In this Issue
- Response, Recovery and Resilience in the MA Local Food System: a Discussion Series
- The Importance of Municipal Level Food Policy
- Moving a State Farmland Action Plan Forward
- Legislative Update
- List of Equity Consultants
- Food Waste Update
- System Changing Tool: Rooted, Ready & Resilient - Uplifting a BIPOC-led Vision for Crisis-Proof Food Systems
- Food System Articles We've Been Reading
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Response, Recovery and Resilience in the MA Local Food System: a Discussion Series |
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The MA Food System Collaborative hosted a series of online discussions this winter featuring presentations from practitioners and policy experts who shared how they’ve adapted during COVID, how racial justice weaves through their work, and how policy has played a role in their ability to adapt. There were lively breakout discussions following each panel. A huge thanks to the presenters, moderators, and participants who helped to share the great work happening around the state. Summaries of each session, along with recordings of the conversations, are available online.
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The Importance of Municipal Level Food Policy |
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Participants in the 2020 listening sessions that led to publication of Massachusetts’ Local Food System: Perspectives on Resilience and Recovery repeatedly raised the need to build up awareness of the local food system at the municipal level. There were many ideas put forward toward that goal: engaging municipal leaders in food system advocacy; building coalitions to advocate for policy change at the municipal level; and working with local food policy councils to affect change, among them. Education about the food system for municipal leaders and advocates becoming more familiar with municipal legislative and regulatory processes could make coordinating at this level easier.
The value in municipal-level work to support the food system is significant. Local officials can effectively lobby the state for policy changes, or can change existing local laws, regulations, programs, and investments to make the local food system more sustainable and equitable in the municipality. Boston's article 89, passed in 2013, is widely cited as an important step toward reducing barriers for commercial scale urban agriculture, and allowed urban farming in residential areas. Over the last decade, there has been a significant increase in the number and variety of urban agriculture policies enacted, which has been addressed in a wide variety of ways.
While the state limits the authority of municipalities to take action on certain issues, such as zoning, municipalities have significant power over their local food system - property taxes, public water and sewer systems, public school systems, local public health measures, public works and public safety all fall under a municipality's jurisdiction to regulate. These systems all influence the food system – how much local and healthy food is accessible to residents, how financially viable farms are, and more. Continued gaps in food access, challenges to farm sustainability, and disruptions to the supply chain point to the need to address systemic issues. Community food assessments and food plans can help to do so, and collaboration between private sector stakeholders and local officials and agencies can leverage public resources and create long-term buy-in for meaningful change.
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Moving a State Farmland Action Plan Forward |
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For Massachusetts farmers to feed the Commonwealth, land must be available and affordable. There are a number of laws, programs, regulations, and an executive order seeking to maintain our agricultural land base, but they do not coordinate, or do not coordinate well with each other, leading to reduced effectiveness, economic and administrative inefficiency, and continued loss of farmland.
Between 2012 and 2017 an average of 122 acres a week, or about 2 farms of the state average size, were taken out of production. The vast majority of this land has been permanently removed from agricultural use making the competition for remaining land intense and farm operations less sustainable due to increasing land values. In fact, the 2017 USDA Census of Agriculture shows that Massachusetts is one of just four states where farm average income is less than expenses, resulting in farms losing money in their operations.
Five years ago, the MA Local Food Action Plan recommended that the Commonwealth develop a State Farmland Action Plan. Both during the development of the Plan and in 2020 listening sessions focused on our local food system responses to COVID, farmers consistently report that availability of and access to farmland is one of the key barriers to their success. Stakeholders agreed that the absence of clear goals on the part of the State was a barrier to policy and action that could address these concerns, and so proposed that such a Plan:
- improve State data collection around farmland;
- establish a statewide baseline of land in active agricultural production;
- set measurable goals and benchmarks related to farmland protection, retention, and access; and
- recommend State program spending levels to meet those goals and benchmarks.
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Though COVID response and relief efforts dominated the 2019-2020 legislative session, there were also some notable victories for local food system bills that had been long-standing asks. Breakfast in the Classroom was enacted, thanks to many years of advocacy from a broad coalition of organizations and individuals. A bill that gives farmers more of a seat at the table when local health officials consider regulations that will affect agriculture passed in the wee hours of the legislature’s last night of work and was signed into law by Governor Baker shortly thereafter. And the economic development bond bill, also passed during the legislature’s last session, contains language establishing an important commission to examine the changing needs of agriculture, and also included a measure establishing a healthy soils program.
