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Soil Stories to Celebrate Ohio Soil Health Week
Over the spring and summer, some of our team visited six farmers, gardeners, researchers, and activists to learn about their relationships with the soil. They reported myriad benefits from healthy soil—from better yields to deepened relationships with ancestors—all of which underlined the need to better protect this vital natural resource and support those who steward it.
With the help of local video editor John Umland, we were able to transform our interviews into Soil Stories, short videos highlighting the importance of healthy soil. In the weeks leading up to Ohio Soil Health Week, we’ve been highlighting one video at a time and sharing more about each of the interviewees.
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Connecting with Candidates
The election season is well underway. As a non-partisan 501(c)3 organization, there are limited things OEFFA can do. We cannot endorse or oppose any candidate for public office. But we can provide resources to help see how a candidate might approach food and farm issues.
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OEFFA Policy Fellowship Opportunity
Our team has an upcoming opportunity for OEFFA members to get more involved in our policy work.
We hope this will be an experience to broaden your food and farm education and see how it is affected by policy. This fellowship will give you firsthand experience in the food and farm policy world and help illustrate how policy issues influence you and your communities.
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Introducing: Policy Caucuses
Join us for the official launch of the OEFFA Policy Caucuses!
Caucuses are a way for us to work together and amplify the voices of farmers and other OEFFA members to affect change in state and federal policies. OEFFA’s caucuses provide a space for community discussion, planning, and strategizing for policy change.
Each caucus reflects ongoing policy priorities set by OEFFA members and will replace the previous farm bill workgroups:
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Amplifying Farmers’ Needs at the 2024 NOC Fly-In
Last month, Milo and Nicole on our federal policy team were in DC for the National Organic Coalition (NOC) fly-in. NOC is an alliance of organizations across the country that advocate for organic farmer and consumer needs. During the fly-in, we focused on the following priorities:
- Supporting the Organic Certification Cost Share Program and producers transitioning to organic
- Addressing regulatory USDA bottlenecks
- Advancing equity within agricultural programs and policies
- Solving the organic dairy crisis
- Supporting organic research
- Advancing conservation practices and programs
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Our Farm Safety Net is Not “One Size Fits All”
Did you know that Ohio is home to 76,009 farms and 731 organic farms? Even though we are all consumers of food, its production is even more prominent here in Ohio. One might think that the needs of farmers who are doing vital work by feeding their communities are prioritized. However, this is not always the case.
Organic grain and dairy producers, vegetable farmers, small meat producers, small and mid-size producers, local food advocates, and many more remain underrepresented in mainstream government, academic, and industry spaces. Instead, agriculture voices are largely dominated by policy experts, researchers, and educators. It is important to get all perspectives, but having farmers at the center of our work is critically important to achieve a farming system that is sustainable for all.
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NSAC 2024 Winter Meeting Recap
Our federal policy team is feeling extremely motivated and connected after joining fellow NSAC members in DC at the end of January. The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) puts on a summer and winter meeting each year where its members join to strategize, build relationships, and learn about agriculture policy. This winter meeting was the largest to date!
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Food Chains Follow-Up
The sign of a good documentary is that it leaves you with more questions than answers.
If this is the case, then Food Chains did exactly that. There was hardly enough time to cover all of the thoughts, ideas, and questions that arose during the Sunday film screening and the panel discussion that followed.
That said, we’d like to elaborate on some of the points and programs that were brought up by our panelists and engaged members of the audience.
For those who couldn’t brave the cold on January 14 (we don’t blame you), you missed 86 minutes of a look into the lives of farmworkers in Immokalee, Florida. Known as the tomato capital of the U.S., Immokalee’s population is largely comprised of migrant farmworkers who plant, pick, and process the popular fruit. It’s been reported that a whopping 28% of the town’s residents are people from Central America, Haiti, and Mexico who play this vital role in our food system.
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Cultivating Care—and Policy Change: 7 Conference Workshops You Don’t Want to Miss
February is quickly approaching and our policy team is preparing for another action-packed OEFFA Conference!
We’ve put together a series of great workshop offerings focusing on a variety of policy-based topics. If you want to see how policy can bring real change in our food and farming system, you’re going to want to make time for these seven workshops at the 45th annual OEFFA conference, Cultivating Care.
Online registration closes on February 1, so be sure to secure your three days of learning, sharing, connecting, and shopping today!
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2023 OEFFA Policy Retreat Recap
We are so thankful to have an impactful and close-knit policy team that plans change-making goals together. At the beginning of December, Policy Director Milo Petruziello, Grassroots Policy Organizers Lauren Hirtle and Nicole Wolcott, and Communications and Media Specialist Heather Seely got together to debrief 2023 and plan for 2024.
The priorities we talked through included:
- Building our interpersonal relationships;
- Furthering our state policy and soil health work;
- Advocating on the farm bill and federal policy;
- Strengthening impactful connections with our member leaders; and
- Leaning into the OEFFA Narrative in all the work we do.
FARM POLICY MATTERS