Advocacy
Child Nutrition Act Reauthorization- Action Needed
This legislation would strengthen programs like school meals, WIC, and summer and afterschool feeding programs, and provide mandatory funding for farm to school programs. Congress is poised to make significant progress against child hunger and childhood obesity by increasing children's access to these important food and nutrition programs. But Congress is running out of legislative calendar days to bring the Child Nutrition Bill to the floor and complete the reauthorization before it expires on September 30th, 2010
For more information go to www.food security.org OR directly to
http://us1.campaign-archive.com/?u=923d8af6802cd35b0a1f16530&id=c6a9b64f16
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2008 Farm Bill- Get Active in the Next Farm Bill
Though not perfect, the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 - more commonly known as the Farm Bill - makes important incremental changes in support of local and organic food, conservation and better agriculture policies.
Nutrition 188.9 billion; Commodities 41.6 billion; Conservation 24.1 billion; Crop insurance 21.9 billion; Other 8.7 billion; Disaster assistance 3.8 billion
Some funded programs that support our types of efforts:
*Community Food Projects: $5 million (in mandatory money) for fiscal year 2008 and each year after, making it a permanent program.
*Geographic preference: Allows K-12 schools receiving federal funds for the school lunch program the flexibility to specify a geographic preference for the procurement of unprocessed agricultural products.
*Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Snack Program: $500 million (mandatory) over five years for selected schools to purchase at least one daily fresh fruit or vegetable snack. The program will focus on low-income school districts, and allocates 1% of funding total funding to each state and the District of Columbia with additional funding allocated by relative state population. Schools can preference local products.
*Farmers' Market Promotion Program: $33 million (mandatory) over 5 years to provide competitive grants of up to $75,000 to promote farmers' markets and other direct marketing ventures.
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Roots of Change: Creating Food and Farm Policies in California
“Green Jobs, Healthy Food, Farm & Communities Platform” Planks
First Draft -August 5, 2010
www.roc.org
*Please note, all descriptions are subject to change as ROC and allies negotiate with stakeholders to find common ground.
1. School Nutrition Modernization Act: promotes consumption of California agriculture and provides California school children with life long healthy eating habits by modernizing school food service procurement, food preparation practices, and classroom nutrition education. The Act (1) requires that food sold in public schools include a high percentage of California grown fruits, vegetables, nuts, grains, dairy, meat and olive oil, (2) ensures that school food service workers have the training and professional development they need to prepare nutritious and appealing meals for students K-12, (3) promotes the incorporation of nutrition and agricultural education in existing curricula and in after school activities using learning laboratories such as school gardens and the school cafeteria, and (4) supports linkages between schools and existing local infrastructure such as farmers markets, food retail, and agricultural organizations and institutions of health and higher education to assist them with these efforts.
2. Farm and Food Labor Enhancement Act: will protect undocumented workers from deportation for minor traffic violations, develop system for supporting regional year-round employment, prioritize farmworker housing for block grants and investor incentives, provide tax credits to farming operations that offer in-field clinicas and Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs). It commits California’s DC based lobbyists to support the Ag Jobs Bill and other comprehensive immigration reform legislation, which allows immigrant labor to be lawfully employed by farms and food businesses.
3. Farm, Food and Jobs Investment Incentives Act: Provides state-based private loan guarantees to match federal USDA, HHS and HUD programs, tax breaks, special investment districts, accelerated depreciation, and other incentives to private investors that seek to support development of regional sustainable food and farm infrastructure in California. Creates state support for 3 pilot county programs to model a “food commons” program: Los Angeles, Alameda, and Fresno. Creates a Healthy Food Financing Initiative, thus increasing public capital matches for private capital invested in grocery retail, regional processing and distribution infrastructure.
4. Enhanced Nutrition and Fresh Food Access Act: eliminates disincentives to applying for food stamps (SNAP), provides state match for philanthropic contributions to programs that increase access to California grown healthy fruits, vegetables, and nuts at farmers markets, within known food deserts in urban and rural communities.
5. Farm, Ranch and Water Stewardship Incentives Act: combines state and federal funds to provide ecosystem services by farmers and ranchers with tax, payments, cost-share and other financial incentives for protecting riparian zones and soil health, climate mitigation work, development of on-farm and ranch water capture and retention strategies, and water quality protection and on-farm renewable energy production.
6. Regional Food and Farm Infrastructure Act: provides state match or guarantees to counties or municipalities that provide local economic development incentives and combined public and private financing for regional food processing infrastructure for meats, poultry, dairy, vegetable and fruit processing that supports regional farms and ranchers seeking to increase production capacity.
7. Beginning Farmers and Ranchers Career Entry Act: provides banks, philanthropies and investment funds with tax and other financial incentives for low interest loans and equity investments that allow beginning farmers and ranchers to begin new or take over existing farming operations as well as technical support and training for young beginning farmers and ranchers whom receive start up investment.
8. Farm and Food Regulatory Reform Act: forces state and federal agencies to eliminate contradictions in regulation that leads to bureaucratic logjams by offering ranchers and farmers hobbled in specific projects a safe harbor to act until contradictions are resolved. Provides farmers and ranchers free technical advise and training to ensure their interim actions minimize or avoid undo harm to the environment for projects they undertake within safe harbor period.
9. State and Federal Farm and Health Legislation Integration Act: Clarifies priorities for State projects and programs that are funded by any federal legislation that impacts food and farming, including the Farm Bill or Affordable Health Care for American Act. These priorities will guide decisions of State leaders as they invest these public funds.
10. Budget and Equity Offset Act to Support New Jobs, Healthy Food and Agriculture: Calls for a mix of fees and taxes related to farming, food and services (including fees on sugared beverages, harsh pesticides and synthetic fertilizer) to fund programs to that ensure the sustainability of California’s agricultural capacity. Funds will support (1) state and local programs that protect the environmental integrity of the California farmlands, including soil health, water supply, and related ecosystems, (2) development of regional sustainable food and farm infrastructures, (3) development of urban agriculture projects, and (4) development and implementation of evidenced-based strategies to increase access to California grown healthy fruits, vegetables, and nuts in food deserts and other low income communities where such access is limited. In addition, a soda tax will be established to promote consumption of California specialty crops in California schools and provide California school children with life long healthy eating habits by modernizing school food service procurement, food preparation practices, and classroom nutrition education.
Declaration for Healthy Food and Agriculture
Declaration for Healthy Food and Agriculture
The movement to create a healthier food and agriculture policy in the US has been slowly and steadily gaining ground for well over a decade. Those all around the nation who began the work are encouraged by the progress and simultaneously concerned by the pace of change given the disproportionate impact of food and agriculture on personal and planetary health.
The public’s increasing interest and the media’s deepening coverage of climate change, energy, agriculture, rural poverty, labor issues, food costs, food quality and obesity may finally illuminate the interrelationship of these crises and provide a context for urgently needed changes, which are clearly possible.
The Declaration is meant to provide:
1. A clear statement of what kind of policy is needed now, endorsed by a broad base of organizations and individuals with a long-established commitment to a healthier food and agriculture.
2. An invitation to all Americans to join in the improvement effort by taking action in their own lives and communities and by offering them a way to call on policymakers to support comprehensive change.
3. A set of principles from which policy makers can craft policy that will lead to a healthier system.