Enactment of these laws is just a first step for each of these issues, of course. Breakfast in the Classroom won’t be implemented until September 2022. Municipal boards of health and agricultural commissions will need help navigating their new responsibilities as they figure out how to work more closely together. And the commission’s findings won’t be complete until at least a year from now. Still, these items are significant steps toward some key recommendations in the Massachusetts Local Food Action plan.
The 2021-22 legislative session will likely continue to be shaped by COVID and many lawmakers recognize the importance of the local food system in recovery efforts and are stepping up with bills that seek to strengthen the resiliency of farms, businesses, and communities in the Commonwealth. We are working with lawmakers to develop and file several bill - some newly developed and some refiled from last session - including ones that would:
- Require the state to develop a farmland protection and viability action plan, which would set goals and benchmarks for the state around farmland protection and access, and seek to better coordinate the array of programs already in place (see above).
- Enact the Healthy Incentives Program into law, to better ensure its long-term sustainability.
- Reduce liability concerns and strengthen tax benefits for donors of edible food, to both keep that food out of the waste stream and provide food to those who need it.
- Establish a state meat inspection program, making it easier for small slaughterhouses to be established and support the growth of the state’s livestock farmers.
- Establish a circuit rider staff position at MDAR to better help farmers navigate state programs in a non-regulatory capacity.
- Establish a commission to consider how state programs could better support racial equity in agriculture.
- Require that state emergency planning efforts incorporate food production needs and resources.
All bills must be filed by February 19. If you know of other food system bills that are in the works, or would like to suggest other ideas for potential legislation, please contact Winton Pitcoff at winton@mafoodsystem.org.
Finally, as the new legislature begins its work and new members are stepping in to more than a dozen seats, the Collaborative has made this resource available which compiles contact and social media information for all senators and representatives.
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List of Equity Consultants |
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Many food system organizations are working with their staff and boards to better address racial inequities within their organizations, as well as to determine how to best address racial inequities in their work and communities. The Collaborative has begun compiling a list of consultants who work with nonprofits on these issues as a resource for those seeking assistance with these conversations.
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Massachusetts’ 2014 Commercial Food Materials Disposal Ban, prohibits businesses that create over 1 ton of food waste per week from sending that waste to a landfill or incinerator. Instead, many businesses have reduced the amount of food they waste, increased the amount of edible food they donate, sent the food to become animal feed, or sent waste to compost or anaerobic digestion facilities. This ban, which was accompanied by education and resources, has helped around 2,000 businesses significantly reduce the amount of food waste sent to landfills.
Based on drafts of new regulations circulated in 2020, it is expected that MassDEP will announce a reduction in the ban threshold this spring, to go into effect in the fall. By reducing the threshold from 1 ton to a half ton, an additional 2,000 businesses will need to comply, including some public schools. There will be many resources available to help businesses and schools meet the new guidelines and some case studies in the Collaborative’s food waste report offer good examples of waste reduction at the source.
The Collaborative will continue to facilitate the network of food waste advocates and practitioners, to share best practices and advocate for state legislation to incentivize food donation and reduce consumer food waste. If you are interested in participating, contact Brittany Peats at brittany@mafoodsystem.org.
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System Changing Tool: Rooted, Ready & Resilient - Uplifting a BIPOC-led Vision for Crisis-Proof Food Systems |
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This messaging guide was created by the HEAL (Health, Environment, Agriculture, Labor) Food Alliance which brings together organizations to address corporate control and racism in food and farm systems. This guide offers visioning and high-level messaging that can be used to talk about the food system during the pandemic. The values and solutions in this guide center the knowledge, wisdom, and leadership of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) who have been on the frontlines of the fights for food sovereignty, racial justice, climate justice, food security, worker justice, land justice, and environmental justice.
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Food System Articles We've Been Reading |
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A bill that gives agricultural commissions input into boards of health decisions that impact agriculture, such as farming, farm stands, and farmers markets was signed into law.
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People making food to sell in their homes face challenges because Massachusetts lacks a statewide cottage food law.
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The Western Massachusetts Food Processing Center’s Valley Veggies program, which typically sells bulk orders of local, frozen vegetables to institutions, is now packaging items in smaller quantities to be sold in stores to individuals.
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“More and more people must rely on emergency food distributions — many of whom are the same people who are still working, often in unsafe conditions, to grow, pack, process, ship, and sell our food,” says Phil Korman of CISA. “The weaknesses of our national industrial food system have been laid bare.
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In the midst of disrupted global supply chains, local and regional food systems innovated more quickly than national food chains.
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Job Postings and Upcoming Food System Events
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Job Posting Sites:
Job Listservs:
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Upcoming Food System Events:
Know of another great source of events or jobs? Let us know!
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Massachusetts Food System Collaborative | www.mafoodsystem.org
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