Last month, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced $26.5 million in competitive grant funding available through the Local Agriculture Market Program (LAMP) to develop, coordinate, and expand producer-to-consumer marketing, local and regional food markets, and local food enterprises. This year marks a notably shorter application window, but there are several resources available to support applicants. 

The deadline to apply for the FMLFPP and RFSP program is Friday, June 27, at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time via www.grants.gov.

The Local Agriculture Market Program (LAMP) is an umbrella program that includes the Farmers Market Promotion Program (FMPP), Local Food Promotion Program (LFPP), and Regional Food Systems Partnership (RFSP) program. LAMP was established in the 2018 Farm Bill to streamline program administration for these three programs and the Value-Added Producer Grant program (which is administered by Rural Development), and provide permanent baseline funding status for existing efforts to build and expand local and regional food and agriculture markets.

2025 Grant Cycle

FMPP, LFPP, and RFSP are each administered as separate programs by USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) and include three separate Request for Applications (RFA). Each program has funding available for a variety of project types, with a total of $26.5 million available for all three projects. 

The following table provides an overview of project types, award sizes, and funding available for each program.

Farmers Market Promotion Program ($11M available)

Local Food Promotion Program ($11M available)

Regional Food System Partnership Program ($4.5M available)

Notable Changes to 2025 RFAs

Removal of Project Prioritization Language 

In each Request for Applications (RFAs), AMS outlines “2025 Highlights and Changes.” Throughout FMPP, LFPP, and RFSP RFAs, AMS has removed language that previously encouraged applicants to propose projects that benefit farmers who are not often represented in other USDA programs, such as small operations, historically underserved, beginning, or veteran farmers and ranchers. They also removed mention of this subset of producers from the review criteria that are provided to applicants for the technical review. 

Resources for Prospective Applicants 

USDA AMS developed a variety of new, helpful tools for potential applicants on their support page. These include: 

• A decision tree to decide which of the three programs is right for you; 
• Brief overviews of each program’s RFA;
• More detailed guides for each RFA; and
• Checklists and guides for how to write a project narrative, develop your budget, and more. 

Check out the full resource on their applicant support page. 

AMS is hosting webinars and office hours for prospective applicants to FMLFPP and RFSP. They also provide easily accessible information about grant eligibility, the application process, previously awarded projects, and frequently asked questions on each individual program website. To learn more, visit the individual program webpage:

• FMPP webpage,
• LFPP webpage, or the
• RFSP webpage.

Peer Review Panels

Every year, USDA seeks members of the public to serve on its grant peer review panels. Peer review panels help USDA review grant applications and recommend which projects should receive funding. Grant reviewers, typically people with academic, non-profit, and/or on-the-ground agriculture-related experience, help to ensure that the projects funded advance the goals of the program. 

If your organization is not planning to apply or if you are interested in being part of this process and bringing your sustainable agriculture knowledge to the reviewers’ table, please consider volunteering for a FMLFPP or RFSP peer review panel. Reviewers receive a small stipend for their work. Learn more about the AMS peer reviewer application process here or sign up here. 

The post Apply Today: USDA LAMP Funding Window Is Open appeared first on National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition.

Editor’s Note: This is the second post in a multi-part blog series analyzing the Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2024, which was reported out of the House Agriculture Committee on Friday, May 24. The first post provides an overview of the markup process and the bill as a whole, as well as its likely (or unlikely) path to becoming law. This post explores the FFNSA’s impacts on local and regional food systems. Subsequent posts provide a deep dive analysis of the bill’s potential impacts on farmers’ access to land and capital, beginning and other underserved producers, conservation and climate resilience, and sustainable and organic research, among other issues.

The Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2024 (FFNSA, HR 8467) offers a number of policy reforms and authorizes new programs that seek to strengthen existing programs and sustain the novel United States Department of Agriculture’s local supply chain initiatives. The bill under-delivers, in part, by not targeting initiatives to the small and small and mid-scale operations that are the foundation of local food supply chains. At the same time, it significantly underfunds certain programs, and in some instances, the bill does both of these things at the same time. As a result, NSAC is concerned that many of the new investments included in the House bill will disproportionately benefit large operations and distributors or hamstring the impact of new programs due to insufficient funding.  

The following analysis is separated into sections addressing local and regional market access and development, supply chain infrastructure and support, and food access:

• Market Access and Development
• Supply Chain Infrastructure and Support
• Food Access

Local Food: Market Access and Development

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, Congress has initiated numerous novel food supply chain initiatives through the CARES Act and the ARP Act that bolstered markets and spurred new local opportunities for small-scale operations. By original design, funding for many of these programs is likely to end soon, unless a new farm bill continues and enhances these strategic investments. The farm bill has a longstanding history of supporting local market development through programs such as the Value-Added Producer Grants and Farmers Market and Local Food Promotion Grants, yet any new farm bill must incorporate lessons learned from COVID-era programs into both well-established and new federal programs to better sustain these catalytic market investments.

Food Box Pilot Program

The FFNSA insufficiently promotes new and emerging markets and fails to support smaller-scale farmers in accessing federal markets. Rather than identifying a permanent funding source for the new but already influential market development program – the Local Food Purchase Assistance Program – the bill authorizes a Food Box Pilot Program (Section 4302) that: 

• Directs USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service to contract with no more than 20 entities to carry out a food box program that provides staple foods to food insecure households,
• Seeks to complement existing federal nutrition programs, increase the capacity of community and faith-based organizations, and support local and regional food systems, 
• Considers a range of criteria when selecting contracts, including whether they have demonstrated partnership networks, experience or commitment sourcing from small and medium-scale farmers, and source local and regional products, when seasonally available or at a reasonable price, and
• Includes a total of $200 million of mandatory funding. 

While there are elements of the Food Box Pilot Program that theoretically support new local markets, there is a track record of a similar program design leading to limited purchases from small, mid-sized farms and farmers of color, inadequately serving the most food insecure communities, and contracting with a few distributors that concentrated funding with few, large companies. 

Food Safety Outreach Program

Investments in food safety education and equipment or training are essential to meeting ever-evolving market and regulatory food safety requirements. Without sufficient investments, these food safety requirements can prevent many smaller-scale producers from entering new markets. The FFNSA reauthorizes some of the programs that provide these investments – such as the Food Safety Outreach Program (FSOP). FSOP, which funds education on a variety of food safety topics, includes an intentional focus on reaching underserved communities of producers. However, FFNSA misses the opportunity to increase funding levels for FSOP, a crucial misstep especially given the array of food safety regulations increasingly impacting smaller producers. (Sec. 7301).

Federal Procurement

The farm bill offers an opportunity to address some of these barriers to enter federal markets, such as USDA’s Commodity Program. The EFFECTIVE Food Procurement Act (HR 6569) created a pathway for this but was not included in FFNSA. However, the bill does direct USDA to study the barriers farmers and enterprises that produce culturally appropriate food experience when trying to compete for federal commodity contracts and make recommendations on how to improve the process (Sec. 10107).

Local Agriculture Market Program 

Despite the significant impact of and demand for the Local Agriculture Market Program (LAMP), the FFNSA does not offer an increase in appropriations or mandatory funding levels for the program. However,  the bill offers program reforms that will generate new demand including a number of provisions from the Local Farms and Food Act (H.R. 2723) to expand access to LAMP funds by reaching food hubs and creating a simplified application and reporting process for projects of less than $100,000 (Section 10102). Unfortunately, the combined effect of the FFNSA will likely create more demand for LAMP while failing to provide sufficient funding to address that demand.

