthy food and farms. Battle lost.

That is why supporting the Local Farms, Food, and Jobs Act is so important. It is a proposal to improve the upcoming 2013 Farm Bill and implement legislation that will allow for greater sustainable production of fruits, vegetables, and meats, expand access to healthy foods to consumers, and further improve the infrastructure and markets of regional and local food systems.

The Union of Concerned Scientists is one of the many organizations that is supporting this Act and is providing ways for you to take action as well. You can click here to show your support and tell Congress to cosponsor the Local Farms, Food, and Jobs Act of 2013!

Best,

Katie

Urge Congress to Pass a Farm Bill This Year

From the National Center for Appropriate Technology:

As of this month, our nation’s food and farm policy in the form of the 2008 Farm Bill has officially expired, with no workable replacement moving forward in Congress. This has left critical low-cost but very high-value programs high and dry with no funding— and it means Congress missed the chance to make real reforms and an investment in an equitable, sustainable future for food and farms in America.

With no new farm bill or extension of the 2008 Farm Bill, the programs that address rural and urban job creation, training opportunities for beginning farmers, natural resource conservation, and access to healthy food are in big trouble. These are programs that NCAT has been part of and support our work to assist farmers and ranchers in building a more sustainable future.

Can Congress still finish a farm bill this year? YES!

There is a short window of time for Congress to finish the bill after Election Day. So when Congress returns to Washington, we’ll need YOU and other farmers and advocates across the country to tell them loud and clear: we need an equitable, sustainable 2012 Farm Bill!

Sign your name and tell Congress we need a 2012 Farm Bill that:
• Invests in the future of healthy farms, food, and people
• Protects our precious air, soil, and water
• Reforms farm subsidies and levels the playing field

Without a working Farm Bill, funding for many of the resources CT NOFA promotes to farmers will be in jeopardy.  The farm bill is one of the most important and influential pieces of legislation the United States government is in charge of.  Please sign the petition urging Congress to pass a farm bill by the end of the year.

Click here to sign the petition

The Farm Bill is the Climate Bill

Photo: Hoosier Ag Today

Yesterday, a few hundred farmers went to Washington, D.C. to rally for passage of a new farm bill.  The Democrat controlled Senate has passed a Farm Bill that eliminates all traditional farm subsidies and replace them with a system to compensate growers when revenue from a crop is more than 10% below average with crop insurance kicking in for deep losses.  The Republican-controlled House is arguing over a competing approach that cuts food aid to the poor.  Farmers want both sides to pass a bill to take effect on September 30.  The House leaders have declined to take up the Farm Bill, either the Senate’s version of the proposed House version.  Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times writes that House leaders “are not eager to force their members to take a vote that would be difficult for some of them, nor would they wish to pass a measure largely with Democrats’ votes right before an election.”

Yesterday the New York Times published a column by Mark Hertsgaard titled "Harvesting a Climate Disaster." Hertsgaard's column is about the farm bill acting as the United States' de facto climate bill and in their current forms, both the Senate and House versions of the legislation are "a disaster waiting to happen."

Hertsgaard sites the summer of 2012's extreme weather from the hottest July on record to the worst drought in 50 years.  Either bill will accelerate global warming by encouraging green house gas emissions and will make farms more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.

Hertsgaard goes on to explain that by some estimates, agriculture accounts for one third of global emissions.  America’s industrial agriculture system (especially meat production), and dependency on fertilizers contribute a great deal to those emissions.  Fertilizers contain nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas that is 298 times more potent than CO2 over a century. Both farm bills continue to subsidize commodity crops and encourage high yield, environmentally degrading, agriculture.  Hertsgaard writes that climate change resilience can be achieved with improved soil fertility which causes higher soil water retention. This means farmers must cut back on chemical fertilizers that kill the microorganisms which ventilate soil. 

