Local and Regional Farm and Food Bill Introduced in Congress

Image Gallery  The Local Farms, Food, and Jobs Act revises and expands existing federal farm programs to ensure that they effectively foster local and regional food system development. FOTOLIA.COM/ELENATHEWISE

The legislation helps farmers and ranchers by addressing production, aggregation, processing, marketing, and distribution needs to access growing local and regional food markets.  The bill also assists consumers by improving access to healthy food.  The measure provides secure farm bill funding for critically important programs that support family farms, expand new farming opportunities, create rural jobs, and invest in the local food and agriculture economy.

“We applaud Senator Brown and Congresswoman Pingree for introducing this legislation,” says Helen Dombalis, a Policy Associate with the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition. “The Local Farms, Food, and Jobs Act revises and expands existing federal farm programs to ensure that they effectively foster local and regional food system development. The bill invests in communities – when consumers are connected to and invested in where their food comes from and agricultural producers meet this demand, local economies reap the benefits.”

The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition and its 40 member groups were closely involved in the development of the bill. Among the many other groups endorsing the measure are the National Farmers Union, National Organic Coalition, Community Food Security Coalition, American Farmland Trust, Center for Science in the Public Interest, and National Farm to School Network.

The Local Farms, Food, and Jobs Act includes provisions that cut across ten titles of the Farm Bill, including proposals that address conservation, credit, nutrition, rural development, research and extension, food safety, livestock, and crop insurance. Some of the specific proposals within the bill include:

Whole Farm Revenue Insurance

The bill will authorize USDA’s Risk Management Agency to develop a Whole Farm Adjusted Revenue Risk Management insurance product that is available in all states and all counties and is relevant to all diversified operations including but not limited to specialty crops and mixed grain-livestock or dairy operations, contract producers, and organic and conventional farms. Additionally, the legislation directs USDA to offer the product at the same buy-up coverage levels as other policies, include a strong crop diversification bonus, and account for all the costs involved in getting a crop to market.

Commenting on the utility of the legislation, Jack Hedin of Featherstone Farm in Rushford, MN points out: “One of the greatest challenges that a diversified, fresh market truck farm such as my own faces, as it scales up to meet burgeoning demand, is the lack of affordable, appropriately designed crop insurance such as the Local Farms, Food, and Jobs Act envisions. This kind of insurance would be a huge help to the growth of the local and regional food industry.”