Cooperative Interstate Shipment Program

Meat and poultry processing is a closely regulated industry. Yet, for decades, geographic and funding limitations have frequently prevented Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) personnel from providing food safety education before regulation. These same limitations have also made it challenging for FSIS to cost-effectively regulate smaller processors in many states. As a result, Congress created the Cooperative Interstate Shipment Program (CIS) in the Food Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 (2008 Farm Bill) to enable products processed at state-inspected plants to be sold interstate if the state has a Meat and Poultry Inspection program equivalent to the federal inspection program.

CIS has expanded markets and opportunities and encouraged the creation of new products in the small plants it serves. Over time, however, it has become evident that the CIS program needs an expansion of scope and funding to serve more small and very small meat processors. The bipartisan Strengthening Local Processing Act (SLPA, HR 945) includes changes to the federal and state regulatory authorities’ cost-share model, which could alter the cost-benefit analysis for states that have their own meat and poultry inspection programs, ultimately making for more effective regulation of small and very small meat processors. Those plants will then be able to work more effectively with the small and diversified farms that are an essential component of a sustainable and equitable food system. 

Unfortunately, the FFNSA declines to make any changes to the CIS program structure, instead promoting outreach about the program and requiring a report on that outreach each year (Sec 12113). While we support more effective promotion of the CIS program,  the failure to include many of the necessary structural and funding changes means that the FFNSA misses a critical opportunity to expand markets for smaller processors, increase competition in the industry, and help bring more nutritious, locally, and often sustainably raised animal products to market. The FFNSA requires that FSIS provide more publicly available  food safety resources designed for small and very small meat processors, which we support. Of specific importance is making more validation studies publicly available, which  small processors can  use to  substantiate scale -appropriate food safety control techniques. (Sec. 12112).

Local Food: Supply Chains

USDA’s recent transformative food system initiative has focused on improvements across the supply chain, with investments in infrastructure, workforce development, value-chain coordination, and business technical assistance. The FFNSA offers a few new options for infrastructure investments but does not adequately respond to the needs of rural communities for specialized food workforce training and technical assistance for scaling businesses. Disproportionate investment along the supply chain can lead to supply without adequate markets for producers, or potentially new infrastructure for businesses without sufficient business planning to strategically scale. 

Infrastructure

The FFNSA attempts to sustain some of the meat processing expansion programs that were created by ARPA, for example through a “new, mobile, and expanded meat processing and rendering grants” program (Sec. 6305). This section bears some but not enough resemblance to the original programs (MPPEP, Local MCap, MPIRG) that were developed in part based on the proposals in  SLPA. 

At only $3 million in authorized funding, the FFNSA’s Sec. 6305 grants are insufficiently funded relative to the demand across the US. Furthermore, the bill expands eligible applicants to include land grant universities, state departments of agriculture, and other organizations with existing capacities well beyond the small and very small meat processors for whom this program was intended. Instead of limiting these grants to small and very small processors, the FFNSA only includes it as a priority that the funding goes to small and very small processors. This, combined with the lack of a ‘socially disadvantaged’ priority means that the FFNSA-created grant program runs the risk of funneling money to processors that already have access to other financial instruments to expand capacity. This fails to meaningfully address the processing bottleneck that smaller-scale producers nationwide experience. 

The FFNSA expands upon the existing business and industry guaranteed loan program by authorizing a permanent food supply chain guaranteed loan that seeks to support commercial food supply chains by financing projects focused on aggregation, processing, distribution, and manufacturing. Additionally, it caps the guarantee fee institutions pay to USDA to 3%, which has been cited as a barrier for a number of lenders. However, with no stated program goals or parameters for business scale or production type, this financial product is unlikely to support emerging food enterprises or small and mid-scale enterprises participating exclusively in regional food supply chains due to the rigorous underwriting standards associated with USDA guaranteed loans (Sec. 6304, 6412). 

Finally, the bill codifies the recently implemented updates to LAMP’s program offerings by ensuring necessary special purpose equipment can be purchased (Sec. 10102).

Workforce Development

Small and very small processors – for whom jobs tend to be more cross functional than in their larger industry competitors – have struggled to recruit and maintain the highly skilled workforce they need. More funding and programs specifically created to support the unique needs of small and very small meat workforce development are important to increase growth in the sector.

Unfortunately, the FFNSA does not offer any new funding or new programs to meet the much needed investment in this sector. The bill does amend the USDA’s Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) to include meat processing workforce development as an area of research. The bill also authorizes the creation of new community college grants oriented towards the development of a broader highly skilled agricultural workforce. While this may include meat processing training, it does not do so explicitly (Sec. 7123, 7503). 

Value-chain Coordination and Technical Assistance 

As recently highlighted, the people offering business technical assistance and coordinating activities along the supply chain can often be invisible but are nonetheless essential to operating efficient local food systems. Two of USDA’s most notable initiatives to support these activities are the Regional Food Business Centers and the Meat and Poultry Processing Capacity Technical Assistance program. Unfortunately, the FFNSA does not authorize either program. 

Local Food: Access

A number of USDA programs aim to ensure high quality local foods are easily accessible to all individuals. Many of these programs do so by ensuring families can use their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance benefits (SNAP) in local food markets or by providing additional cash benefits for fruits and vegetables produced by local farmers. 

The FFNSA provides new additional mandatory funding for several programs that increase the accessibility of local food within food insecure communities, including: 

• $2 million annually for the Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Program,
• $5 million annually for the Community Food Project Program (CFP), and 
• $19 million for the Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program (GusNIP). 

Unfortunately, the increase for the Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Program is insufficient to fix the program’s persistent issue in which some states are allocated so little funding that they pass on the opportunity entirely due to the administrative burden of implementation. While this restores CFP to the higher funding levels it received before the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 (2018 Farm Bill), all of these increases will come at the expense of future increases to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. 

Some changes in the FFNSA will likely lead to greater local food access in vulnerable communities. For example, the bill allows the Secretary of Agriculture to waive the GusNIP match requirement for persistent poverty counties (Section 4306). It also expands the responsibilities and improves the services of the Office of Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production (OUAIP) to improve upon the farmer networks supporting food insecure communities. The bill would also enable community experts to partner with USDA to better serve urban producers through cooperative agreements, and support farmer cooperatives and individual farmers through grants and subgrants, respectively (Section 10004). Yet, similar to the changes to LAMP, the House changes will generate increased demand without any increase or guarantee of funding. OUAIP has consistently been underfunded or forgotten in Appropriations Cycles. Therefore, these program improvements will likely be delayed without adequate funding. 

The post Digging into the House Farm Bill: Part 2 appeared first on National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition.

On February 27, The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced $26 million available in competitive grant funding through the Local Agriculture Market Program (LAMP) to develop, coordinate, and expand producer-to-consumer marketing, local and regional food markets, and local food enterprises. This year features a few notable changes that align with NSAC’s priorities and advocacy to improve both access to LAMP and its effectiveness.

The deadline to apply for the FMLFPP and RFSP program is Tuesday, May 14, 2024, at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time via www.grants.gov.

The Local Agriculture Market Program (LAMP) is an umbrella program that includes the Farmers Market Promotion Program (FMPP), Local Food Promotion Program (LFPP), and Regional Food Systems Partnership (RFSP) program. LAMP was established in the 2018 Farm Bill to streamline program administration for these three programs and the Value-Added Producer Grant program (which is administered by Rural Development) and provide permanent baseline funding status for existing efforts to build and expand local and regional food and agriculture markets.

2024 Grant Cycle

FMPP, LFPP, and RFSP are each administered as separate programs by USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) and include three separate Request for Applications (RFA). Each program has funding available for a variety of project types with a total of $26 million available for all three projects. 