Both farm bills increase the crop insurance program, but do not require farmers to take take individual measures to reduce climate vulnerability.  Hertsgaard recommends shifting federal policy to put longstanding emphasis on organic approaches to farming.  Hertsgaard recommends that Congress pass a one-year extension of the old bill and spend a year to develop (with the help of farmers and other stakeholders) a more climate-smart Farm Bill.  

This concept of climate change and agricultural resilience and adaptation is the central theme of CT NOFA's 2013 Winter Conference on March 2 at Wilton High School.  Our keynote speaker, David W. Wolfe from Cornell University is an expert on project climate change for the Northeast and adaptation.  Read about his presentation at an "Inside Cornell" luncheon last year on the Cornell Chronical website and watch it here. 

Always food for thought (or thought for food),
Kristiane

Congresswoman Chellie Pingree on the politics and business of organic food

Check out this all-new episode of The Business Beat, which aired 7/29/2012 on WICN/90.5 FM. 

Steve D'Agostino interviews Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine).  They talk about the politics and business of organic food.

In the 1970s, with a degree in human ecology from the College of the Atlantic, now- Congresswoman Pingree started an organic farm on the island of North Haven, Maine. By selling produce to summer residents and raising sheep for wool, she built a thriving mail-order knitting business that eventually employed 10 people in her small community.

Rep. Pingree is still a small-business owner, operating the Nebo Inn and Restaurant on North Haven, which features locally grown food. After serving on the local school board, and as the town’s tax assessor, she went on to serve eight years in the Maine Senate, become the national CEO of Common Cause, and in 2008 get elected as a Democrat to represent Maine in Congress.

As a member of the House Agriculture Committee, Congresswoman Pingree is committed to helping reform farm policy -- with interests of small farmers and consumers in mind. Last year, she introduced the Local Farms, Food and Jobs Act — a comprehensive package of reforms to agriculture policy that will expand opportunities for local and regional farmers and make it easier for consumers to have access to healthy foods.

Don't forget, Rep. Pingree is one of the keynote speakers at the NOFA Summer Conference on August 10 - 12 at Umass-Amherst. She will speak on Friday, August 10 at 7:30 p.m. at the Campus Center auditorium.  Register for the conference today to take advantage of the excellent keynotes and workshops the Summer Conference has to offer.

Hope to see you at the Conference!
-Melissa

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

As the Farm Bill debate goes on and is in sharp contrast with a devastating drought that has affected agricultural yields across the country.  According to David Rogers at Politico, Republicans in the House might not call up the New Farm Bill for a vote before the law expires on September 30.  Rogers reports that no Farm Bill, once out of committee, has ever failed to be called for a vote.  In Rogers' article today, the House's Republican leadership is considering extending the old Farm Bill while Democratic Representatives Debbie Stabenow (Michigan) and Collin Peterson (Minnesota) insist that extension is not an option because the drought requires specific political action and there is agreement that direct cash payments to producers must be ended with the new Farm Bill.

Check out the hidden costs of the Farm Bill that's about to expire - it makes it pretty clear why these laws require replacement and the reasoning behind calls for improvements in the Farm Bill.  And also why the new Farm Bill's deep cuts to the Food Stamp program and nutrition programming are pretty disconcerting.  

Infographic from Takepart.com

Best,
Kristiane

Farm Bill Follow Up

Yesterday the House Agricultural Committee passed a Farm Bill that has some very positive elements and some neutral elements.  The bill passed 35-11 with 7 democrats voting against it mainly because of the cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and 4 Republicans citing fiscal concerns an disagreements about the commodity program. These are some positive elements, as highlighted by the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC):

• Pingree (D-ME) and Ellmers (R-NC)'s amendment allows certain school to make their own food purchase choices so it's easier to buy local.
• Pingree's amendment that enables SNAP Recipients to use benefits for Community Supported Agriculture shares was passed
• Her amendment requiring the USDA to make recommendations on steps to serve small meat and poultry processing facilities and to access to information on the meat and poultry labeling process
• An amendment by Rep. Sewall (D-AL) requires the USDA to conduct a study on increasing specialty crop production by small, women, minority and socially disadvantaged farmers.  
• an amendment that authorizes micro loans for beginning young and small farmers was passed and a military veterans liaison at the USDA will be established. 

