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Federal Policy

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Congressional “Farm Bills” have a dramatic impact on the land and our communities. Organizing from the grassroots level to the halls of Congress, the Land Stewardship Project has played a national role in winning important policy changes like the Conservation Stewardship Program and the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program. But U.S. farm policy still heavily favors land-damaging agricultural systems based on factory farming and monocultural cropping. Farm policy also subsidizes with public funds the concentration of land ownership and control in increasingly fewer hands. Major change is needed.

Recent action alerts highlight the kinds of federal farm policies LSP is working to advance:
  • Tell Congress: We Need Rural Climate Leaders Now!
  • Act Now: Day One Demands for USDA Leaders

Click Here to Get Involved with Federal Policy Reform

Check Out Our Latest Action Alerts

Farm Bill Listening Sessions: March 17

The 2023 Farm Bill cycle is underway and LSP wants to hear from you! We want your experience and insight to shape LSP’s priorities as we advocate for a Farm Bill that works for all of us. To participate in one of two Farm Bill Listening Sessions on March 17, click here. More listening sessions will be added in coming months.

Take the National Young Farmer Farm Bill Survey

As the first step in our 2023 Farm Bill campaign, the Land Stewardship Project is partnering with the National Young Farmers Coalition to distribute a Farm Bill survey. The goal of the survey is to paint a fuller picture of how the Farm Bill impacts farmers and ranchers in our communities — especially farmers who are often overlooked in USDA census data collection efforts. The survey contains questions tailored to identify the needs and programmatic barriers for emerging and beginning farmers, farmers of color, and immigrant farmers, as well as small and mid-sized farms across the country. This data will become the backbone of LSP’s advocacy efforts to create a 2023 Farm Bill that works for our communities.

The nationwide goal of the National Young Farmers Coalition is to collect 10,000 surveys, and the Land Stewardship Project’s goal is to reach 1,000 survey participants in the Upper Midwest during the month of February. Help us reach our goal by taking the survey today and sharing it with three farmers you know. Take the survey here.

Join LSP’s Farm Bill Campaign Today!

In order to organize to win a more equitable Farm Bill for people and the land, we need your voice in the fight. The 2023 Farm Bill is a single opportunity to influence how hundreds of billions of dollars in funding will be spent in our communities. Through organized people power, we can be more powerful than corporate interests, and we can define the agenda. Please submit this form to share how you would like to get involved in the development of the 2023 Farm Bill.

LSP on "Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home & Abroad"

This is a key moment to win federal investment in climate-smart agriculture. President Joe Biden has issued the “Executive Order on Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad.” It directs Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack to collect input from stakeholders on how best to use USDA programs to promote climate-smart agricultural practices.

Here are the comments LSP submitted to the administration:

• In order to address the scale of the climate crisis, USDA must improve and greatly expand existing conservation programs to increase access to farmers and ranchers. It should prioritize practices that provide the most climate benefit, like incorporating cover crops, perennial crops, and managed grazing of perennial pasture. Farmers will be essential to responding to climate change, particularly through a greater emphasis on building soil health. The stacking benefits of soil health practices create climate resilience by increasing organic matter, improving soil fertility, reducing erosion, and improving water quality and infiltration.

• Factory farms are a cause of climate change, and they should not be considered part of the solution. The way that animals are raised plays a major role in their impact on climate. Factory farms require huge quantities of industrial feed, water, chemical inputs, and energy, and they manage manure in a way that increases greenhouse gas emissions. We need a dramatic transition in how we raise animals for food that is centered on getting more small to mid-scale farmers on the land using sustainable systems such as managed rotational grazing, which can build healthy soils and sequester carbon.

• USDA should spend public money on public programs that have a track record of success, not on propping up the fossil fuel industry. Private carbon markets benefit big agribusiness and let polluters off the hook for their emissions. Agriculture offset markets already don’t work for most farmers — they don’t pay farmers fairly and they are tightly controlled by a handful of big companies that dominate the market. Smaller scale farmers, including Black and Indigenous farmers who have faced systemic discrimination at the hands of USDA, are not well served by this model. Neither is the climate. Farmers and ranchers should be invested in as stewards of the land, not as a carbon sink for big business. The fossil fuel industry needs to reduce its own emissions, and smaller scale farmers and farmers of color must be prioritized in USDA climate policy.

• Climate policy for agriculture must ensure a fair price for farmers and a fair wage for workers. USDA needs to manage over-production, invest in climate-friendly systems of production that protect water and air quality in rural communities, and create new rural-based and owned economic opportunities that keep wealth local and out of the hands of big corporations. It must support the next generation of farmers and food system workers and their right to make a fair living.

• Local control and ownership must be an essential part of climate policy for agriculture, so the rural landscape is protected and historic patterns of exploitation and wealth extraction are not repeated. Small to mid-scale farmers and ranchers must be at the center of climate policy for agriculture. A farming system that sustains our family farms and gets more emerging farmers on the land is best suited to revitalize rural communities, produce a healthy and sustainable food supply, and respond to climate change.