The following table provides an overview of project types, award sizes, and funding available for each program.

Farmers Market Promotion Program ($10.5M available)

Local Food Promotion Program ($10.5M available)

Regional Food System Partnership ($5M available)

Notable Changes to 2024 RFAs

Resources for Prospective Applicants

AMS is also hosting webinars for prospective applications to FMLFPP and RFSP. Information about those webinars can be found here and below.

Peer Review Panels

Every year, USDA seeks members of the public to serve on their grant peer review panels. Peer review panels help USDA review grant applications and recommend which projects should receive funding. Grant reviewers, typically people with academic, non-profit, and/or on-the-ground agriculture-related experience, help to ensure that the projects funded advance the goals of the program. 

If your organization is not planning to apply or if you are interested in being part of this process and bringing your sustainable agriculture knowledge to the reviewers’ table, please consider volunteering for a FMLFPP or RFSP peer review panel. Reviewers receive a small stipend for their work. Learn more about the AMS peer reviewer application and sign-up here. 

The post Expanded and Easier Access to LAMP Funding Now Available appeared first on National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition.

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently announced the 2023 Regional Food System Partnership, Farmers Market Promotion and Local Food Promotion program awards, totaling  $32 million for 98 projects to bolster local and regional food economies across the country. 

This year, USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) offered a new ‘turnkey’ application process for applicants seeking funding for a specific set of marketing and promotion activities for Farmers Market and Local Food Promotion grants. ‘Turnkey’ is a term for simplified federal grants with short applications and lower barriers to entry. This post highlights this new process and features National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) members who were awarded a grant this year.

Background

The 2018 Farm Bill created new opportunities to coordinate and maximize investments in local and regional food systems by creating the Local Agriculture Market Program (LAMP). This program combined existing Farmers Market and Local Food Promotion and Value-Added Producer grant programs with a new Regional Food System Partnership program. The combination of the programs ensures they each have permanent funding and encourages coordination between AMS and Rural Development. Stakeholders also advocated for the simplification of application and reporting processes to increase the accessibility of the program for small and rural organizations. 

The Farmers Market Promotion Program (FMPP) was first established in 2002 to offer funding for the development, expansion, or coordination of direct-to-consumer activities. As demand for local food has nearly doubled since 2008, advocates such as NSAC recognized the need to support a wider variety of activities that create and sustain local and regional food systems. Over years of advocacy, this led to the eventual creation of the Local Food Promotion (LFPP) and Regional Food System Partnership Program (RFSP) which offers support across the supply chain for mid-tier businesses and value-chain coordination. 

FY2023 Awards

This year AMS announced funding for Farmers Market and Local Food Promotion projects that include $13.9 million for 55 FMPP projects and $14.1 million for 33 LFPP projects. Twenty-two of the awardees participated in the new turnkey marketing and promotion application. 

Securing a federal grant is no simple task. The applications often contain dozens of pages of instruction and an additional dozen in writing, letters of support, match documentation, and project budgets. While these AMS funding opportunities are intended to support business development and the growth of local food economies in underserved areas, they often require extensive time and experience that some organizations don’t necessarily have. Community organizations have advocated for simplified applications and reporting procedures to ensure organizations have equal opportunity for awards, no matter if they have allocated staff for grant writing. The 2018 Farm Bill included language that directed AMS to simplify the application and reporting procedures and provide technical assistance to support prospective applicants. 

This year, AMS offered an abbreviated grant application referred to as the “turnkey marketing and promotion grant”. The application offered shorter narrative sections and outcome measurements were pre-populated. Applicants using this simplified application could fund project promotion and marketing activities such as, developing or implementing a marketing plan, analyzing new markets, or measuring the success of new techniques.  These activities have consistent work elements and have demonstrated effectiveness in expanding local food markets, making it simpler to make funding determinations. 

The creation of a turnkey grant not only increases equity in USDA award distribution. It also builds capacity for organizations to pursue future, larger AMS awards. AMS offers a variety of application types that allow for planning, implementation and broader network training.  

Examples from the field

The Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association (MOFGA), an NSAC member,  was awarded a turnkey grant to develop three studies (an economic impact report, audience audit, and organic language assessment) and three marketing campaigns (for farmer support, buyer training, and consumer awareness). MOFGA hopes community stakeholders will increase their technical knowledge about local foods, producers will gain knowledge about new market opportunities, and consumers will gain knowledge about local agricultural products. 

 “I loved the turnkey application – it felt very approachable. This was one of the first times I applied for a project that would involve multiple departments at MOFGA, and the simplicity of the application made it easier to collaborate on the proposal. A long narrative application would have been more complicated,” commented Ryan Dennett, MOFGA Programs Director.

Other Farmers Market Promotion awards focused on community development, training, or technical assistance. The Michigan Farmers Market Association (MIFMA), another NSAC member, will partner with Michigan State University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison to train and build the capacity of farmers markets to collect and analyze data characterizing their market’s social, environmental and economic impact. Markets will use data to create a marketing campaign to increase market sales and reach communities underrepresented among market shoppers.

“We all know that data is powerful and that sharing the right piece of data with the right audience can create tangible results. The Michigan Farmers Market Association (MIFMA) has been working for over a decade to create a culture of data collection amongst farmers markets in Michigan and beyond. Our partnership with Michigan State University on this FMPP grant will help us further unlock feasible, scale appropriate and impactful ways to collect, analyze, and share data targeted to specific audiences that can help increase customer attendance, grow vendor sales, and expand the inclusivity of farmers markets,” said Amanda Shreve, Executive Director of MIFMA.

However, some NSAC members shared that an easier application was not enough to increase participation among smaller farmers markets or organizations. There are still challenges, like the match requirements, which organizations are working to change in the upcoming Farm Bill reauthorization. 

With the Farm Bill reauthorization on the horizon, there are proposals that would improve the turnkey application process and make it a permanent option for Farmers Market and Local Food Promotion Program grants. The Local Farms and Food Act would offer simplified turnkey applications for a wider variety of activities, such as staff time and equipment for business ventures. Additional proposals have called for the elimination of the match requirement. Combined, these proposals would increase program accessibility and ensure funding can be used for catalytic investments that support strong markets and increased capacity. 

The post USDA Unveils Streamlined Local Food Funding appeared first on National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition.

The COVID-19 pandemic created social and economic conditions that affected our food system from producers to consumers. Domestic and international supply chains were interrupted leaving farmers without markets for their products and grocery store shelves bare. Local producers and markets such as farmers markets, CSAs (community supported agriculture), farm stands, and community gardens that are often considered niche were now essential food sources for communities across the country. 

While local food economies received new attention during the pandemic, these initiatives and systems have been in development for decades and have received targeted federal investment since the early 2000s. Early programs focused on funding for farmers participating in direct-marketing strategies. Yet these programs have evolved significantly to take a comprehensive approach to providing support for the broader food system, in part due to NSAC’s steadfast advocacy for local and regional food systems. 

The Local Agriculture Market Program (LAMP) includes four grant programs and technical assistance from USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service and Rural Development to establish and promote local food economies that develop, coordinate and expand: 

• farmers markets, roadside stands, CSA programs, agritourism, and innovative direct marketing strategies,  
• food business enterprises that act as intermediaries between local producers and consumers at the individual, institutional, and community level, 
• opportunities for producers to diversify farm revenue by incorporating value-added production and marketing, and 
• partnerships between public and private stakeholders that are committed to building resilient regional food economies through coordinated collaboration. 

Last week Senator Brown (D-OH) and Representatives Chellie Pingree (D-ME-1) and Dan Newhouse (R-WA-4) introduced the Local Farms and Food Act  (S.1205, H.R. 2723) that would offer reforms to LAMP among other programs, to respond to lessons learned throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, sustain investments in impacted communities, and promote a resilient local and regional food system. 

