-
Contact Your Representative Today for Soil Health Into the Future!
OEFFA members know that healthy soil is foundational to sustainable agriculture. While healthy soil is the basis for healthy crops, animals, and humans, decision-makers at the statehouse overwhelmingly are not talking about this important issue.
That’s why OEFFA, the Ohio Soil Health Initiative, and allies are urging decision-makers to pass legislation that creates a Soil Health Task Force that includes public hearings and the creation of a proposed comprehensive soil health action plan within 1-year of establishing the task force.
-
The Sequel is Better: CFAP 2 is Available Now
Guest post from Jeff Schahczenski, National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT), Agricultural and Natural Resource Economist
Like many of our favorite movies, the sequel to the Coronavirus Farm Assistance Program (CFAP 2) is an expansion and improvement of the original. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Farm Service Agency (FSA) began taking applications for CFAP 2 on September 21, 2020. The program will end on December 11, 2020. About $14 billion has been made available to fund this relief effort for U.S. agriculture producers impacted by COVID-19.
-
Growing Support for Farmer Solutions to the Climate Crisis
A growing number of farmers are making the connection between more frequent, extreme weather events and the climate crisis.
Last year, OEFFA, as a member of the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC), began circulating a letter written by and for farmers: the Farmer and Rancher Letter on Climate Change and Agriculture. The letter expresses deep concerns about climate change impacts on U.S. agriculture and calls for solutions that invest in rural and agricultural communities.
As a result, more than 150 OEFFA farmers joined thousands more farmers from across the nation in a clarion call for investments in sustainable agriculture.
-
Opportunity in a Time of Crisis Report Details Recommendations for Building a More Resilient Ohio Food System
OEFFA, the Ohio Farmers Market Network, Produce Perks Midwest, and the Ohio Food Policy Network released a new report, Opportunity in a Time of Crisis: Recommendations for Building a More Resilient Ohio Food System, which captures the landscape of small- to mid-scale agriculture in Ohio and how local and regional food systems were impacted by COVID-19.
While farmers and farmers’ markets have risen to the challenge posed by a national pandemic and disruptions in the global food supply chain and adapted their operations to feed Ohio families, those adaptations are not sustainable without state and federal leadership. Investment is needed to increase the resilience and stability of the food system. OEFFA and our partners offer eight recommendations to ensure we can better withstand future disruptions to the food system, increase access to healthy food, grow tax revenue, and enhance farm profitability.
-
Agriculture Underscored in House Climate Committee Report
This blog is from the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC), written June 30 following the release of the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis report and provides detailed analysis and resources on the recommendations in the report related to agriculture and related programs and legislation.
Major comprehensive federal legislation to deal with the global climate crisis is long overdue. While no bills are likely to become law this year, the time is ripe for piecing together the key components of a new law for consideration in the 117th Congress (2021-22). Even before next year, the House of Representatives will engage in a trial run, voting on climate-related bills yet this year, though with the knowledge the bills are unlikely to be considered in the Senate or become law.
-
Answers to Your Questions About Agricultural Carbon Markets
Understanding voluntary private carbon markets can be confusing.
Will selling carbon credits generated by farmers help mitigate climate change? Will new legislation creating a certification program for carbon markets solve existing problems and confusion?
Thankfully, one of our partner organizations in the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition has some answers. The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) works locally and globally on fair and sustainable food, farm, and trade systems and IATP’s Tara Ritter wrote the article below to help us understand this complicated issue.
With Tara’s permission, we are republishing her blog post about carbon markets and a new bill called the “Growing Climate Solutions Act.”
-
Policy Responses to the COVID-19 Crisis: A Faltering Start and an Uncertain Future
While the highly consolidated global food supply chain has broken under the pressure of the COVID-19 crisis, our diverse and distributed local and regional food system has proven more resilient. Many OEFFA farmers have been able to adapt to the market disruptions that occurred as restaurants and schools closed, by pivoting to other strategies like online pre-ordering and taking advantage of strong customer demand. Farmers’ markets moved quickly to adapt to the new reality of social distancing by implementing drive-thru markets, online ordering systems, and other market modifications.
While these adaptations helped keep local food flowing, they did not come without cost, both financial and human. These changes included things such as recruiting and training more staff and volunteers, reducing the number of vendors at markets, purchasing personal protective equipment, setting up and managing new software for online ordering, and instituting new packaging and labeling requirements.
-
Earth Day Turns 50: Unlocking Soil Health Solutions for a Vibrant Planet
One day each year is designated for us to offer some reverence for the Earth.
April 22, 2020 marks the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, a tradition started in 1970 in response to oil spills, air pollution, and water contamination so bad the Cuyahoga River caught on fire. Cleveland became a poster child for the need to take environmental action to protect the soil that feeds us, the water we drink, and the air we breathe, helping to pave the way for the Clean Air and Water Acts and the Endangered Species Act.
-
Economic Assistance for Farmers through the Paycheck Protection Program
The COVID-19 pandemic is wreaking havoc, not only on human health, but also on our economy. And farmers are not being spared. The good news is that there are some tools out there to help.
Three disaster aid packages have been developed as of this writing and more are in the works. In this post, we will do our best to break down the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). This is one of two programs included in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act for small businesses, and the only one available to farmers.
The CARES Act expands the PPP, which is administered by the Small Business Administration (SBA), to provide much-needed relief for small businesses, many of whom have temporarily closed their doors due to shelter-in-place and social-distancing directives. Congress allocated $349 billion to the PPP, which provides forgivable loans of up to $10 million to help businesses (including farm businesses) rehire or retain workers during the COVID-19 crisis.
-
Local Food is Essential
Four state-level groups recently called on state leaders to adopt six policies that will help farmers, farmers’ markets, and low-income food access.
OEFFA, Produce Perks Midwest, the Ohio Farmers’ Market Network, and the Ohio Food Policy Network, with input from Countryside and Summit Food Coalition, believe that decisive action is needed to ensure the survival of small and mid-scale family farmers that feed our communities and make sure Ohioans, particularly those receiving nutrition assistance, can access much needed fresh, local food in the months ahead.
In addition to the public impact, the group’s policy recommendations, are designed to address the broader economic impacts of COVID-19 on Ohio’s local food systems, especially among Ohio’s already under-served communities.
FARM POLICY MATTERS