Farm Sanctuary Comes to Capitol Hill: Building a Table Where We’re All Invited

Group photo of roundtable participants

Farm Sanctuary Comes to Capitol Hill: Building a Table Where We’re All Invited

On Monday, January 30, Farm Sanctuary hosted a “Roundtable Review of U.S. Food Systems” on Capitol Hill. The event included Congressional Sponsor Rep. Jim McGovern, who championed the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health. We were also joined by leading congressional member Rep. Kim Schrier (D-WA), a USDA representative, and advocates from the key national and frontline community organizations, including Farm Action, The Center for Biological Diversity, The Eva Clayton Rural Food Institute, and Corbin Hill Food Project.

Together, we explored two topics: universal nutritional security and sustainable farmer opportunity. At the end of the day, these are essential elements of food systems — to nourish each other, and to ensure future generations can do the same. Yet today’s food systems fail these basic goals. Plants and plant-based foods can help build both universal nutritional security and sustainable opportunity.

We have to shift federal investments. To do this equitably means listening to and supporting the community-based organizations that have been fighting for just and sustainable food system transformation, often for decades.

Aaron Rimmler-Cohen

Sr. Director of Advocacy, Farm Sanctuary

Participants at roundtable event

Photo (left to right): Dr. Sheila Fleischhacker, National Institute of Food and Agriculture; Earline Middleton, Eva Clayton Rural Food Institute; Christina Williams-DeBrew, Green Rural Redevelopment Organization

“The federal government invests tremendous resources in U.S. food systems,” said Farm Sanctuary Sr. Director of Advocacy, Aaron Rimmler-Cohen. “Unfortunately, these investments too often prioritize production over shared purpose, resulting in immense harm to animals, people, and the planet. Plants and plant-based foods can serve as important means to accomplish shared ends, like universal nutritional security and sustainable farmer opportunity. We have to shift federal investments. To do this equitably means listening to and supporting the community-based organizations that have been fighting for just and sustainable food system transformation, often for decades.”

With the rapid approach of the 2023 Farm Bill and the recent success of the 2022 White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health, the roundtable highlighted policy approaches to build community-driven progress across U.S. food systems. It also leveraged our access to policymakers to benefit community-based organizations that are working to build more just and sustainable food system supply chains. Together, we can shift public resources to better serve public priorities and reduce the number of animals in the food system supply chain.

This conversation is just the beginning! Building on outreach to more than 2,000 organizations over 20 months, the D.C. Roundtable will lead to a series of roadmaps to help transition us away from the status quo — one that misuses resources and hurts nearly all of us — to one that is more just, compassionate, and sustainable for people, animals, and our shared environment.

Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA)

Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA)

“Thank you to Farm Sanctuary for bringing us together for this important discussion today as we enter the 2023 Farm Bill cycle … In September, the Biden-Harris Administration hosted the first White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health in over 53 years. It brought together agencies from across the federal government, nonprofits, industry, and people with lived experiences to finally draw up a plan to end hunger and reduce diet related disease by 2030. My top priority in the upcoming Farm Bill is to better align our anti-hunger programs with the National Strategy. This includes expanding the successful Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentives Program (GusNIP), which doubles the purchasing power of SNAP for fresh fruits and vegetables, especially at farmers markets…But ending hunger is bigger than any one piece of legislation. Some of the recommendations coming out of the conference will need to be addressed in other legislative vehicles.”

Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA)

Earline Middleton, the Eva Clayton Rural Food Institute

Earline Middleton, the Eva Clayton Rural Food Institute

“We know that we need policies to shift resources to better support our rural communities, and particularly to support the communities who have borne the most harm from today’s food system failures … [We] understand the loss of farmers, especially black farmers, and land loss … I encourage Congressional leadership to re-evaluate each of its current food system investments — from research, to nutrition and food service, to rural development, credit, and insurance – to shift support to advance shared priorities. Nutritional security and sustainable farmer opportunity are essential outcomes for a healthy food system. We still have much work to do, but I’m grateful for settings like this to share our story and approach.”

Earline Middleton, the Eva Clayton Rural Food Institute

Representative Kim Schrier (D-WA)

Representative Kim Schrier (D-WA)

“As we enter a Farm Bill year, it is a good time to be thinking about how we can work together to make our food system better. This means incentivizing sustainable farming practices, using nutrition programs to nourish, not just feed, and supporting family farms. To that end, one of my top priorities is bringing farmers to the table for our policy conversations here in D.C. so that we are getting their direct input on what is happening on the ground and how best to improve market opportunities for small and medium farmers and producers.”

Representative Kim Schrier (D-WA)

Rep. Alma Adams (D-NC)

“I’m proud to continue my work on the Justice for Black Farmers Act, which I look forward to reintroducing this Congress. The legislation would enact policies to protect the 50,000 remaining Black farmers from losing their land, and provide land grants to create a new generation of Black farmers. Additionally, the Justice For Black Farmers Act provides substantial resources for 1890 Land-Grant Institutions to help Black farmers get up and running and includes funding for all HBCUs to expand their agriculture research and courses of study. This legislation corrects a grave injustice and empowers Black farmers to be agricultural leaders well into the future.”

(Could not attend in person due to travel restrictions)

Rebecca Valdez, Corbin Hill Food Project

Rebecca Valdez, Corbin Hill Food Project

“Corbin Hill Food Project’s mission is to supply food to those who need it most. For over a decade, the organization’s innovative strategy utilizes existing community assets to bring farm fresh produce to underserved communities in New York City … At a federal level, BIPOC organizations, farmers, food producers, truckers, aggregators, and distributors need long-term investment and trust to do the work of our community, build infrastructure, and acquire assets to support community ownership and food sovereignty.”

Rebecca Valdez, Corbin Hill Food Project

Mark Rifkin, the Center for Biological Diversity

Mark Rifkin, the Center for Biological Diversity

“It is up to Congress to re-balance the scales in the Farm Bill by opposing any new measures that increase direct or indirect subsidies to polluting industries and taking action to codify support for initiatives that advance a healthy, sustainable food system. Universal school meal programs help equalize access to healthy, sustainable food and improve student nutrition and educational outcomes, especially for students experiencing food insecurity. What food we produce is just as important as how we produce it, and school meals would not only influence child nutrition, but also establish national meal standards and provide direction in our food system and our food economy.”

Mark Rifkin, the Center for Biological Diversity

Joe Van Wye, Farm Action

Joe Van Wye, Farm Action

“Corporate monopolies have gained enormous influence over government policies, producing a food and farm system that drives farmers out of business and from their land, leaves Americans without access to healthy food, abuses animals, destroys the natural environment, and even threatens our national security. By shifting our agriculture policies to support local and regional food systems, the 2023 Farm Bill could transform our food system into one that is fair, inclusive, and competitive.”

Joe Van Wye, Farm Action

Alexandra Bookis, Sr. Manager of U.S. Government Affairs, Farm Sanctuary

Alexandra Bookis, Sr. Manager of U.S. Government Affairs, Farm Sanctuary

“We can work together, across movements, organizing from common ground to shift public resources to advance systems-wide justice, compassion, and sustainability. We are thrilled to share, in the coming months, roadmaps that help to synthesize events like these and outreach to more than 2000 farmer, worker, environment, health, justice, and animal-centered organizations, as well as policymakers and academics from across the country.”

Alexandra Bookis, Sr. Manager of U.S. Government Affairs, Farm Sanctuary
Connie sheep at Farm Sanctuary

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