Spending in local food systems leads to healthy and thriving communities

Local and regional food systems build more connections between farmers and consumers. These important connections – including efforts like farmers markets and food hubs – also help grow economic opportunities for small and mid-sized family farmers, increase consumer choice and access to fresh and healthy food, and lead to broader social and community benefits.

Farmers earn more

• Shorter supply chains or fewer intermediaries allows for a larger portion of every dollar to return directly to the farmer. 
• Consumers understand the broader impact of local food products and are willing to pay more for them. 
• Local food markets offer a pathway for profitable operations among beginning farmers and ranchers. 

Economies grow 

• Growers selling locally generate more jobs than producers that do not. Growers that sell locally create 13 full time jobs per $1 million in revenue earned compared to 3 jobs among those that do not. 
• An evaluation of the Farmers Market and Local Food Promotion Programs estimated that every dollar invested generated a $2.67 return in the community. 

Communities are healthier

• Farmers markets offer more than places to buy food; they offer social and community hubs that often include nutrition education and cooking demonstrations that promote family well-being. 
• Research has also shown that communities with more direct farm sales (e.g., from a farmers’ market or a farm stand) have lower levels of mortality, obesity, and diabetes among residents. 

The Local Farms and Food Act will build and strengthen local food systems

The Local Farms and Food Act (S.1205, H.R. 2723), introduced last week by Senator Brown and Representatives Chellie Pingree and Dan Newhouse, offers programmatic reforms and increases funding to scale for existing demand among the Local Agriculture Market Programs (LAMP), Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program (GusNIP) and the Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Program (SFMNP). 

The proposed changes will strengthen regional food system infrastructure and coordination, reduce barriers for participation in federal grant programs, and increase the impact of federal nutrition benefits in local markets. The ways in which the bill would accomplish this are outlined below. 

Local Agriculture Market Program

• Create a new “turnkey grant” opportunity for a streamlined application process for projects of $100,000 or less for Farmers Market and Local Food Promotion grants (FMLFPP) to support market and business development needs and catalyze growth
• Reduce match requirements for Value-Added Producer Grants (VAPG) from 50% to 25% for smaller growers who have $250,000 or less in gross sales annually 
• Ensure program investments reach underserved regions in the country by prioritizing geographic diversity and balance for awards 
• Update the program’s eligible activities and funding uses to support:
  • physical infrastructure and general purpose equipment purchases 
  • implementation and logistics required for families to redeem federal nutrition benefits at farmers markets 
  • wrap around services critical for local food ventures, such as value chain coordination, outreach, and technical assistance 
• Increase mandatory funding from $50 million to $75 million annually and increase appropriations authority from $20 million to $30 million per year

Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program

• Increase access to the program by reducing the match requirement for applicants from 50% to 25% 
• Establish a review panel for GusNIP produce prescription grants that includes healthcare provider perspectives

Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Program 

• Reauthorize the program and provide appropriations authority at $10 million per year, in addition to the existing $20.6 million in annual mandatory funding 

Potential Impact

We know that farmers and consumers both benefit from improved access to fresh, healthy, local food in communities across the country – but building more connections between farmers and consumers takes work. Federal investments under LAMP, GusNIP and SFMNP have been essential to the growth of local food sales, which according to a recent Economic Research Service Report totaled $11.8 billion in 2017, but organizations and farmers still report barriers to participating in the program due to the application process or match requirements. 

Kansas Rural Center, an NSAC member and recent Local Food Promotion Program awardee, shared that by serving as a partner on the award, they are acting to support other organizations in the state who would not have applied otherwise due to the lengthy application and match requirements. Kansas Rural Center cited their experience navigating federal awards and ability to provide the match as critical and named it as a barrier for others.  As a result, they will work alongside Common Ground Producers and Growers, Kansas Wesleyan University and St. John’s Baptist Church of Salina to create a “food corridor” along Interstate 135 that bridges Wichita and Salina in central Kansas, in which a new food hub will be established. 

Reforms offered under the Local Farms and Food Act will reduce these barriers and allow federal investments to reach a diverse range of producers and organizations that have not previously had the opportunity.

Get Involved

• Express your support for the Local Farms and Food Act by signing this organizational letter. 
• Contact your member of congress to let them know this is important to your community and to ask them to cosponsor. 
• Share this opportunity within your networks to demonstrate the broad community of support.

The post Local Farms and Food Act Strengthens Regional Food Economies Across the US appeared first on National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition.

Contact: Laura Zaks

National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition

lzaks@sustainableagriculture.net

Release: Local Farms and Food Act Introduced in Both Houses

Bill Would Strengthen Food Systems Infrastructure and Promote Local Economic Development

Washington, DC, April 19, 2023 – Today, Representatives Pingree (D-ME-1), Newhouse (R-WA-4), Caraveo (D-CO-8), Tokuda (D-HI-2) and Senators Brown (D-OH), Smith (D-MN), Welch (D-VT), and Fetterman (D-PA) introduced the Local Farms and Food Act (LFFA) in both the House and the Senate. The LFFA is a comprehensive bill that offers reforms to the Local Agriculture Market Program (LAMP), Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program (GusNIP), and the Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Program (SFMNP). The legislation would increase access to each program to catalyze investments in underserved areas and among small producers. These investments will strengthen local and regional food system infrastructure and promote local economic development in both rural and urban communities. 

“The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) applauds Representatives Pingree, Newhouse, Caraveo, and Tokuda and Senators Brown, Smith, Welch, and Fetterman for their steadfast leadership in supporting resilient local and regional food economies. Reforms offered through this bill seek to remove barriers identified by our Coalition and partners that will help farmers start and grow businesses, and connect with supply chains that allow them to access new market opportunities while strengthening community food systems,” said Hannah Quigley, NSAC policy specialist.   

The 2018 Farm Bill made critical investments in LAMP, an umbrella program for the Farmers Market and Local Food Promotion Programs (FMLFPP), the Value-Added Producer Grant Program (VAPG), and the Regional Food Systems Partnership. These investments provided significant returns when the pandemic and other recent supply chain disruptions upended our food system. However, too many producers are still left out of the system. Appropriately sized processing, aggregation, and distribution infrastructure is still inadequate. A lack of technical assistance for producers and entrepreneurs on a range of issues from food safety to business planning continues to make it difficult for many farmers and producers to update their businesses to meet current needs. Program reforms offered through the Local Farms and Food Act seek to generate investments in these underfunded areas to expand program impact. 

The Local Farms and Food Act will: 

• Increase equity and access to LAMP programs by creating simplified applications, scaling cost-share requirements for smaller growers, and ensuring funding reaches underserved communities,  
• Meet critical and under-supported needs for local food system equipment, value-chain coordination, and business technical assistance,  
• And expand impactful nutrition incentive programs and ensure low-income families have easy access to healthful local foods by equipping farmers’ markets to readily accept federal nutrition benefits, increasing funding for SFMNP, and reducing barriers for organizations to participate in the GusNIP program.

“OEFFA appreciates Senator Sherrod Brown’s work over the past decade or more to champion legislation that invests in rural and urban communities, helps farmers access higher value markets, provides community members with access to healthful foods, and grows local and regional economies. When many Ohio residents saw bare grocery shelves during the start of the pandemic in 2020, they turned to farmers in their communities,” said Amalie Lipstreu, Policy Director for Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association, an NSAC member. “The Local Farms and Food Act will continue to build those local supply chains by filling in gaps in infrastructure.”