The bad news is that, Tom Philpott calls this Farm Bill "boldly regressive" and reports that Ferd Hoefner, the policy director at NSAC called it an "anti-reform bill—bad for family farmers, rural communities, and the environment." Some particularly negative elements of the farm bill include: 

• deep cuts to the SNAP program over all
• it limits what the USDA can consider when conducting environmental reviews of GE Crop and according to Philpott   "all requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act or Endangered Species Act, would be banned, even if a crop approval would harm protected species."
• There are also deep cuts in the beginning farmer and rancher development program (though there is funding in other programs that will support beginning farmers).  
• Oh and then there's the Environmental Working Group's Top Ten Reasons to Reject the House Farm Bill (cuts in nutrition assistance, even higher subsidies for big farms, cuts in conservation programs, few incentives to encourage healthy diets, weakening of GMO regulations, and taking power away from states in terms of making their own farm and food laws, and it repeals an organic cost-sharing program to reduce the burden on farmers when they go organic).

The House Agricultural Committee's Farm Bill is not the one that sustainable agriculture advocates hoped for - at all.  This image has stuck with me for months (it's showed up on the blog two or three times now):

The USDA acknowledges that a healthy diet (which is less likely to result in obesity, diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, etc.) is one half fruits and vegetables. Which means, instead of receiving 11% of funding, these "specialty crops" should receive 50% of it (maybe even more).  That was the big hope for this Farm Bill, that the local producers that grow "specialty" crops would finally receive the support from the government that acknowledges the role that these producers have in our nation's health.  Subsidizing organic food and fruits and vegetables can reduce prices for consumers. And cheaper healthy food would mean foodstamps would go a lot further in feeding our nation's starving families (half of the people using food stamps are children). 


Instead, it's more of the same.  It could even potentially be worse. With no incentive for farmers to grow organic, and leaving health foods as an expensive "specialty" food, and diminishing the funding for food stamp so underprivileged can  buy any kind of food at all, the 2012 Farm Bill is a pretty transparent gift to Big Agriculture while taking from the environment, national health, and small producers.


And on that note, have a wonderful weekend everyone.
Best,
Kristiane

DEADLINE TOMORROW: Sign up to Support Key Amendments to the Farm Bill

The Senate Food and Farm Bill Needs Your Help!

Please call your Senators - It's easy! The Food and Farm Bill is on the floor of the US Senate and your action is needed to make it better! Right now they are lining up support for amendments that are sorely needed in this bill. Please take action!

Please call your Senators and tell them what you want. If you are with an organization, please make calls and also sign on to letters.

Phone Calls: Just dial the Senate switchboard: (202) 224-3121 Ask to be connected with one Senator from your state, and then call back and ask to speak with the other Senator. Once connected, introduce yourself and ask to speak with the agriculture staffer. Tell that staffer (or leave a message) what you support or opposes from the amendments, or other key points.

Key Senate Farm Bill Amendments:
Pick your issues and make the call! SUPPORT:

• Brown- (SA 2362) The amendment includes important programs to farmers and local food infrastructure, beginning and socially disadvantaged farmer programs, including: Value-Added Producer Grants, Rural Microentrepeneur Assistance Program, Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program, Outreach and Assistance for Socially Disadvantaged Farmers and Ranchers Program (Section 2501)

• Tester (SA 2234)- This amendment will set aside 5% of annual funding for the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative for public cultivar and breed development.

• Grassley-Conrad (SA 2170) - This amendment will make it unlawful for a meatpacker to own, feed or control livestock intended for slaughter for more than 14 days before slaughter. This will reduce vertical integration of the livestock market and help independent and family growers compete.

