By CFSA’s Policy Team (Nick Wood, Jared Cates, & Matt Kneece) | Tuesday, Dec. 14, 2021 –
Farmer Brielle Wright and CFSA’s Nick Wood talk policy with legislative staff (NC).
Credit: Phoebe Gooding, Toxic Free NC.
This year has been quite a year for CFSA’s policy work. Our policy team and our members were active on the local, regulatory, state, and federal levels, advocating for policies that support equitable, local, organic, sustainable agriculture in the Carolinas.
The year ahead includes many challenges—and opportunities—for sustainable agriculture advocacy. But before we look forward, it is essential to look back, reflect, and celebrate the accomplishments over the past year.
We are very excited to share some highlights of CFSA’s policy achievements in 2021:
- NC Budget Included FarmsSHARE Funding: The North Carolina state budget contained a $2 million appropriation to CFSA for the FarmsSHARE program. The funding is enough to purchase approximately 47,000 North Carolina grown produce and protein boxes from local farms and food hubs for people in need. This win would not have happened if it weren’t for the grassroots advocacy of dozens of FarmsSHARE partners meeting with their state representatives and senators, CFSA members calling their legislators, and significant direct lobbying efforts.
- Pushed for SCDA Funds to Include Local Food Systems: In South Carolina, CFSA successfully lobbied the South Carolina Department of Agriculture to include $24 million in local food system infrastructure and marketing allocations in the department’s official request to the governor. These funds will directly support the growth of food hubs, farmers’ markets, meat processors, value-added producers, bolstering South Carolina’s local food economy. The SC General Assembly is expected to approve the recommendations in early 2022.
- Trained Members to be Policy Leaders and Advocates: We launched our Member Advocacy Program (MAP) to train CFSA members about grassroots advocacy, coalition building, networking, direct lobbying, storytelling, writing op-eds, and more. In the program’s inaugural year, we empowered two dozen farmers, local food business staff, and local food advocates from North and South Carolina to become policy leaders in their communities.
- Co-Founded the NC Food System Advocacy Coalition: CFSA came together with farms, food hubs, food banks, food security organizations, food councils, farmworker advocates, environmental justice groups, and more to create the North Carolina Food System Advocacy Coalition (NCFSAC). This diverse group is unified around racial equity, strengthening local food markets, food security, climate and agriculture, and food-system workers’ rights. The coalition has lobbied Congress and led a farm bill educational campaign that reached 200 people from more than 80 farms and organizations.
- Empowered Food Councils: The network of the thirty-six food councils in North Carolina continued to see growth in their policy knowledge and advocacy skills. CFSA supported this work by co-leading the 2021 Community Food Strategies Advocacy and Organizing Learning Series, which included ongoing trainings, follow-up meetings, Facebook Live broadcasts, and collaborative calls. These activities empowered over 30 food council members to connect with local and state-level food policy issues and hone their policy and advocacy skills.
- Informed Statewide Recommendations for Counties to Improve Food System Resiliency: CFSA and food councils across North Carolina successfully advocated to the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners (NCACC)’s 2021 Task Force on Food System Resiliency. The NCACC resilience report included many of their recommendations, including food system assessment, utilizing public transportation for food delivery, increased public cold and shared storage options, increased public support of local food marketing, encouragement of local entities to use American Rescue Plan Act dollars to support food systems, and a state-level fund to offset farms’ equipment and certification costs for Good Agricultural Practices (GAP).
- Advocated for Funding for Food Recovery Resources: We worked with local food councils in NC to advocate for funding for the NC State Extension Food Safety Lab to create resources and training for prepared food recovery activities. This effort had lobbying support from the NC Alliance for Health and the NC Restaurant and Lodging Association and resulted in a 2021 allocation of $67,500 in the North Carolina budget.
- Guided Federal Agencies on FSMA & Meat Processing: CFSA submitted technical guidance and comments to the Federal Register on several issues, including the USDA’s $500 million meat processing capacity investments and the FDA’s burdensome proposed rules for produce traceability under the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA).
- Created Awareness Around Small-Scale Meat Processing: We co-authored an article published by the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition about small meat processing issues. The piece explored the history and causes of bottlenecks in the livestock processing sector and examined potential solutions like financing progressions and realistic grant structures. We will use this issue brief for education and advocacy efforts in making livestock processing resilient and sustainable.
The CFSA Policy Team includes Jared Cates, Matt Kneece, and Nick Wood. To learn more about each of them, check out our staff page. To stay informed on policy happenings and advocacy opportunities, subscribe to the team’s monthly newsletter, The Buzz.