Agriculture is Not Just A Rural Issue

This interview is based on responses from a tweet chat that took place on April 28, 2021. Answers have been lightly edited for clarity.

What experiences shaped your understanding of the importance of agriculture?

Sen. Kim Jackson (GA): As a sixth-generation Black farmer, I think about agriculture every day when I do farm chores! I raise goats, bees, ducks, and chickens and all kinds of vegetables. And, I eat food every day!

Rep. Brian Turner (NC): My grandma grew up in the mountain border of North Carolina & Tennessee. Raising livestock & planting row crops were a way of life for her. I’m grateful she passed those skills to me, and now I get to pass it on to my daughter growing our own veggies in the backyard.

Rep. Rebecca Mitchell (GA): At first: a square baler without a kicker. Loading 50- and 100-pound feed sacks at the mill. Outdoor water spigots in the winter in New York. Fiberglass fence posts (never. ever. again).

Later: working at the dairy farm next door. Fitting sheep at shows.

Professionally: ambulatory rotations in veterinary school and analyzing milk quality and pathogens from dairy farms.

Rep. Julie von Haefen (NC): Growing up in Iowa, I saw firsthand how agriculture can be an integral part of the economy, our community and our environment. My house was on the edge of a cornfield and detasseling corn was the premier summer job for teenagers!

Agriculture issues range from food insecurity to soil health—what are some of the agriculture issues in your district?

Sen. Natalie Murdock (NC): Food insecurity is an issue in my senate district. 16.5% of people in my county are food insecure, that’s over 45,000 people. Over 12,000 children are food insecure.

Rep. Julie von Haefen (NC): We don’t have a lot of farms, but urban agriculture is becoming more important! Urban farming is the practice of cultivating, processing, and distributing food in or around urban areas—an important tool to ensure our communities have access to fresher and healthier foods!

Sen. Rosemary Bayer (MI): My district spans a wide array of urban, suburban and rural areas. While we don’t have much farming in the district anymore, soil as a vital living system is important to all of us. From large rural farms to urban gardens, we all need healthy soil! Constituents all over the state & my district suffer from food insecurity and Covid has only made this worse. In addition to sustainable farming across the state, local sustainable urban and suburban gardens can help with food insecurity.

Sen. Kim Jackson (GA): In District 41, like many places in Georgia, people struggle with food insecurity. And for folks growing food in the city—often to address this very issue!—there can be many roadblocks.

I'm encouraged by efforts to bring fresh food to more people and support new growers. We need collaboration across sectors—and at all levels of government!—to decrease barriers to healthy food and urban agriculture.

Agriculture and the environment go hand in hand.
North Carolina State Rep. Julie von Haefen
Tweet

Tell us about an agriculture, food, or rural issue you are working on in your state.

Sen. Kim Jackson (GA): I serve on the Senate Agriculture & Consumer Affairs Committee. I'm working to support Black farmers across the state of Georgia and bring fresh, healthy food to those who need it most.

Rep. Brian Turner (NC): As a member of the Ag appropriations committee I’m working to make sure the preservation programs are funded and also fighting for improved broadband penetration so farmers can modernize, be more efficient, and so kids know they can farm and be connected.

Sen. Kirk deViere (NC): I’ve been fortunate enough to connect with veterans who have turned to farming as a career and therapy for post-military life. We have a responsibility to help and encourage small family farms that have been the cornerstone of North Carolina’s agricultural economy for generations. I’d like to see veteran farmers as a substantial part of those small farms.

A Vendor is Selling Produce at Farmers Market in Clayton, North Carolina — A farmer's market in Clayton, North Carolina

How can agriculture be part of the solution to climate change?

Sen. Kirk deViere (NC): Incentivizing sustainable farming and regenerative agriculture is not only a smart long-term policy decision for farmers, but it’s much better for our environment as well. To be successful, agriculture must be a significant focus of climate justice.

Sen. Natalie Murdock (NC): As a previous soil and water supervisor, I know how soil health is key to combating climate change. Here in North Carolina we continue to work on robust soil health plans and need to fund regenerative agriculture programs.