• Merkley-Feinstein-Sanders-Kerry (SA 2382) - This amendment will address barriers to make crop insurance more accessible to organic farmers.

• Durbin-Coburn (SA2186) - reduces the federal premium support for farmers with Adjusted Gross Income of more than $750,000.

• Cardin -(SA2219) This amendment would ensure that farmers receiving taxpayer-subsidized premium subsidies for crop insurance do not drain wetlands or farm erosion-prone soil without conservation measures (eligibility only for the crop insurance federal premium subsidy and it only applies to highly erodible land.)

• Gillibrand (SA 2156) - This amendment restores the $4.49 billion cut to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). (Cuts made in the Committee Bill that is going to the Senate floor) The SNAP funding would be paid for by a cut to the amount the federal government pays to insurance companies to provide crop insurance to farmers. Gillibrand’s amendment will also provide an additional $500 million over 10 years to the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program (FFVP). This program provides fresh produce snacks to schoolchildren. The bill also grants authority to USDA to make bonus purchases for The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP). Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) has submitted an amendment that would eliminate the fresh-only requirement in the FFVP by expanding this program to include frozen, dried, or canned fruits and vegetables.

• Sanders-Leahy (SA 2386)- Enables schools to purchase from local and regional producers.

• Udall (NM) (SA 2417)– Disadvantaged Producer Training – This amendment would restore funding for the Outreach and Assistance Program for Socially Disadvantaged Farmers and Ranchers and Veteran Farmers and Rancher (also known as the 2501 Program).

• Harkin (SA 2239) – Beginning Producer Training – This amendment would increase funding for the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program.

• Harkin-Casey (SA 2245) – Microloans to Beginning and Veteran Producers – This amendment would allow FSA to make smaller "microloans" of up to $35,000, tailored to meet the needs of small, young, beginning, and veteran farmers and ranchers, streamline the application process, and provide discretionary authority to FSA to establish intermediary lender pilot projects. This amendment would also give FSA discretionary authority to establish a new pilot program to support micro-credit programs administered by non-governmental or community-based organizations.

Please call your senators or sign on to the letter by tomorrow to give these amendments a chance in the Senate!

Farm Bill Call to Action

As you know from reading the last blog post, the 2012 Farm Bill will soon be debated on by the Senate.

NOW is a crucial time to advocate for key priorities including funding to ensure rural economic development and the next generation of farmers.

As cuts to the Farm Bill are being discussed, many programs that benefit small scale farming operations and local sustainable agriculture are threatened.

Please sign this letter to ensure that the needs of our hardworking and valuable farming community are met!

Farm Subsidies and the Farm Bill

The new 2012 Farm Bill could move onto the Senate floor as early as this week, promising to shape federal agricultural policy for the next 5 years.  The bill allocates nearly a trillion dollars of funds into farm subsidies, conservation programs, and food stamp aid, with the vast majority of the funds that are directed to subsidies going into the pockets of large farms growing commodity crops.  When you think of farm subsidies, your initial reaction might be a negative one, conjuring up visions of large corporations draining taxpayer dollars into unsafe and unsustainable farming practices that hurt workers, the environment, and the health of the nation, while simultaneously diverting funds away from small growers who need the money the most.  But the thing is, farm subsidies were originally meant to help those same small farmers that are hurt by them today.  An editorial by Robert B. Semple Jr. in the New York Times explains:

The subsidies have always been controversial. A mix of direct payments, price supports, loans, subsidized insurance and disaster relief, these subsidies provided protection for millions of farmers in the New Deal and afterward against the vicissitudes of the weather and the market. But in recent years, they have mainly lined the pockets of big farmers of big row crops who don’t need help, while ignoring the little guys who do.

So the original intent of farm subsidies was to help small farmers to make a living in order to ensure that enough food was produced in any given year to adequately feed the nation.  But as a multitude of small growing operations began to merge into a few drastically larger ones, subsidies began to undermine the very goals they had been put in place to achieve.