“The VAP Grant program is vital in helping growers secure needed funding to make “jumps” in their business. Value-added products often allow small farmers to have a shelf stable product that can bring in revenue during the slower times of the year. It’s an important market diversification strategy,” said Kali Feiereisel, Farm Services Director for Community Alliance with Family Farmers (CAFF). “CAFF has been working with small farmers in guiding them through value-added product business development and explanation of the USDA’s VAP Grant. Some small farms have a great value-added product idea but can’t apply for the grant because they do not have enough extra cash on hand to meet the match requirement. Reducing the farmer match requirement for the VAP Grant will make the program more accessible and impactful!”

“Research suggests that a strong local food system can help expand access to nutritious foods, while supporting small and midsize farmers and strengthening local economies. But programs that build the infrastructure for farmers to bring their products to local markets, as well as programs that provide direct incentives to low-income households to purchase local products, are currently underfunded. As a result, programs like the Local Food and Farmers Market Promotion Program turn away roughly three out of every four applicants a year. That is why increasing funding for local food systems is so important.” said Alice Reznickova, PhD, Interdisciplinary Scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists, also an NSAC member.  

The bill outline can be found here. 

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About the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC)

The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition is a grassroots alliance that advocates for federal policy reform supporting the long-term social, economic, and environmental sustainability of agriculture, natural resources, and rural communities. Learn more and get involved at: https://sustainableagriculture.net

The post Release: Local Farms and Food Act Introduced in Both Houses appeared first on National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition.

On March 17, 2023, USDA Rural Development announced the availability of at least $31 million in total funding for Value-Added Producer (VAPG) projects and $3 million for Socially Disadvantaged Groups Grant (SDGG). The application window to apply is now open. 

Online applications will be accepted until May 11 for VAPG and May 16 for SDGG through grants.gov. Additional information on paper application deadlines is below. We encourage all readers to help get the word out to qualified individuals and groups.

Value-Added Producer Grants

The VAPG program offers critical annual funding opportunities to farmers and their local economies. Value-added products bring in higher prices than raw products alone, helping farmers and ranchers improve their bottom lines and grow their businesses – which in turn increases hiring and spending in their local communities!

The term “value-added” includes foods or goods made from raw agricultural products that (a) have undergone a change in physical state, (b) were produced, marketed, or segregated (i.e., identity preserved, eco-labeling) in a manner that enhances its value or expands the customer base of the product, or (c) were aggregated and marketed as a locally-produced food. Expanding to value-added production can be time and resource intensive, which is why VAPG continues to be an impactful program that offers opportunities to kickstart new, or expand existing, value-added operations.

VAPG basics

VAPG is a subprogram of the Local Agriculture Market Program (LAMP) that provides competitive grants to individual, independent agricultural producers, groups of independent producers, producer-controlled entities, organizations representing agricultural producers, and farmer or rancher cooperatives, to create or expand value-added producer-owned businesses. 

Priority is given to projects that increase opportunities for small and mid-sized family farms, and for beginning, veteran, and socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers.

There are two types of grants awarded through VAPG:

1. Planning projects provide grants of up to $75,000 for economic planning activities such as the development of business and marketing plans and feasibility studies needed to establish viable marketing opportunities for value-added products.
2. Working capital projects are directly related to the processing and/or marketing of value-added products with a maximum award amount of $250,000. In general, applications with requests of $50,000 or more must be supported by an independent feasibility study and business plan.

Who is eligible?

• Independent, individual agricultural producers
• Groups of agricultural producers
• Majority-controlled producer-based business ventures
• Farmer or rancher cooperatives

Read more about the eligibility criteria in the VAPG section of NSAC’s Grassroots Guide.

Matching fund requirements

The matching fund requirements for the 2023 cycle will return to levels from FY2020. All applicants will be required to demonstrate 50% matching funds. Matching funds may be in the form of cash or eligible in kind contributions.

Tribal applicants may use funding from grants made available through the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act of 1975 for matching funds.

Resources and tools for applying

• For more information on VAPG and program eligibility, visit NSAC’s Grassroots Guide or the 2023 Farmers’ Guide to Applying for the Value-Added Producer Grant Program. 

• USDA has also created a “toolkit” for applicants, which includes an application checklist, templates, required grant forms, and instructions (this can be found under the “To Apply” tab).

• USDA Rural Development and NSAC hosted a webinar for prospective applicants to learn more about the program earlier this year. You can watch the webinar recording or review the full presentation.

How do I apply?

More information can be found on USDA’s VAPG grant page, where you will find toolkit guides for both grant projects, required documentation, and steps on preliminary actions your operation should take prior to submitting an application. 

It is highly recommended that you get in touch with your USDA Rural Development state office’s Business Program Specialist to walk through your project and see if it is a good fit for the program. Find state contacts here.

When is the deadline?

Paper applications: All materials for paper applications must be submitted and/or postmarked by May 16, 2023 to be considered for this funding cycle. 

Electronic applications: All materials must be submitted via http://www.grants.gov and be received before Midnight EST on May 11, 2023.

You may also opt to submit your application via email or in-person at your local field office. In-person submissions must be done before the close of business, local time on May 16, 2023. 

Contact your State Rural Development Office with any questions.

Socially Disadvantaged Groups Grant

Rural Cooperative Development Grants were established to provide technical assistance to individuals or businesses to create or expand rural cooperatives, including, but not exclusively, food and farming cooperatives. In 2014, Congress created a set-aside within the program to provide funding for targeted assistance for “socially disadvantaged groups,” which created the Socially Disadvantaged Groups Grant (SDGG). For the purpose of this opportunity, socially disadvantaged groups means a group whose members have been subject to racial, ethnic, or gender prejudice because of their identity.

SDGG basics

The purpose of the program is to fund cooperatives and cooperative development centers to provide technical assistance in rural areas in the form of: 

• Feasibility studies, 
• Business plans,
• Strategic planning,
• And leadership training. 

The maximum award amount is $175,000 and its duration is for one year. There are no matching funds required for this opportunity.

Who is eligible?

• Cooperative development centers 
• Individual cooperatives
• Groups of cooperatives that either serve socially disadvantaged groups or the majority of their governing body identify as members of socially disadvantaged groups

Eligible areas

Generally applicants and technical assistance activities eligible for this funding opportunity are restricted to rural areas with populations of no more than 50,000 individuals. However, the 2023 omnibus appropriations package prioritized a set of funds to serve persistent poverty counties. With this priority, it also expanded the eligible county areas to include persistent poverty counties with populations up to 55,000 individuals. 

Persistent poverty counties are defined as “any county that has had 20 percent or more of its population living in poverty over the past 30 years, as measured by the 1990 and 2000 decennial censuses, and 2007-2011 American Community Survey 5-year average, or any territory or possession of the United States.”

How do I apply?

For more information visit USDA’s SDGG grant page, where you will find an application checklist, template, and frequently asked questions. 

It is highly recommended that you get in touch with your USDA Rural Development state office’s Business Program Specialist to walk through your project and see if it is a good fit for the program. Find state contacts here.

When is the deadline?

All materials must be submitted via https://www.grants.gov and be received before 4:30 pm EST on May 16, 2023.

Mandatory registrations

As part of larger efforts to streamline federal grant making processes, applicants of either opportunity must obtain a Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) number and be registered and maintain registration in the federal System for Awards Management (SAM). Previously, an applicant had to obtain a Dun and Bradstreet Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS) number and separately maintain a SAM registration. 

The UEI is assigned by SAM as part of the registration process and replaces the DUNS number. To register with SAM and receive a UEI, go to https://www.sam.gov/ SAM/. 