Rep. Brian Turner (NC): Farmers love the land they work and want to keep it healthy so they can grow our food. Creating incentives to reduce fertilizers, stormwater runoff, and adopt more efficient irrigation tech helps. For more about local food growers visit the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

Remember, what you put into the air and ground travels. It’s never just about our own gardens or backyards. We are a world community.
Sen. Rosemary Bayer
Tweet

What do you wish more people knew about agriculture?

Rep. Julie von Haefen (NC): Agriculture and the environment go hand in hand. We must pay attention to how our North Carolina hog and poultry farms are operating and affecting the communities around them, and how they may be harmful to water and air.

Creating policy that benefits and protects both agriculture and the environment is important.

Sen. Kirk deViere (NC): One common misconception about agriculture is that all farmers are white. This couldn’t be further from the truth. As of 2017, North Carolina had nearly 2,100 black producers. We rely on minority farmers, namely Black farmers.

Rep. Brian Turner (NC): Agriculture is the #1 driver of North Carolina’s economy. We are #1 in the U.S. in sweet potatoes and soybeans, #2 in hogs.

Agriculture is bipartisan with rural and urban support. Most North Carolina farms are small family operations hoping the next generation will take over. We have a duty to help. No farms, no food.

Farmworker picking yellow peppers on agriculture field

How can people engage with agriculture issues beyond Earth Month?

Rep. Julie von Haefen: Contact your state legislators and sign up for our legislative updates! Sharing your priorities with your elected officials goes a long way towards advancing sound environmental and agricultural policies.

Sen. Kirk deViere (NC): If you live in North Carolina, you likely interact with agriculture much more than you realize. After all, agriculture is our #1 industry! It’s up to us to make sure that we continue to support the agricultural industry while fighting climate change.

Sen. Rosemary Bayer (MI): We all need to be conscious of good environmental practices – in pest management, water management, air and soil health and more. Remember, what you put into the air and ground travels. It’s never just about our own gardens or backyards. We are a world community. We have one planet and we need to work together to protect not only our own land, state and country, but our entire planet.

Farm and Food Chain Workers: Equity and Justice in the Food System

SiX Main Takeaways

Farmworkers make up just one link of the food supply chain—there's also processing, distribution, retail, and restaurant and service workers. In total, 21.5 million people are food chain workers in this country. Policies should take into account all types of food chain workers.
Food and farmworkers are some of the lowest-paid and exploited workers in the country because they are not covered by many federal labor laws. State legislators can fill in the gaps where the federal system has failed.
Protecting food workers means more than just raising wages because workers are also endangered by heat, toxic chemical exposure, substandard housing, COVID-19, smoke from wildfires, and more. Some states have already passed bills to address these problems.
Even in states with progressive legislatures, large growers and other agricultural interests have a lot of influence at the state house. Changing the system requires buy-in from a variety of stakeholders.
The best policies will come from including farm and food workers at the table. These are skilled laborers and they know what policies are necessary.
National grassroots coalitions can help connect legislators to farm and food worker organizations in every state. SiX can help connect you!

COVID Resources: Food Systems and Agriculture

Covid-19 demonstrated that the corporate food supply chain is one crisis away from failing, which puts communities at risk of being food insecure and could cause barriers for local farmers working to address the food needs of their community.

In order to ensure that communities are resilient in their ability to access food during a crisis, legislators should work to ensure that there is a sound regional and/or local alternative food supply chain with a plan to get food to those who need it while also ensuring that food and farm workers are adequately protected in their workplaces.

Resources

Support for Farmers

Appropriate additional funds for their agriculture community. Here are bills from Vermont and North Carolina and Utah.
- Appropriate additional resources for farm safety, rural mental health and farm crisis services. Here is what Minnesota has done.
- Include small independent farmers in any small business aid like this bill from New York did.

Local Food Infrastructure

Designate farmer's markets as essential local service providers. Here's a list of states that have done this.
- Provide opportunities for increased local meat infrastructure. Oregon, North Carolina, New Mexico, Hawaii, Utah, Wyoming have all been working on bills to bolster local meat production to service small and independent farmers who are providing meat for their local communities.
- Create working groups to assess food security and a local food supply to bolster community resiliency. New York and Utah have both done this.

Food Security

Use new flexibility in SNAP to respond to COVID-19 challenges. Here is an overview of what states can do and here is what New Jersey did to increase access to SNAP benefits.
- Provide additional resources for food access, particularly to underserved communities. Here is one example from Minnesota. Mississippi attempted a bill to include reimbursements to local municipalities for a variety of services including food delivery to senior citizens and other vulnerable populations. Pennsylvania has a bill that includes resources for a food hotline, food banks and additional SNAP benefits.
- Provide additional support for Food Pantries. Here is what Colorado did and North Carolina appropriated additional funds as part of an omnibus package to be split equally among food banks.
- Provide grants to local organizations to purchase local food (this helps farmers too). An example from Minnesota.
- Provide emergency food assistance to undocumented persons like California did.
- Allow school buses to use the eight-light system when making food deliveries to families with school-aged children, as was done in Vermont.

Farm & Food Worker Safety

Appropriate funds for farmers to purchase PPE for farm and food workers. See this bill from New Jersey.
- Ensure that state information related to farm worker safety is communicated in both Spanish and English. Here is what Vermont did and this is the bill being considered in California.
- An Executive order from California Governor Newsom requiring paid sick leave for workers, while Michigan Governor Gretchen Withmer issued an Executive Order on migrant housing camps during COVID-19. .

Floridians Want State Lawmakers to Act on Threats Created by COVID Crisis

Strong support for progressive solutions to help working families and ensure the elections are accessible and safe

A recent poll commissioned by the State Innovation Exchange (SiX) shows Florida voters hold deep concerns over the risk that COVID-19 poses to their health and the impact on the economy and the election. Two in three Floridians believe the worst of the pandemic is yet to come (65%).

The Role of Government in Issues Facing Florida

When asked if the state government should play a role in some of the issues facing working families, voters overwhelmingly supported government engagement in:

Safely and fairly administering elections (92%);
Stopping the spread of the coronavirus (90%);
Ensuring equal access to high-quality K-12 education (89%);
Ensuring struggling families and children have access to food (84%); and
Equal pay for equal work (81%).

Voters Support Steps to Ensure Safe and Accessible Elections

Florida voters overwhelmingly believe that the state government has a role to play in safely and fairly administering elections (92%). The majority of Floridians report that they will vote by mail (52%). However, 47% still plan to vote in person, with 27% planning to vote on Election Day and 20% planning to early vote.

Whether or not they are choosing to vote in person or by-mail, voters supported policies to ensure the election is safe and accessible for all eligible voters:

Open additional polling locations to reduce crowds and lines (84%);
Lengthen the window for early voting and allow voters to cast ballots in person up through the day before Election Day (82%);
Allow any registered Florida voter to cast a ballot at any polling location in their county (71%); and
Mail all registered voters applications to vote-by-mail (61%).

Voters Concerned about COVID Impact and Strongly Support Progressive Economic Policies

By a four to one margin voters believe Florida state government should invest more in its residents to ensure they are safe, healthy, and economically secure (64%) rather than state government keeping taxes low and cutting funds to key services like education, infrastructure and unemployment insurance (16%).

Florida has been hard hit by the pandemic with one in three of Floridians responding that they have been laid off or had their hours cut (34%). Two out of three Floridians support extending and expanding unemployment for those workers who have been laid off (65%). Support for this policy cuts across partisan lines with Democrats (78%), Republicans (52%) Independents (65%) in favor.

The pandemic is a top of mind concern for Floridians who report they are concerned about the people losing work and income due to the virus (84%), small businesses and restaurants closing down permanently (84%), Floridians contracting the virus and dying (79%), people of Florida unable to afford their rent or mortgage (79%) and people in Florida being forced to choose between their health and their job (71%).

Given the current crisis, Floridians support policies that will address the hardships being faced by many and make life easier for working families:

Providing low-interest loans to small businesses to help them make it through the crisis (94%);
Extending the grace period for people to pay health insurance bills before their coverage can be canceled (88%);
Limiting what drug companies can charge for prescription drugs (87%);
Offering people in Florida the option to buy into the same public health insurance plans that are available to state employees if they want to (86%); and
Banning the practice of surprise medical billing (85%).

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