The story of modern agriculture in this country is a story of concentration, of huge subsidies flowing to relatively few farmers who grow a handful of row crops — corn, wheat, soybeans, cotton and rice — in a dozen or so Midwestern and Southern states. Because farm subsidies, old and new, have been tied to production, those cultivating the largest acreage get the biggest payouts. The top 20 percent of recipients from 1995 to 2010 got 90 percent of the subsidies; the bottom 80 percent just 10 percent. Many farmers — well over half the total, by some estimates — get no help at all.

It's time we made a concerted effort to promote local small scale production of the nutritious fruits and vegetables we need rather than siphoning our tax dollars into the hands of a small number of giants growing less nutritious commodities.  It's time we remembered as a nation what farm subsidies were originally put in place to do.  Please do your part to shift agriculture back to sustainability.

What You Can Do

• Buy Local - Check out our website for listings of farms, farmers markets, and CSA programs across the state.  Support a small scale farmer near you. 
• Grow Your Own -  Every year, we have many workshops designed for new gardeners and farmers.  Check our website often, and sign up for our eNewsletters to learn more helpful tips about growing food yourself.
• Learn More - Check out the American Farmland Trust website for information about the farm bill and how it affects you.
• Tell Your Friends -  No movement can exist in isolation.  Talk to those around you about the Farm Bill and what it means to them, because what happens on the Congressional floor affects all of us.

Are You a New or Transitioning Organic Farmer?

Register today for our Getting Started in Organic Farming Conference to be held Saturday, January 28, 2012 at the CT Forests and Parks Association in Rockfall, CT!  A new article by Grist shows that new farmers cite land access and funding as the major stumbling blocks against becoming established in the industry, but that apprenticeships, local partnerships, and CSAs represent areas of growth.  Attending the conference will help beginning organic farmers become more familiar with available resources, both in areas of growth and in areas of need, and will help to give a well-rounded perspective through exposure to broad themes as well as technically specific topics.  Click here to learn more and to register!

You can also get involved with your local congressperson to change the upcoming Farm Bill.  The Bill process is now restarting, and Congress needs to be reminded why our nation needs a Farm Bill that is responsive to current changing agricultural needs.  Tell your congressperson to sponsor the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Opportunity Act of 2011, which fixes, funds and improves USDA programs, as well as adds new programs to help young and beginning farmers succeed.  The process of getting started as a farmer should be easier, and it can be easier, if we exercise our rights and let our voices be heard.

Have a great evening!
-Melissa

Understanding the 2012 Farm Bill: The "Hackathon"

Comparison between government nutrition recommendations and federal agriculture subsidies in FoodTech Connect's entry in the Farm Bill Hackathon

The Farm Bill is a pretty dense document, with such complicated subsidy structures and a huge variety of programs, that it is a challenge for experts to follow and completely inaccessible to many of the people it effects the most: consumers and farmers.  The 2008 Farm Bill is very difficult to read, as Marion Nestle points out in her column in The Atlantic even for experts, and the 2012 Farm Bill shapes agricultural policy for the next five years, which also determines what kind of food Americans will be eating for the next five years.

To break apart the Farm Bill to the essentials, GRACE Communications Foundation sponsored a "Hackathon" to bring together sustainable food advocates and computer programs to create infographics and online tools to communicate the important points of the Farm Bill, and what our country (and even the world) needs from the 2012 bill.

Teams created different tools and slideshows, as entries in the Hackathon, which was also a contest to create the best powerpoints.

Watch the winning entry:

A Clean Bill of Health

View more presentations from FoodTechConnect

There are a variety of Farm Bill Hackathon slides in this slideshow, which highlighted the stark contrast between Food Want and Food Waste.