The process is fairly straightforward, but it can take 3 to 5 weeks before a new SAM registration is active and valid. Therefore, it is highly recommended that this is one of the first steps a prospective applicant takes.

NSAC’s Legacy of Advocacy

The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) helped create VAPG as part of the 2000 Agricultural Risk Protection Act. For more than twenty years, NSAC has been one of the leading advocates for VAPG and other programs that support local food systems and rural development. 

Since the 2002 Farm Bill, NSAC has successfully advocated to strengthen VAPG and expand the program to include support for organic products, sustainable livestock niche markets, local food enterprises and food supply networks. These changes have advanced growth in sustainable agricultural practices and regional food economies to connect producers to new market opportunities. NSAC also worked with Congress to secure program priorities for small and mid-size family farms, beginning and socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers, and returning veteran farmers. 

During the 2018 Farm Bill, NSAC successfully championed efforts to reauthorize VAPG through a new umbrella program, the Local Agriculture Market Program (LAMP), which combined VAPG with the Farmers Market and Local Food Promotion Program (FMLFPP) and provided both programs with permanent mandatory funding. Although VAPG now has permanent mandatory funding as part of LAMP, VAPG funding levels are a fraction of what they were under the 2002 Farm Bill and are insufficient to meet program demand.

As we head into 2023 Farm Bill discussions, NSAC is working with Congress to reduce barriers for applicants by scaling match requirements for producers and expanding overall access to VAPG by increasing total funding for LAMP. For more about NSAC’s priorities for local food systems and rural development, see the 2023 Farm Bill Platform. 

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With farmers pulling long hours at the height of harvest season, and cases of the coronavirus skyrocketing across the country, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is now providing additional funding to help many in our food and farm supply chains who were left out of previous aid programs.

As of October 6, USDA is now accepting applications for its Pandemic Response and Safety (PRS) Grant Program and will be doling out more than $650 million in aid to food processors, distributors, farmers markets, and producers who have been impacted by the pandemic. The deadline for submitting applications is by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on Monday, November 22, 2021.

Read on to see if this program is right for you or those in your community. More details can be found at the USDA’s PRS portal. 

Who is eligible?

PRS funding is available for food processors, distributors, farmers markets, food hubs, and producers that meet the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) “small business” size standards, as well as non-profit organizations, both those with 501(c)3 status and non-profits with other IRS designations. This includes small-scale diversified and specialty crop producers, produce distribution companies, meat processors and distributors, food hubs, and farmers markets.

All farmers markets are considered “small”. For all other businesses, check to see if you meet the Small Business criteria here. (Note: you will need to know your 6 digit NAICS code. If you don’t know which NAICS code to select, visit census.gov). Food hubs that sell into multiple market channels (i.e.- wholesale and direct to consumer,) should use the “Merchant Wholesaler, Nondurable Goods” NAICS set of codes. If the food hub is marketing a mix of items (fresh produce, manufactured goods, animal products, etc.), in other words, not just fresh produce, they can either choose the predominant merchant category (e.g., mostly fresh fruit and vegetables,) or apply under “Other grocery and related products”. 

More details on eligibility can be found on AMS’s eligibility portal. AMS has also developed an online video discussing program eligibility that can be viewed here.

How to apply

1. If you think you might be eligible for funding, and are interested in applying, first verify your eligibility here. 
2. If you are eligible, then register for your DUNS number here (if you don’t already have one), you must have a DUNS number in order to submit an application. While it should only take less than 5 minutes to complete your DUN application, it can take up to 5 business days to receive your DUNS number, so do not wait until the last minute! An AMS video tutorial on applying for a DUNS number is available here.
3. Finally, once you have verified that you are eligible and received a DUNS number, click here to complete USDA’s online PRS application by 11:59 p.m. ET on Monday, November 22, 2021.

A video tutorial providing an overview of the application process can be found here.

What costs are covered?

Costs incurred between January 27, 2020 and December 31, 2021 to respond to and protect workers against the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) are eligible for reimbursement. These include costs to:

• Implement workplace safety measures to protect workers against COVID-19 (such as personal protective equipment, thermometers, cleaning supplies, sanitizer, hand washing stations)
• Pivot markets to protect workers against COVID–19 (such as developing online platforms)
• Retrofit facilities for worker and consumer safety (such as installing protective barriers, heat lamps, fans, tents, etc.)
• Provide additional transportation options to maintain social distancing for workers and consumers
• Provide housing that protects workers against COVID-19
• Provide health services to protect workers against COVID-19

Funding requests may range from $1,500 to $20,000. Funding requests can also include staff time associated with keeping workers safe such as, but not limited to, planning and execution of market pivots, like drive through farmers markets, pre-order systems, and online platforms; as well as added staffing for security and crowd management necessary to comply with mask mandates and capacity limits. 

Receipts are not required at the time of application however you should maintain sufficient documentation and records, such as receipts, to demonstrate costs were incurred due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the eligible expense category, as USDA will be conducting spot checks of the program.

For a more detailed list of eligible costs, refer to the Program Information included on AMS’s PRS portal.

Deadline to apply

USDA began accepting applications on October 6, 2021. Applicants have 45 days to apply. All applications must be submitted by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on Monday, November 22, 2021. Funding will not be awarded on a “first come, first served” basis so applicants need not rush to submit their applications. However, USDA will not accept late applications under any circumstances, so it is advisable that applicants submit their applications early if possible.

Additional Resources

Stay tuned for additional resources from NSAC and our partners on this new funding opportunity! In the meantime, check out these helpful resources from USDA:

• AMS Pandemic Response and Safety Grant Program (PRS) portal
• AMS Eligible Industry Table
• SBA Small Business Classification Table

If you have questions about applying or obtaining a DUNS number, contact USDA’s Application Help Desk by phone at (301) 238-5550 or by emailing usda.ams.prs@grantsolutions.gov. The Help Desk hours of operation are Monday-Friday, 9:00 AM – 9:00 PM ET.

Si tiene preguntas sobre cómo solicitar u obtener un número DUNS, comuníquese con el Servicio de asistencia de solicitudes del USDA por teléfono al (301) 238-5550 o envíe un correo electrónico a usda.ams.prs@grantsolutions.gov. El horario de atención de la mesa de ayuda es de lunes a viernes, de 9:00 a. M. A 9:00 p. M., Hora del Este.

Recursos Adicionales (Recursos en Español) 

El programa de subvencion para respuestas y seguridad ante pandemias (PRS por sus siglas en inlgés) proporciona fondos para procesadores de alimentos, distribuidores, mercados agrícolas y productores para responder al Coronavirus, incluidas medida para proteger a los trabajadores contra el nuevo Coronavirus (COVID-19). 

AMS ha preparado recursos en español para solicitantes de habla hispana.  

• Documentos requeridos para aplicar – Spanish (pdf) 
• Cómo solicitar un número DUNS? – Spanish (pdf) 
• Cómo hacer una búsqueda de DUNS? – Spanish (pdf) 
• Cómo actualizar un número DUNS existente? – Spanish (pdf) 
• Hoja informativa del Programa de Subsidios de Seguridad y Respuesta a la Pandemia (pdf)

The post COVID Relief Funding NOW Available for Farmers Markets, Processors and Underserved Farmers appeared first on National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition.

Livestock consolidation and concentration have been gaining traction in Washington, D.C. Last month, President Biden signed an Executive Order on Promoting Competition in the American Economy, signaling a whole of government effort to address concentration and consolidation in US markets. Several initiatives announced could have a far-reaching impact on agriculture, including the intent to strengthen enforcement of the Packers and Stockyards Act (P&SA) to protect farmers and producers from anticompetitive practices. In addition, a bipartisan bill introduced in the Senate and the House of Representatives could complement these rules by adding capacity to enforce P&SA violations.

