News at Sprout

 June 2024: Yes! We are still talking about the Farm Bill!

After over a year of advocacy,
we are finally seeing some movement on the next Farm Bill.

Unfortunately, the fight is far from over.

Summary

  • The Agriculture Committee of the Senate released a detailed outline of their version of the Farm Bill

  • The Agriculture Committee of the House of Representatives successfully passed their version of the Farm Bill. 

    • This bill text does not align with many of our priorities. We are disappointed to see so many legislators support a Farm Bill that prioritizes supporting Big Ag over small-scale farms and local communities’ needs. 

  • With elections coming up, it’s impossible to tell what the next step in this process will look like… or how it will make sense for Louisiana farmers to participate!

If you need a refresher on what the Farm Bill is and why it matters, check out this 101 video! 

Thank you to everyone who has stuck with us, Sprout and the Food Policy Action Council of New Orleans (NOLA FPAC), thus far and participated in actions over the last year to make sure that Louisiana farmers have a voice in the next Farm Bill! It has been a long slog, and to be honest, it is far from over. In fact, we are really just getting started with the formal Farm Bill renewal process in Congress. See below for a graphic detailing the remainder of the process.

Thank you to the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition for creating and sharing this graphic!!

So far, Louisiana farmers have been able to participate in this process by talking to their legislators and telling them to support specific marker bills (what is that? Click here!). Our collective work was to make sure that legislators understood that the past Farm Bills have not served small- and mid-sized farmers in Louisiana. As a team we have shown  our elected representatives what they need to do now to make things better. Through marker bills like the Justice for Black Farmers Act and the Agricultural Resilience Act, we showed legislators what needed to be fixed and how we wanted to see those fixes happen. We did this through direct contact with legislators- in their home districts and D.C., supporting local and national action alerts, and generally becoming more familiar with the Farm Bill itself! 

Now we are moving into a different phase of the process and our advocacy approach will need to changel. Bill text is actually being written/drafted, negotiated/amended, and voted on. It is a lot of “inside baseball”. Importantly, in Louisiana we do not have ANY legislators that are on the agriculture committee of the House or the Senate, where the Farm Bill gets written. This means that Louisiana producers do not have the same ability to shape the Farm Bill as farmers in states with legislators on the agriculture committee do. As a result, our opportunities to advocate for producer needs are relatively limited at this point in the process. By contrast, producers and advocates that are in districts with legislators on the agriculture committees have been VERY busy trying to get into the ears of these representatives as they write the next Farm Bill! BUT there is still work to be done here at home in Louisiana… 

So what point are we actually at? What is coming? And WHAT CAN WE DO? 

What point are we actually at, specifically? 

Check out the graphic above! It is really helpful in breaking down the process. What you don’t see is all the prep work that Congress (and us!) have done to ensure that this Farm Bill is a good one. This includes things like giving/collecting public input and introducing marker bills to set priorities. Now is the point where each respective agriculture committee—House and Senate—are drafting bill text. This is essentially the beginning of the formal legislative process. As you know, our advocacy has been in the making for years!

As of May 1, the Senate Agriculture Committee, led by Senator Debbie Stabenow (Democrat) from Michigan, released a 96-page overview of their version of the Farm Bill. They are calling their bill the Rural Prosperity and Food Security Act of 2024 (RPFSA). This is not a draft of the actual text, but it is a detailed enough overview to give a clear idea of what the Senate’s draft Farm Bill text will look like. It is basically a proposal as if to say, “What do you guys think if we did this?” Generally, this overview offers significant improvements to the food system and includes wins such as:

  • Bolstering equity and accountability specifically through attention/funding for robust data collection, heirs property programming, civil rights accountability processes for USDA employees

  • Significant increases in funding to key conservation programs that small-scale Louisiana producers are most able and likely toaccess. Additionally, there are guardrails that ensure these funds will be targeted towards producers engaged in climate-smart practices– many of which are often practiced on small farms

  • Targeted improvements to crop insurance (Whole Farm Revenue Protection- WFRP and Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program- NAP).

