Issue #51 | March 2024







Supporting collective action
toward an equitable, sustainable, resilient, and connected local
food system in Massachusetts.
Advocate
Things you can do right now to
support systemic policy change.
State budget briefing

Please join The Collaborative, Project Bread, the Food Banks, the Buy Locals, MPHA, and MLRI for a fiscal year 2025 budget advocacy briefing for food system stakeholders at 10 am on April 5th! We will share our budget asks, go over how to advocate together, and answer any questions advocates may have! No experience with advocacy is necessary, all food system stakeholders are welcome to attend! Please register for the zoom link here.

HIP Lobby Day

Join us at HIP Lobby Day on March 26th starting at 11 am at the State House! The Campaign for HIP Funding will be hosting its annual advocacy day to ensure the legislature supports HIP with full funding of $25 million in the fiscal year 2025 budget. Please RSVP here. Again, no experience with advocacy is needed, training for advocates will be provided.
Collaborate
Highlights of the
Collaborative's work.
Local Food System FY25 Budget Priorities

Massachusetts’ local food system is vital to the health of its residents, and to our state’s economy. In the past year, with the funding the local food system has received, the state has; created a new fund for direct relief payments to farmers after last season’s weather events led to severe crop losses, dedicated funding to the school wellness coaching program designed to strengthen school wellness efforts, especially how it relates to food, and provided support to local food policy councils, among many other categories of support. This is thanks to our collective advocacy and efforts. 

The Collaborative will be advocating for continued support for the Healthy Incentives Program, the Food Security Infrastructure Grant program, school wellness policy coaching to support food literacy, and a third round of grants for local food policy councils at the noted levels below. We will share opportunities for advocacy to your elected representatives as the budget progresses! 

The below chart includes our priorities, and the asks from many food security campaigns led by our advocacy partners. Keep in mind this total amount is equivalent to about 0.5% of the overall annual budget.
2022 Census of Agriculture results released

The USDA has released its 2022 Census of Agriculture and the Massachusetts specific data can be found here. According to the 2022 Census data, between 2017-2022, Massachusetts has lost both 158 farms and 27,202 acres of farmland. At the same time, our state has experienced an increase in the annual market value of agricultural goods to more than $607 million, and an increase in the number of farmers under 45 years old. Sales from farmers directly to retail markets increased to $101 million, possibly thanks to state programs like HIP and others. Dig deeper into the numbers here. 

As Massachusetts continues to lose farmland and farms, it is more important than ever to advocate for policies that preserve and protect farmland, with the full implementation of the recently released Farmland Action Plan. Without policies that help the local farm and fishing industries to be financially sustainable, and policies that help strengthen and make more equitable our local food system, we will not be able to meet this goal. Some of these policies include the Agricultural Preservation Restriction program, the Food Security Infrastructure Grants, among others.

Local Food Policy Council and Urban Agriculture Network Meeting Recaps

In February the local food policy councils network reconvened for the first time in 2024. We spent time catching up with each other about what different groups have been working on including HIP advocacy, a legislative breakfast, receiving new grants, asset mapping, and engaging community members. 

The Urban Agriculture network convened a skill share meeting on Organizational Development & Strategic Planning. Ali Jacobs, Co-Executive Director at Mill City Grows and John Wang, Co-Executive Director at The Food Project presented to the group about the shared leadership models and strategic planning at their respective organizations. 

Please reach out to Emily Fidanza, Network Manager, at emily@mafoodsystem.org to get involved in these networks.

Advocacy 101 Trainings

Do you want to learn more about the policy making process and how we can intervene for a sustainable, equitable, resilient local food system? The Collaborative has worked with many of our partners to create trainings for organizational staff, volunteers, or coalition members on what food system change is and how you can get involved. For more information about what a potential advocacy training could entail, please reach out to Becca Miller, Policy Director, at rebecca@mafoodsystem.org.
Celebrate
Inspiring work being done by some
of our friends in Massachusetts.
MDAR Environmental Justice newsletter

The MA Department of Agriculture Resources’ Environmental Justice Newsletter featured one of the Collaborative’s Advisory Board Members, Liz O’Gilvie. The newsletter discussed Liz’s work with Gardening the Community and the Springfield Food Policy Council.
Discover
Thoughtful insights about
food system issues.
New USDA Equity Report and Action Plan released
USDA released an Equity Commission Report and the Equity Action Plan in February 2024. The Equity Action Plan highlights the USDA updates and accomplishments to increasing equity across its Departments. More notably, the plan lays out strategies to advance equity in FY 2024, as well as the evidence supporting the strategy. The Department has a long way to go to build trust with BIPOC farmers, and the most important part of any plan is its implementation, which will take sustained effort and attention.
Participate

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.