Background

NSAC applauded the Executive Order on Promoting Competition in the American Economy as a significant step in the right direction, as did our members (including the Land Stewardship Project), given that agricultural markets have become increasingly concentrated in recent decades. 

Today, just four corporations are responsible for 65 percent of sales in the global agrochemicals market, 50 percent of the seed market, and 45 percent of farm equipment sales. In the US, just four companies represent 73 percent of beef processing, 67 percent of pork processing, 54 percent of chicken processing, and 45 percent of the retail grocery market. This concentration hurts farmers and consumers while returning maximum profits to corporations. This inflates the prices that farmers must pay for inputs, drives down commodity prices, and restricts the ability of farmers to compete in the marketplace. 

Yet these consequences have reverberated far beyond the meat and processing industries, too, in the poultry and produce sectors. Supply chain disruptions are only one of the many harms generated by unchecked concentration and consolidation across the U.S. food system during the last half century. Now is the time to act to redress all harm to farmers, ranchers, and rural communities created by the corporate capture of the food system. The recent Executive Order, as well as complementary legislation recently introduced in Congress, are posed to begin the process of restoring fair competition to our livestock and poultry industries. 

Agriculture Provisions in the Executive Order

The Executive Order on Promoting Competition in the American Economy (EO) specifies a number of actions that the Administration will take to address anticompetitive practices in the agriculture industry. The EO included the intent to strengthen the P&SA, define when meat can bear the “Product of USA” label, and limit the ability of farm equipment manufacturers to deny farmers the “right to repair” machines. In addition, the EO includes general provisions to strengthen the mandate and capacity of the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to enforce antitrust and fair competition laws. 

Packers and Stockyards Act Rules

The P&SA was passed a century ago to combat anticompetitive practices in the livestock and poultry industries as corporate meatpackers and processors (also known as integrators) consolidated and amassed substantial power over producers. The commitment to begin a new rulemaking process to strengthen the P&SA follows on the heels of an announcement from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) earlier this summer, and we expect the proposed rules to be issued this Fall. 

Together, according to the EO, these new rules will make it easier for farmers to bring and win claims under the P&SA, stop chicken processors from exploiting and underpaying chicken farmers, and adopt anti-retaliation protections for farmers who speak out about bad practices. 

To do this, the proposed rules will include language which clearly identifies practices in the livestock and poultry sectors that are unfair, unjustly discriminatory, or deceptive and thus in violation of the P&SA. This will counter the harmful final rule issued in the final weeks of the Trump Administration, which would effectively offer legal safe harbors for corporate integrators to perpetuate anticompetitive practices.

Just this week, in line with the spirit of the EO, USDA under the Biden Administration announced guidance to mitigate potential harm in its implementation of this rule, by specifically stating that the criteria outlined therein are not safe harbors.

In addition, the proposed rules are expected to prohibit unfair grower ranking systems, namely the poultry tournament system. This system pits farmer against farmer, ensuring that half of all farmers in the tournament will always lose, and bases the selection of winners and losers on factors outside the control of contracted producers and determined solely by big chicken companies (e.g. the quality of feed and chicks). Integrators have been known to manipulate these two variables in order to punish contract growers who have spoken out against industry abuses, almost systematically against farmers of color, which exemplifies the need for the proposed rule to prohibit retaliation against growers.

Finally, the proposed rules are expected to reinforce a longstanding position of both Republican and Democratic Administrations, and what the underlying law plainly says: that the P&SA does not require proof of injury to cover employees, owners and even employers form injuries or illness caught while working, learn more from this workers compensation attorney Las Vegas. Not only is this a ludicrous standard that no one should have to meet in order to see justice served, it is not written anywhere in the law despite courts in recent years reinterpreting the statute to require that elevated standard.

NSAC strongly supports these new rules that will make it easier for farmers to bring and win claims, stop chicken processors from exploiting and underpaying chicken farmers, and adopt anti-retaliation protections for farmers who speak out about bad practices. This has been more than a decade in the making, and this time it must be done right. 

Product of USA Label

Under current labeling rules, meat can be labeled “Product of USA” if it, at a minimum, passes through a U.S. processing plant. For example, this label may be applied to meat raised overseas and then merely processed into cuts of meats in the United States.

In addition to economically harming farmers by creating unfair competition, such a policy misleads consumers. Consumers are increasingly looking for locally, regionally, and domestically produced food and farm products, including meat and meat products. When consumers purchase meat products with the “Product of USA” label on it, they expect the product or its primary ingredients were domestically produced. To allow meat and meat products that were not domestically produced to carry such a label is clearly misleading. 

NSAC supports the Administration’s directive in the EO for USDA to consider issuing new rules defining when meat can bear “Product of USA” labels, so that consumers have accurate, transparent labels. 

Right to Repair

Similar to the livestock and poultry industries, the farm equipment sector is highly consolidated. Four companies, chief among them John Deere, control at least 45 percent of global farm machinery sales. They exert this market influence in a number of ways: by using patents to prevent farmers from repairing their own heavy machinery through independent repair technicians, or from continuing to maintain equipment that is no longer supported by the manufacturer. This multiplies the profit streams for companies and perpetuates the need for farmers to continue to invest in the newest available equipment. 

In recent years, farmers have launched a “right-to-repair” movement to combat this practice, though until now its advocates faced a significant uphill battle. However, thanks to the EO, farmers will soon have the right to repair their tractors. The EO directs the FTC to limit powerful equipment manufacturers from restricting people’s ability to use independent repair shops or do DIY repairs. This will impact not only the agriculture industry, but all industries where this practice is common, including the technology industry. 

General Antitrust and Competition 

Beyond specific directives which will promote the restoration of fair competition across the agriculture industry, the EO includes a number of general provisions to strengthen the enforcement of antitrust laws and the promotion of fair competition across the American economy. Though these are not all specific to the agriculture industry, they will prove pivotal to mitigating the rapid consolidation and concentration of corporations in the agriculture industry.

The EO calls on the DOJ and the FTC, as the leading antitrust agencies, to enforce antitrust laws vigorously. The EO also recognizes that the law allows them to challenge prior bad mergers that past Administrations did not previously challenge. In addition, it establishes a White House Competition Council to monitor progress on finalizing the initiatives in the EO and to coordinate the federal government’s response to the rising power of large corporations in the economy. These are significant directives which elevate the mandate of these agencies to act, for the first time since their respective authorities were eviscerated during the Reagan Administration.

The White House Competition Council will, among other priorities, be charged with completing a number of reports to determine what future actions may be necessary beyond the scope of this EO to promote fair competition – including reports that are specific to agriculture. This will include a report to review the intellectual property system, with the aim of building a system which incentivizes innovation but does not reduce competition in seed and other input markets. In addition, the group is charged with writing a report to improve small farmers’ and processors’ access to retail markets and to ensure they receive a fair return for their products.

The Executive Order on Promoting Competition in the American Economy represents a pivotal opportunity to advance reforms which mitigate the harmful impacts of rising consolidation and concentration across the U.S. food system on farmers, ranchers, and consumers. 

That said, the actions outlined in the EO are not a panacea – but merely a first step. The implementation of these provisions will need to be monitored and defended from bad actors in the years to come, and additional legislation will be needed to enhance the enforcement capacity of the USDA, DOJ, and FTC to see results. 

