In the recent Hazon e-newsletter from earlier this week, Nigel Savage refers to Isaiah’s prophecy read in the Haftarah this coming Shabbat:

Every head is ailing
Every heart is sick…
Your land is a waste,
Your cities burnt down…
The yield of your soil is consumed by strangers…

For me all of this hits home as a prophecy for modern times, but the final verse in that section is particularly useful, as I spend my days working on increasing access to local food for the most vulnerable communities through Farm Bill legislation.

Fortunately, a very important amendment to allow school food service directors to use Geographic Preference in their bidding in order to request local foods, was unanimously accepted by the Agriculture committee at 12:15 AM last night!

However, we are still working to secure mandatory (meaning it doesn’t need to be fought for each year in an appropriations bill) funding for the Community Food Projects competitive grant program, an important incubator for projects linking small, sustainable farms with communities that need improved access to healthy, affordable local foods.

• The House Agriculture Committee has been debating and adding amendments to its draft Farm Bill since Tuesday and will be continuing throughout the day and maybe tomorrow. You can view the Committee’s (surprisingly interesting) debate and voting on the Farm Bill at: http://agriculture.house.gov/hearings/audio.html
• Please contact your Member of Congress and let them know that their support for the Farm Bill should be contingent on it being a bill that promotes healthy food and communities.

In addition to the other nutrition priorities, urban and rural communities are calling for programs that provide healthy food access in underserved markets from local and regional farms need to be included with the traditional federal nutrition programs.One high impact program of this kind is the 10 year old program found in the Food Stamp Act that provides assistance to Community Food Projects. This program, while in the Chairman’s Mark at $30 million dollars, is discretionary when it should be mandatory as it has been for 10 years.

Any final arrangement for new funding for nutrition programs MUST include mandatory funding for Community Food Projects. Other parallel and important programs that connect farmers, local enterprises and low income neighborhoods are in the Bill and will be funded with new money for nutrition.

These include the fruit and vegetable snack program, providing EBT for food stamp recipients into more farmers markets, providing senior farmers market coupons, among others. Together with Community Food Projects, these are called the “healthy food package” and are essential compliments to strong Food Stamp and TEFAP programs.

A July 11 letter from the Congressional Black Caucus does a great job, explaining the importance of Community Food Projects succintly: “We also request that you (Collin Peterson) support and expand the Communitiy Food Project competitive grants program. Through a one-time infusion of federal dollars, communities get the help they they need to build sustainable supply systems of healthy. local foods that will reach all segments of the population, including those who now are too farm from grocery stores, co-ops, farmers markets, farmstands and other food networks.”

On Tuesday, at the opening statements of the committee mark-up, CFP was spoken for by Rep Kagen (D-WI). However, this funding must be made mandatory.
As Farm Bill debate heats up, we urge you to bring this message to your Representative and Senators and recommend that they support a Farm Bill with increased funding for healthy food and communities provisions. For many of the issues, the target is funding, and Members of Congress on the Ways & Means (House) and Finance (Senate) Committees as well as Democratic Leadership (Speaker, Majority Leaders) are key to ensuring that funding is found for healthy food and farm provisions in the Farm Bill.

The debate has become increasingly polarized over the past 6 months. The “reformers” want moderate to extreme reductions in payments for specific farm commodities (corn, rice, wheat, cotton, soy and several others) in order to pay for increases in nutrition and conservation. The “extenders” who want to maintain the status quo for these payments. An extension of the 2002 Farm Bill would mean everyone—low-income communities, environment and small farmers—taking a hit. While those pushing for commodity reform may have an important message, the cost in votes to the nutrition, conservation and rural development parts of the Farm Bill may be too great if no consensus on the Farm Bill is reached by the deadline –Sept 30, 2007.

The next 2+ weeks are critical as both houses of Congress work to craft and fund the next 5+ years of U.S. food and farm policy. Congress has heard from many constituent groups but needs more input from citizens the health of our communities and small, sustainable farms. Your legislators need to hear YOUR VOICE! Please call them TODAY, below are some talking points to use. If you don’t know your legislator’s number, call the Capital Switchboard at 202-224-3121.

• For more information about the Community Food Projects competitive grant program, see www.foodsecurity.org/policy or check out www.farmpolicy.com which is updatedon a daily basis.
• The National Farmers Union is compiling a list of most of the amendments being offered in committee at: