“The Farm Bill should promote the cultivation and accessibility of safe, sustainable, and culturally significant foods — not prop up industries that pollute our environment and disempower malnourished communities. For too long, the Farm Bill hasn’t gone far enough to support the wellbeing of BIPOC folx, immigrants, and low-income communities — but that can change in 2023. Slow Food USA’s grassroots network wants to see food systems centered on the well-being of local communities. With the Farm Bill, Congress has the opportunity to create good, clean and fair food policy that benefits us all.”

“Amongst Wisconsin’s communities, there’s a widespread feeling of disempowerment when it comes to changing local food policy. Instead of government agencies setting baseline standards to protect our health, safety, and welfare, we get regulatory ceilings that prevent constituents from having a say about whether CAFOs can enter our communities. When our local governments feel they have no authority, and the state has insufficient resources to adequately regulate these operations, we need federal lawmakers to advocate on our behalf: to empower local governments, and to funnel resources where they are desperately needed.”

“Congress has the opportunity in this upcoming Farm Bill to implement the changes necessary to bring USDA out of corporate control and make it the farmer dedicated agency President Abraham Lincoln intended it to be when it was created. The giant corporations, some foreign owned and controlled, have been dictating policy on Capitol Hill for far too long and that has to change now or the family farmer will become extinct in the very near future.”

“WESPAC Foundation fully supports shifting the Farm Bill to redirect public funding to support ecological, small scale family farms that promote biodiversity, respect for animals, agricultural techniques that nourish the soil and produce vegetables with higher nutrient value. Small scale farms are part of a local regional economy and are better suited to provide food security to local communities, especially in the context of our current climate crisis and environmental degradation. We urgently need to transform our current food system to protect the health of all plants, animals and people.”

“…the truth is that we wouldn’t have to work so hard on our end if the federal government provid[ed] funding for plant-based alternatives in schools and hospitals across the country. Unfortunately, the carbon offset market efforts of our current congress (Growing Climate Solutions Act) seems to neglect the potential climate benefits of a carbon offset program dedicated to helping food providers transition towards sustainable, plant-based alternatives.”

“Through education, advocacy, and institutional partnerships, Eat for the Earth supports a transition to healthy, sustainable, plant-based diets. If federal funding shifted to support healthy, sustainable, just diet patterns, that is whole food plant-based diets, that would not only support our organization’s priorities, but also support food justice, improve the health and well-being of the U.S. population, and decrease the food system’s contribution to environmental devastation.”

“Due to our inequitable food system, far too many Americans struggle to access fresh fruits, vegetables, and other foods essential for good health. Poor diets are our nation’s leading cause of illness, and the burden has fallen hardest on marginalized communities. By strengthening nutrition programs that serve families most in need, Congress can help tackle health disparities while improving quality of life for millions of people.”

“The present-day system of food and animal production is broken. Yes, we are being fed, but farmers, consumers, the land, and animals are paying a terrible price. The current system, parts of which may have made sense in the distant past, doesn’t make sense anymore. The food and animal production system today is an accretion of bad habits that continues to exist because of inertia and entrenched interests and not because it should.”

“With each conservation practice we are actually choosing to make less money in hopes that we will gain in the long run…We are resting our entire lives on the most unpredictable and uncontrollable things: nature and consumer habits! Even if we create resiliency on the farm, if weather gets more extreme … it only means the resiliency is going to offset the losses from devastating to minor.”

“Increased monitoring & evaluation [are needed] to ensure that funds [are properly] distributed when disaster/crisis strikes for Black, Latino, First Nation, and underserved farm workers, farmers, and ranchers.”

“It is going to be more and more difficult in our country to do what I’m doing now, because it is getting more and more difficult to plant trees and have them survive the extreme weather we are coming to expect each year. Unless we change our course in policy, it is hard for me to see how we can improve our food security as time goes on and production becomes less and less profitable, as it will without a large shift to regenerative policies.”

“My son could be the next generation of American Farmers…If he is a farmer one day, he will be joining the ranks of some of the least appreciated in our country’s food history: the Black farmers that are being squeezed out of business at an even faster rate than any other family farmer. We cannot continue to let the multi-generational talent and experience of Black farmers leave our industry and expect to maintain the benefits we’ve gained in agriculture. Direct action needs to be taken immediately to address the decades of discrimination and outright theft by the US government, local and state governments, and local actors leading to the loss of family land for so many, a loss which we are continuing to see happen to this day.”

“…As we move toward a new agricultural system, we must amplify our communities’ voices and right the wrongs of the racist public policies and programs that have only aided white farmers.”