Special Investigator on Competition Matters

If passed, the bipartisan Meat Packing Special Investigator Act (S.2036) introduced in the Senate by Senators John Tester (D-MT), Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Mike Rounds (R-SD) and the Meat and Poultry Special Investigator Act (H.R.4103) introduced in the House of Representatives by Reps. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) and Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-IA), could complement the upcoming Packers and Stockyards Act proposed rules and additional commitments from the Administration by increasing its capacity to enforce P&SA violations.

The Act, in both the House and Senate versions of the bill, will create the “Office of the Special Investigator for Competition Matters” within the USDA Packers and Stockyards Division, which oversees P&SA implementation. The USDA Special Investigator will have a team of investigators, with subpoena power, dedicated to addressing anticompetitive practices in the meat industry and enforcing antitrust laws. They will work in coordination with, and act in consultation, with the DOJ and the FTC.

In addition, in light of the recent ransomware attack against the country’s largest meat supplier, JBS (which further exposed the vulnerability of a meat processing industry that is reliant on a few multinational corporations), the newly created office will build a new bridge between USDA and the Department of Homeland Security, to ensure the continuation of the food supply, protect critical agricultural infrastructure, and safeguard national security. With a team of dedicated staff, USDA will have the ability to deeply investigate issues facing producers, safeguard producers by enforcing the P&SA, and protect our country’s food supply chain and national security. 

The only meaningful difference between the House and Senate versions of the Act is in its scope, and it comes down to the exclusion of two words: “by packers”. The Senate Meat Packing Special Investigator Act limits the authority of the Office of the Special Investigator for Competition Matters to issues concerning meat packers, thereby excluding the poultry industry, which is historically not included in that definition. In contrast, the House Meat and Poultry Special Investigator Act removes this limitation, effectively empowering the new office to address all competition issues relevant to the P&SA, including in poultry markets. 

We are optimistic that both chambers will be able to reconcile this difference in a way that protects all of our country’s livestock and poultry farmers and ranchers. 

NSAC helped to draft the first iteration of this bill, introduced in the Senate in 2007, to be included in the livestock title of the 2008 Farm Bill. It did not make it into the final version of that Farm Bill or any since, but the idea remained alive – and now its implementation would prove as critical as ever. The belief was then, and continues to be – especially in light of the Biden Administration’s recent commitments to strengthen the Packers and Stockyards Act – that new rules will ultimately make no difference if USDA does not build a team of professionals and lawyers dedicated to implementing and enforcing those rules. 

What’s Next? 

The Packers and Stockyards Act was passed in 1921 to protect farmers, ranchers, and consumers from unfair, deceptive, discriminatory, and monopolistic practices in the face of rising consolidation in the meat industry. Yet today, the size and influence of these corporations far exceed those conditions which inspired this Act and compelled Upton Sinclair to write “The Jungle,” thus introducing the American public to the horrors of the industry. 

The recent announcement of a deal between private protein and grain trading giant, Cargill, and agriculture-investment firm, Continental Grain, to acquire Sanderson Farms, the third-largest chicken processor in the United States, makes clear that the unprecedented consolidation plaguing agricultural markets has yet to even reach its peak – if it is allowed to continue unchecked. 

That is why NSAC strongly believes that it is past time to amend the 100-year old Packers and Stockyards Act and otherwise give USDA and additional agencies charged with antitrust enforcement the tools and capacity they need to keep pace with the rapid evolution of these industries and the plight of farmers, ranchers, and consumers in the modern day. 

To learn more about the need for competition reform in agriculture, read NSAC’s ongoing competition and antitrust blog series.

The post Livestock and Poultry Competition Reform on the Horizon appeared first on National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition.

For over two decades, National Farmers Market Week (NFMW) has been a time of celebration for everyone who supports farmers markets. Declared by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the weeklong event always lands on the first full week of August, and highlights the important role farmers markets play in the nation’s local food system. Farmers markets in towns big and small, from coast to coast. work hard to host special events, contests, activities, and more. It’s fun, it’s festive, and it’s a chance to really celebrate all farmers markets do for their communities.

National Farmers Market Week is not just an opportunity to celebrate the myriad benefits farmers markets offer, but also a wonderful opportunity to build and cement relationships with elected officials and decision makers. As NSAC members know, if you wait until you are in the midst of a crisis to meet with your government representative, your chances of success are much lower than if you have an already established rapport.

One of the best examples of this comes from Minnesota, where in 2019 the Minnesota Farmers Market Association took National Farmers Market Week and ran with it. They had zucchini races, they had market managers on television morning shows, and they held a corn shucking competition with their Governor, Tim Walz, and state Agricultural Commissioner, Thom Peterson. Good times were had by all!

The importance of including those officials in National Farmers Market week in 2019 would become apparent just a few months later as the COVID pandemic hit. As soon as the reality of the situation became clear, the MFMA Executive Director, Kathy Zeaman was on the phone with the Minnesota Agricultural Commissioner and as a result, farmers markets in Minnesota were appropriately recognized as essential businesses from day one, valued for their role in safely distributing food at a time when retail supply chains were struggling, and had some of the best, clearest guidance among markets nationwide.

This is not to say that Minnesota farmers market operators didn’t face very real challenges of operating markets during a global pandemic but because of the relationships built back during that corn shucking contest, markets were able to focus on overcoming those challenges and running their markets without the added hurdle of needing to lobby to be classified as and essential business. 

Of course, this comes as no surprise to those of us here at the Farmers Market Coalition — a national organization dedicated to strengthening farmers markets — as well as the farmers market operators we represent. 

Farmers markets have always been essential. They keep more money circulating in local economies by providing shoppers with an opportunity to buy directly from small, local business and independent farmers and vendors, many of whom practice sustainable farming methods that protect our planet’s water, soil, and air. They increase access to fresh, nutritious food, particularly in communities that lack grocery stores and other food retail outlets, and are a place where friends, family, and neighbors can come to visit with one another, learn about food and agriculture, or just relax and have fun. 

And as we have most recently experienced, farmers markets prioritize the health and safety of our communities. As challenging as it has been, farmers markets have risen to the occasion to provide a necessary sense of unity and stability at a time we need it most. In addition to COVID-19 precautions, many market leaders have also taken action to improve equity at their markets. It’s important to acknowledge farmers markets have not always reflected their local communities or provided a space where everyone can feel welcome. Together, market operators and community organizers are paving the way to make farmers markets safe, inviting, and accessible for all.

NFMW offers a wonderful opportunity for farmers markets to celebrate their hard work and emphasize the need to support farmers markets throughout the year. This support can come from those consistent customers that are at the heart of farmers markets, but it can also come from raising awareness of farmers markets with media and elected officials. While interest in local food continues to grow nationwide, the increased costs and time required to keep these essential food retail outlets in operation, especially throughout the pandemic, have been major challenges for markets everywhere.

If there’s ever been a moment to elevate and support farmers markets, now is the time. The national Farmers Market Coalition supports farmers markets through resource development, technical support, advocacy and promotion. During National Farmers Market Week we work to make sure that farmers markets and the vibrant communities that they support have everything they need to celebrate the accomplishments of the past year. The Farmers Market Coalition provides a toolkit for organizations across the country to use to promote National Farmers Market Week and engage their communities in supporting farmers markets and local businesses. The toolkit includes advocacy resources, including templates for proclamations in local areas and invitations for farmers market organizations to invite elected officials to their markets during National Farmers Market Week to join in the celebrations!  

We believe that farmers market organizations can be agents for systemic change and market operators should view themselves as community organizers in their communities. Farmers markets are a place for community connection and continue to provide a place for community members to feel empowered to come together around shared values. We are thrilled to celebrate everything that farmers market operators have accomplished in the past year and we look forward to working with markets across the country to continue to grow as welcoming spaces for all, and continue to work with their local policymakers as a core part of resilient local food systems. 

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