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Issue #38 | Jan 2023
Supporting collective action
toward an equitable, sustainable, resilient, and connected local
food system in Massachusetts.
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Things you can do right now to
support systemic policy change.
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Learn about FSIG
A round of funding for Food Security Infrastructure grants has been announced. Webinars are being held January 3 and 5 with details available here.
Comment on Environmental Justice
Connect about mental health on farms
MDAR has launched a program to raise awareness of mental health and stress on farms, aimed at helping participants identify the barriers farmers face when accessing resources and the methods to facilitate connection to available supports. Details are here.
Provide feedback to the USDA
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Highlights of the
Collaborative's work.
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A new legislative session begins
2023 is the beginning of a new legislative session in Boston, and January 20 is the deadline for legislators to file bills for consideration. The Collaborative has been working with senators and representatives on several food system bills, based on ideas generated through our projects, working groups, and conversations with stakeholders over the last year.
Some of our priority bills will be familiar, as we have advocated for them in past sessions but they did not pass. Bills about HIP, food donation, the establishment of a commission on equity in agriculture, and the establishment of a state food system coordinator position will be refiled this session. New legislation will include measures related to agriculture and PFAS, and a bill supporting food literacy education. We anticipate some farmland protection and access bills will deserve our attention as well.
As of this writing, all of these proposals are still in draft form, but as the bills are filed we will list them on our website, here.
And it’s not too late to submit new ideas for bills! If you or your organization have issues that you’d like to see raised in this legislative session, please contact Winton so we can help you work with a legislator to make it happen. If you are already working on a food system bill, please let us know about that as well so we can put it on our list for consideration and advocacy.
As bills are filed, legislators will have opportunities to sign on as cosponsors. Watch for calls to action from us in your inbox after January 20 so you can reach out to your representatives and senators and urge them to support bills that represent steps toward a more sustainable, equitable, and resilient local food system.
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MDAR drafts environmental justice policy - input needed!
The Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, which includes MDAR, has drafted Environmental Justice Strategies. This policy begins to address some vital areas of equity in the way state agencies perform core functions such as community outreach, internal operations, hiring practices, programs management, and even grant distributions. The draft is open for comments through January 27, and the Collaborative’s Ag Equity Network is preparing to submit comments and urges others to do so as well. This is an opportunity to shape how MDAR addresses diversity and equity in all that they do!
While our comments are still being developed, we have reviewed the draft with some members of the Ag Equity Network and a few areas immediately stand out that warrant attention:
- We are pleased to see that MDAR intends to establish an environmental justice working group, but would like to see it include BIPOC farmers, rather than solely MDAR staff.
- We feel it is important for MDAR to include regular structured communication with BIPOC farmers and the organizations that represent them as part of their outreach strategy.
- EEA should identify and implement opportunities to connect brownfields revitalization efforts with the need for accessible farmland near population centers.
- The draft emphasizes working with “BIPOC farmers for land access and to facilitate their successful transition from urban to larger scale farms.” We would also like to see an emphasis on practices that focus on working with these farmers where they are, by empowering and educating urban farms on how to be sustainable and viable in their communities. It is also important to acknowledge that not all BIPOC farmers are in urban areas, and not all urban growers are BIPOC.
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We appreciate the work of the Environmental Justice Task Force and the Environmental Justice Council, and hope their work continues. Further work should include genuine engagement with BIPOC farmers and stakeholders with lived-experiences at the beginning of any future policy development or implementation, rather than an invitation to offer comments on nearly complete draft documents.
- MDAR and other agencies targeting grants and programs to BIPOC farmers and stakeholders must ensure resources and funding opportunities aren’t hampered by unnecessary process and red-tape.
It is vital that all official food system policy development and implementation applies an equity lens, and the ability to provide feedback on this draft document gives the Ag Equity Network and others an opportunity to shape how that is done. Comments are due by January 27. Comments can be submitted in writing through this form, or orally at one of three remaining listening sessions - one in-person in Roxbury and two virtual (registration required here). Please reach out to Norris Guscott at norris@mafoodsystem.org if you’d like to connect regarding this important work.
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Evidence of the impact of advocacy
MDAR recently announced more than $7 million in grants to maintain and improve food and agricultural supply chain resiliency through the purchase of domestic food from local and regional producers, by targeting purchases from socially disadvantaged farmers and producers, and the distribution to underserved communities. Information about the program, which was significantly informed by stakeholder input, can be found here.
The Massachusetts Climate Change Assessment was released in December, detailing how Massachusetts people, environments, and infrastructure may be affected by climate change and related hazards through the end of the century. Threats to food security, agriculture, and fisheries are all cited as significant concerns, particularly the disproportionate impact on environmental justice communities. This inclusion was thanks to input from many food system stakeholders through the process of developing the Assessment.
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Steve Kulik: Food system champion
It’s hard to think of a food or agricultural policy issue that former Representative Steve Kulik didn’t champion during his 25 years in the Massachusetts state legislature. From farmland protection, to dairy farm viability, to HIP, to maple syrup, his name was at the top of key pieces of legislation that have helped make our local food system more sustainable, equitable, and resilient. He was largely responsible for the establishment of the state’s Food Policy Council, and for the state funding that catalyzed the development of the Massachusetts Local Food Action Plan. Even after he retired in 2018, he remained an active advisor to the Collaborative and many other food system organizations and continued to contribute his time generously to our work.
Steve believed deeply in the power of organizing and advocacy. “We, as legislators, like to hear from our constituents. You inspire us, you inform us, you guide us in what we should be paying attention to. Organizations are great,” he said at the Collaborative’s 2018 Forum, “but nothing beats personal contact, and telling local stories. If you don’t know your legislator, make a New Year’s resolution that in January you’ll reach out to your senator, your representative, and get to know them.”
Steve passed away in December. In his memory, let’s all make that resolution, and carry on his work of strengthening Massachusetts’ local food system.
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Inspiring work being done by some
of our friends in Massachusetts.
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The Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance
The Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance is a non-profit that supports small boat fishermen on the Cape. For their policy and advocacy work, they organize regular meetings to hear from local fishermen about their priorities. They then advocate for those priorities at the local, state, and federal level and through many regional councils and commissions that they sit on. The Alliance also communicates to fishermen about upcoming regulations.
Fishermen’s Alliance also does outreach and education about local seafood. They hold Meet the Fleet events so people can learn more about the people, the boats, and the fish. This year they launched the Small Boats, Big Science lecture series which focuses on the latest scientific advancements and how they relate to the fleet, the environment, and coastal communities. The Fishermen’s Alliance helps train new fishermen through in person and, soon, online courses and through their connections to local vocational technical high schools. They also have a curriculum about shellfish designed for third grade classrooms.
The Small Boats, Big Taste Program was launched in 2020 as a response to the fishing and food security challenges exacerbated by COVID-19, to help small-boat, independent fishermen stay on the water, providing a fair and transparent price and supply regional food banks with a nutritious, delicious seafood meal for the growing number of food insecure people. Their New England haddock chowder and Provençal fish stew are distributed through the food banks around the state and are now also available to purchase.
The Fishermen’s Alliance does a variety of small business and economic development work. They founded the Cape Cod Fisheries Trust which acts as a quota bank from which local small-boat commercial fishermen can lease scallop and groundfish quota at discounted rates. In 2021, the Trust leased quota to twenty local fishing businesses. Species leased out include scallops, hake, cod, haddock, dabs, and flounder and the leasing produced $3,455,873 worth of landings (ex-vessel value).
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Thoughtful insights about
food system issues.
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Food System Resilience: A Planning Guide for Local Governments
Natural and human-made disasters challenge food systems, affecting many people, especially those from communities already managing many inequities and vulnerabilities. Local governments around the United States have started to take action to help prepare for and prevent the consequences of these disruptions on their food systems, but there is limited information available to support them in this work. Local governments can play an essential role in food system preparedness and response through shaping food environments, providing emergency food, connecting local food system actors and communities, and planning at community scale.
This planning guide is composed of six modules that provide background information on important concepts, as well as a set of tools for developing food system resilience strategies. The strategies can be used to create a stand-alone food system resilience plan or components to embed into other local government plans, policies, or programs.
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Job Posting Sites
Job Listserv
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Upcoming Food System Events
Know of another great source of events or jobs? Let us know!
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The Massachusetts Food System Collaborative envisions a local food system where everyone has access to healthy food, to land to grow food, to good jobs, and to the systems where policy decisions are made. Read more about our vision and our work.
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