While the U.S. has created an omnibus Farm Bill for nearly a century, our mothers—especially when Native or women of color—have never had a say in where our government’s farm support money goes. Not until recently.
Since the 1930s, Congress has enacted 18 farm bills, typically renewing about every five years.
Its largest portion is labeled Nutrition Programs, which include SNAP and school and daycare lunches. Considered an expense—oh dear, can we afford it?—this part of the Farm Bill not only provides food to mothers, infants, school children and the elderly, but helps support the U.S. farms’ production that feeds them. It really could be more accurately labeled the U.S. Food Security program, a bottom-line investment for both families and farmers.
Farmer Devora Kimelman-Block shared ways that the recent Inflation Reduction Act is lowering barriers to “regenerative agriculture.” Like sustainable ag and agroecology, regenerative ag is rooted in building healthy soil. Made fertile and spongy, soil absorbs and stores water, reducing farmers’ weather risks from drought or from flooding. Soil-building methods include cover-cropping, composting, reduced tillage and rotational grazing.
Their methods included community-supported agriculture ; a commitment to organic, regenerative farming; and an agricultural network that created a wholesale business with local senior centers, hospitals, local grocery co-ops and restaurants. They also built their farms’ capacity, through technical assistance in food safety, nutrition education, group purchases, a downtown farmer’s market, and a “Grow the Growers” farm training program for newbies. They’ve even begun their own line of baby food.
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