Read more at:
Food and Tech Connect
Grist.com

Best,
Kristiane

The Demand for Beginning Farmers

The National Young Farmer's Coalition released a study yesterday identifying and analyzing the barrier that new farmers face in making food production their full time career. The Report, Building a Future With Farmers: Challenges Faced by Young American Farmers and a National Strategy to Help Them Succeed surveryed over 1000 beginning farmers and identified the main obstacles, which are no surprise really:

• Capital: Farmers need better access to capital, credit and small operating loans for start-up costs to start a farm business
• Land: Farm land is scarce, it is unaffordable and it is difficult to convince landowners to make long-term lease agreements so that farmers can secure land that they can really invest in
• Health Care: it is vital and unaffordable for beginning farmers

Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack is calling for hundreds of thousands of new farmers  nationwide.  For every single farmer under 35 there are 6 over the age of 65 and the average age of a farmer is 58.  This measn that about 1/4 of our nation's farmers are expected to retire in the next 20 years.  In order to replace these farmers, the US needs 500,000 new farmers - that's 10,000 farmers per state!  And as we have seen this year, farming is a risky business, so all farmers, (but especially less experienced, less financially-secure farmers) need a well crafted safety net for their businesses - provided by the US Government 

The 2012 Farm Bill is being written now, and it needs to include or increase funding to a number of initiatives to support beginning farmers:

• micro-lending programs and loan pre-approval for farmers
• training for people in the Farm Service Agency to work with beginning farmers more effectively
• funding for the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Individual Development Accounts ( Pilot Program
• tax credits for leasing or selling land to a farmer
• expand the Transition Incentives Program
• reinstate funding for the National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service, a database of farm apprenticeships and internships
• fully fund the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program (which has funded CT NOFA's Beginning Women Farmer program and the regional NOFA's Beginning Farmer Program)
• restore funding to the Environmental Quality Incentives Program to provide cost sharing between farmers and the federal government for farmers to invest in organic and sustainable production

The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition has advice on how to communicate to your legislators the this farm bill needs to be about the future of farming instead of about the continued profit of unsustainable, large-scale farming.  As we continue to mortgage our future, the farm bill has been scaled back considerably, but there is some hope for the Beginning Farmer Programs: http://westernfarmpress.com/government/beginning-farmer-legislation-introduced-farm-bill.  Much of the decision making has been made (mostly behind closed doors) but it's never too late to let your legislators know that you value investments in new farmers, in rural, suburban and urban areas, and for new farms that maintain the land in a way that respects the environment, the community and future generations.

Have a great weekend!
Kristiane

Sign the Petition for More Robust Funding for Organic Agriculture

Tractor Protest in Madison, WI

A new article by the Examiner points to a new budget cutting process that may decrease the potential for organic agricultural funding in the next Farm Bill.  The expedited process aims to speed up the Farm Bill writing process, but since this means that many food policy decisions will be made in a short period of time, organic funding may end up getting left behind as a result.  To avoid this, the Organic Coalition is asking for citizens who care about local, sustainable, organic food to sign a petition for more robust funding for organic agriculture.

Contrary to popular belief, the organic farming industry is not only viable in the current economy, but booming.  Here are some statistics that the Examiner points out:

• The US organic sector is $29 billion industry, which is even more than the US signed in new weapons orders in 2010, $21.3 billion, according the Congressional Research Service. Those whirled peas bumper stickers must be working.
• The organic food industry creates jobs as four times the national rate and served by over 14,500 organic family farmers. Forget Wall Street, organic farming is where it’s at. It's an instant stimulus package that tastes good.
• The current demand for organic food and beverages exceeds domestic production. In order to meet this demand by 2015, the will need 42,000 organic farmers.

If you want to ensure continued access to safe, healthy food, while at the same time helping your local economy, add your name to the petition.

The Youth Food Movement

Photo: http://www.rootedincommunity.org/gallery_image.php?id=20

Today, two articles came to my attention: one about a newly established American FoodCorps and the Youth Food Bill of Rights drafted at the Rooted in Community Leadership Summit.  The youth food movement is really inspiring.  Let's be honest, when kids stand up and demand more vegetables in their diet, they're understanding something that parents, the food industry and our government seem to have completely missed.  Large portions of the movement have originated in the inner city and among under privileged parts of the population which are really effected by absence of consideration for nutrition and health in food policy.  

The FoodCorps "places motivated young leaders in limited-resource communities for a year of public service."  FoodCorps was founded in 2009, but their first round of 50 volunteers is starting this summer, they are being trained to deliver nutrition education, establish school gardens and bring local food into school in order to cut obesity rates down to below 5% by 2050.  This Grist Article, "FoodCorps will teach kids, link farms and schools" highlights the investment FoodCorps is for our country with health-related obesity costs projected to reach $344 billion by 2018 according to Deb Eschmeyer, a FoodCorps founder.  Having graduated from college in May, and having panicked about my employment options for a couple months leading up to graduation, I can testify that these kinds of fellowship opportunities are in high demand in a time when 1 in 5 recent college grads is unemployed.  I got lucky in my transition between a youth food activist to a (kind of) professional food activist, but many grads need opportunities like GreenCorps.  

The Youth Food bill or Rights website explains: "The last farm bill was in 2008. There will be a new farm bill in 2012. We need a farm bill that prioritizes health and our next generation."  

On July 29, 2011 Youth Leaders from all across the nation came together at the 13th annual Rooted In Community Leadership Summit to create a Youth Food Bill of Rights. The Dignity Dialogues that took place to create this declaration inspired us to envision a Healthy Food System and enact Youth Food Bill of Rights. We have faced discrimination based on the color of our skin, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, disability, gender identity, socio-economic status. We envision a food system which will respect our identities while providing us equal access to these rights.We the youth are committed to these rights and believe that all people locally, nationally, and globally are entitled, regardless of , or any and all other forms of discrimination.
    We the Youth declare, state, and demand the following rights for all people around the world with an emphasis on equality.  We demand healthy, organic, local, humane, affordable, sustainable, and culturally appropriate food for all people and especially low income people of color and low income people in our communities that are the most oppressed and hurt by the current food system.

1. We demand respect for mother earth, for the Food Justice and Food Sovereignty culture, and for the indigenous cultures that are working to establish their own autonomous food systems.  All must respect and protect the land that grows our food.
2. We demand an end to the mistreatment of workers, farmers, animals, and the environment, that is caused by our current food system.
3. We demand government funding for more nutrition education, and awareness in our communities, and for all communities.  Education on things such as, but not limited to, health, seasonal produce, and diet related diseases, farming, organic, sustainability, alternative methods of farming and any and all subjects that those communities demand.  People have the right to know what’s in their food, and to decide what to eat.
   We promote educating parents on nutrition and healthy lifestyles.
   Schools in our communities and all over the world must establish and be leaders with the tools and education that promote a healthy lifestyle. We recommend that schools recognize youth lead fitness programs as tools for success.
4. We the youth demand more healthy food choices in our schools, and in schools all over the world.  We want vending machines out of schools unless they have healthy choices.  We need healthier school lunches that are implemented by schools with the ingredients decided on by the Youth. We demand composting in schools and in our neighborhoods.
5. We the youth call for the termination of any and all Genetically Modified seeds, plants, and produce.  We want a policy from the governments all over the world that ends GMO’s, no exceptions.
6.  We the youth absolutely don’t want any chemicals or pesticides in our food!
7. We the Youth demand a ban on High Fructose Corn Syrup and other additives, and preservatives that are a detriment to our and our communities’ health.  This must be implemented by our government, and governments around the world.
8. We demand food that is grown within a 100-mile radius of our homes. We don’t want food traveling thousands of miles using up fossil fuels to get to our homes.
9. We the youth demand that everyone working in the food system must be treated with respect, treated fairly, and earn at the minimum, a just living wage. For all those that are working in the food system we demand a model like the Domestic Fair Trade Association to be implemented.
10.  We demand the implementation of regulations from all governments and peoples on a global scale that prevent corporations from globalizing our food systems and our world as we recognize this as seriously costly to global and local human health. 
11. We demand an end to the subsidy of cash crops, including corn and soy beans.  Rather than our tax dollars going to subsidies for industrial farming, we demand financial support for small organic farmers.
12. We want a restructuring of the process of being certified organic and fair trade.  This must come from the people and from grassroots movements across the world.
13. We the youth demand that a policy be enacted allowing for unused land to be made available for communities to farm and garden organically and sustainably.
14. We believe farmers and all people should have the freedom to save their seed.  Any law that prevents this should be reversed; no law shall ever be made to prevent seed saving.
15. We demand an end to industrial farming, which accounts for one-third of the greenhouse gas emissions in the world. Tighter regulation and steps must be made that will decrease the amount of emissions every year.
16. We demand more farmers’ markets instead of super markets.  The number of farmer’s markets must be increased every year until there are more farmers’ markets than super markets.
17. We demand the continuation and respect of all cultural history and significance of food and agriculture.  We must work to restore, remember, and regain our food culture, practices, and traditions in farming.
18. We want healthy options in corner stores while empowering the community to make better food choices.  We demand more jobs for youth to work with our communities to make this happen and help them control their food systems.
19. We demand school assemblies to recruit more youth to promote food justice.  The continuation of the movement for Food Justice, Food Sovereignty and cultivation of future Youth leaders is necessary for feeding our youth, our nation and our world. 