There is NOT a timeline for the release of the Senate draft Farm Bill text yet, but that is the next step on the Senate side of things.

As far as the House goes, on May 23 the House Agriculture Committee voted on and passed their draft of the Farm Bill called the Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2024 (FFNSA). This draft is a highly partisan piece of proposed legislation and it does not align with many of our priorities. It does not support small-scale producers in adapting and mitigating climate change; specifically it does not address issues preventing producers from accessing crop insurance and key climate-smart conservation programs. It also significantly bolsters subsidies to commodity production, while offering very little to growing needed supports for small- and mid-sized producers. Our Louisiana farmers are tired of not getting a fair shot, and this bill is more of the same. It is disappointing to see legislators continue to prioritize corporate agriculture at the expense of small-scale, new, and family farms that work hard to feed our communities. 

At this point, the House’s draft Farm Bill text “passes out of committee” and while it is unclear exactly what will happen next, we do know that it is going to be extremely challenging to find a midpoint between what we think the Senate draft Farm Bill will look like and what the House draft Farm Bill will look like. 

What is coming? 

Basically, the Senate and the House are pushing for very different Farm Bills and, because of partisanship, there currently does not appear to be a way through. We are waiting on a draft of the Senate Agriculture Committee Farm Bill, but beyond that, it is really unclear what comes next, especially with elections coming up!

What can we do? 

At Sprout and FPAC we are keeping our eye on the process. With no legislators on the House or Senate agriculture committees, there is not likely to be much impact of direct advocacy from us because all of the work is currently happening within the agriculture committees. However, we are keeping our eyes peeled for letters to sign onto, action alerts to push out to our networks, and participating in nationally coordinated efforts such as D.C. fly-ins to continue to push Louisiana producer Farm Bill priorities. 

For producers, keep your eyes peeled! We will continue to do our best to keep you up to speed when it matters and give you opportunities to advocate for your/our needs, whether that be through opportunities to call or email your representatives or asking you to sign onto a letter yourself! If you happen to find yourself meeting with a legislator, let them know that you are a small-scale farmer and tell them what your needs are! They don’t know what they don’t know; seize the opportunity to teach them and help your community! 

If you have any questions, comments, or want to work with us on policy issues– email Devin Wright at devin@sproutnola.org. 

For more analysis on the respective overviews and draft bill text check these out:

April 2024: City of New Orleans & Partners Awarded Federal Grant to Reduce Food Waste and Expand Composting Services

The City of New Orleans was recently awarded $398,500 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Compost and Food Waste Reduction Program (CFWR) to increase the capacity of local composting organizations that will make it more accessible for residents. Local organizations working on food waste reduction and composting programs partnered on the proposal with the City, including Sprout, Schmelly’s Dirt Farm, REALCYCLE, Compost NOW, and Taproot Earth. The project will expand the city’s network of micro-composting hubs, give underserved residents home-composting supplies, and directly support the permaculture businesses who are doing the good work of making composting more possible in New Orleans.

Read the full media release by the City of New Orleans

Farmers peruse the seed swap at the Louisiana Farmers Climate Convening, hosted by the Louisiana Small Scale Agriculture Coalition.

March 2024: Novo Nordisk invests $4 Million in the Louisiana Small-Scale Agriculture Coalition’s Food Systems Programming

 If there were no imported food from elsewhere, there would be only enough food grown in Louisiana to feed the state population for one week. 

To combat statistics like these, the Louisiana Small-Scale Agriculture Coalition (LSSAC) formed in 2022. The statewide coalition consists of long-standing partner organizations the Acadiana Food Alliance, Big River Economic Agricultural Development Alliance, Louisiana Central, Market Umbrella, New Orleans Food Policy Action Council, Shreveport Green, and SPROUT. LSSAC works to bolster the agricultural economy while supporting Louisianans struggling with food insecurity by creating low-cost access to fresh, healthy, local food.

Beginning in March 2024, the coalition will embark on an exciting state-wide project to improve the capacity of the local food system. 

Read full media release