NC Sustainable Local Food Advisory Council

UPDATE – March 2013

Early this month, the NC House added a provision to Senate Bill 10 (S10) The Government Reduction and Efficiency Act of 2013 that would change the sunset for the NC Sustainable Local Food Advisory Council to July 1 of this year. Just last July, we worked to get that sunset extended to 2015, and that win is in immediate jeopardy.

 

On March 5, the Senate appointed conference committee members to negotiate with House members over the differences between the Senate and House versions of the bill. There are many differences between the bills that are viewed as “more important” than the NCSLFAC provision. It is possible that if we convince just one or two Senate conferees to refuse to vote the bill out of conference committee if it contains the NCSLFAC provision, we can maintain the council.

 

These are the Senate conferees:
The House conferees for S10 are:


**Please CALL these offices ASAP to voice your support for the continuation of the NC Sustainable Local Food Advisory Council. Ask them to remove the house provision from S10 that references the council. The NCSLFAC provides a forum for state agencies to work together to reduce regulatory barriers to small businesses to allow the local food economy to grow. The council operates without a budget, so its elimination will not cut spending.

Please circulate this information widely throughout your networks.

For more information, please contact:
Shivaugn M. Rayl
919.576.9173 (mobile)
919.542.2402 (office)

 

Email

 

 

Background on the Sustainable Local Food Advisory Council -

The NC Sustainable Local Food Advisory Council was established by law in 2009 to contribute to building the state’s local food economy by recommending policies that benefit local food and farming to the General Assembly, the Governor and the Commissioner of Agriculture. For the last three years, the Council has successfully promoted new policies, launched research projects, and championed NC’s local food future with the Governor, the General Assembly and the Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services. The Council has successfully removed regulatory burdens on small farms and local foods, including:

  1. increasing the number of poultry that can be processed on farm from 1,000/year to 20,000;
  2. freeing small-scale value-added processing activities from industrial-scale waste water treatment rules;
  3. addressing unfair property tax burdens on small farms.

These are just a few examples of the Council’s effective work.

Thank you for calling to thank your legislator today!

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