Why are none of these principles represented in our 2008 Farm Bill? Can Congress begin to implement these basic elements of a fair, nutritious, environmental food system in the 2012 Farm Bill?

National Day of Action to protest farm bill cuts

Not only are state agricultural resources in danger, so are national agriculture resources!  Today is the National Day of Action to protest the cuts to farm bill conservation programs and prohibitions on support for local food in the House of Representatives. 

Here’s more from the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition’s website: 

Take Action

On Tuesday, June 28th participate in the National Day of Action to protest the huge cuts to farm bill conservation programs and prohibitions on support for local food in the House of Representative-passed spending bill.  Your Senator needs to hear from you that the federal budget shouldn't be balanced on the back of conservation programs.

It’s easy to call:  Enter your zip code in the box below to get phone numbers for your Senators.  Call both of your Senators and ask to speak to the staff member responsible for agriculture.  If the staff member is unavailable leave a message with the receptionist or a voice mail message.   Be sure to identify yourself as a constituent and a farmer or a consumer and to leave a call back number.

Message: Tell them the Senate needs to protect farm bill conservation program spending and programs essential to promoting local and regional farm and food systems.   Tell them the House agriculture spending bill is extreme and unfair.

Additional Talking Points:

1.    The Senate needs to protect farm bill conservation programs from further spending cuts.  Conservation programs were cut by $500 million in fiscal year 2011 and the House is proposing an additional cut of $1 billion for fiscal year 2012 to the Conservation Stewardship Program, the Environmental Quality Incentive Program and the Wetlands Reserve Program.  These cuts will require USDA to break contracts with farmers who have committed to conservation practices and they are disproportionate to other spending cuts.
2.    Conservation programs are consistently oversubscribed with long waiting lists of farmers wanting to implement conservation systems.  Conservation programs are effective - creating jobs while protecting our future agricultural capacity for future generations. 
3.    Conservation program spending has been slashed while funding for commodity programs remains untouched.   If cuts to mandatory funding are to be made, then everything has to be on the table.
4.    The Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food initiative (KYF, KYF) provides crucial coordination and public outreach to build new income opportunities for farmers producing for the local and regional markets.  These markets are essential to rural economic recovery and cutting KYF, KYF is shortsighted and extreme.
5.    Development of local and regional food systems and markets is a job creator and a good investment in public health.  

Check out their website to sign up for updates on budget cuts, action alerts, information on how to contact your senator or representative and an advocacy toolkit. http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/5735/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=4368