For more information, contact federal policy organizer Jessica Kochick via e-mail or at 612-400-6349.

Federal Policy Resources

• Find Your U.S. Senators & U.S. Representatives

• Building Sustainable Farms, Ranches and Communities: 86-page resource full of one- to two-page informative overviews of the many federal programs available for farmers, entrepreneurs, conservationists, nonprofits and other stakeholders in the sustainable agriculture community. (October 2014)

• Farm Crisis Resources

Related Posts

  • Tell Congress: We Need Rural Climate Leaders Now!

    August 26, 2021

    For over a year, Land Stewardship Project members have been advocating for the Agriculture Resilience Act (H.R.2803/ S.1337), a piece of federal legislation that invests…

    Action Alerts
    Tell Congress: We Need Rural Climate Leaders Now!
  • Ear to the Ground 204: Policy Change from the Ground Up

    Mark Schultz talks about how LSP’s members hatched one of the most innovative farm conservation programs around…and why we need to fight for it.

    Ear to the Ground 204: Policy Change from the Ground Up
  • Our Farm Bill

    March 24, 2017

    Reimagining Farm Policy that Puts People, Communities & the Land First
    The energy has been incredible. Over the past two months the federal policy team at…

    Blog
    Our Farm Bill
  • The Crop Insurance Conundrum

    February 10, 2022

    When one sees the word “unambiguously” used in a carefully researched academic paper, it’s time to take notice. For example,  a recent Journal of Policy Modeling…

    Blog
    climate change, crop insurance, farm consolidation, federal farm policy, soil conservation, USDA Risk Management Agency
    The Crop Insurance Conundrum

Contact

• Sarah Goldman, LSP federal policy organizer, e-mail, 612-400-6341

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  • Building People Power

Upcoming Events

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May 2022

Wednesday May 18

4:00 pm – 5:30 pm
LSP Food Systems Virtual Listening Session
LSP Food Systems Virtual Listening Session
Wednesday May 18
4:00 pm – 5:30 pm

The Land Stewardship Project will hold a virtual listening session on regional food systems. Register here.

Thursday May 19

5:00 pm – 8:00 pm
LSP Grazing Group Pasture Walk
LSP Grazing Group Pasture Walk
Thursday May 19
5:00 pm – 8:00 pm

LSP will hold a Grazing Group Pasture Walk at Oak Creek Pastures in Ossian, Iowa. Sign-in for this free event begins at 4:45 p.m. Supper will be provided; suggested $3-$5 meal contribution.

Scott & Amanda Holthaus of Oak Creek Pastures are hosting a pasture walk for area graziers to show cattle grazing on crop-ground planted last fall to a diverse winter cover mix (rye, vetch, triticale, winter barley) and results of winter bale grazing on permanent pasture. There will be a discussion around fencing and watering considerations for maximizing grazing days.
 
Register at https://secure.everyaction.com/aYx1CibrAUaEu0XVPjqlIw2.

Friday May 20

12:00 pm – 1:00 pm
Farm Bill Listening Session for Retiring Farmers, Non-operating Landowners
Farm Bill Listening Session for Retiring Farmers, Non-operating Landowners
Friday May 20
12:00 pm – 1:00 pm

Join the Land Stewardship Project on Friday, May 20, from noon-1 p.m., for a virtual conversation with other retiring farmers and non-operating landowners to discuss how federal policy could better support your efforts to build a more just and resilient agricultural system. To register, click here.

Saturday May 21

5:00 pm – 7:00 pm
Farmer Fiesta at Whitewater State Park
Farmer Fiesta at Whitewater State Park
Saturday May 21
5:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Get to know other farmers and learn about conservation programs while enjoying a build-your-own taco bar with locally grown foods and ice cream served by the Winona County Dairy Princess. After supper, area farmer and soil conservationist Martin Larsen will share his experiences caving below the farm fields of southeastern Minnesota. Reserve a spot for this free Friends of Whitewater State Park event by e-mailing sara.holger@state.mn.us or calling 507-312-2308.

Tuesday May 24

12:00 pm – 1:30 pm
LSP Food Systems In-Person Listening Session
LSP Food Systems In-Person Listening Session
Tuesday May 24
12:00 pm – 1:30 pm

The Land Stewardship Project will be holding an in-person listening session on regional food systems in Montevideo, Minn. Register here.

View Full Calendar

Recent Posts

  • Let’s Get a Robust State Budget Across the Finish Line! May 17, 2022
  • Only 13 Days Left to Invest in Farmers May 10, 2022
  • Rural Voices Hold More Power Than You Think May 5, 2022
  • Legislative Session Heads into its Final Days May 4, 2022
  • LSP Pasture Walk to Feature Spring Grazing of Cover Crops May 19 near Ossian  April 25, 2022

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