HR3286, Local Farms, Food, and Jobs Act

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>>>>UPDATE: A top USDA official visits Maine to see local, sustainable food efforts

Consumers are driving an increased demand for healthy, locally produced food. More and more families are seeing the benefits of eating healthy, local food and would much rather see their money go to the farmer down the road rather than an international conglomerate.

With small, diversified family farms deep in our roots, Maine is in an especially good place to capitalize on this shift. But for decades federal agriculture policy has choked out the little guy to favor bigger and bigger industrial farms that produce just a few commodity crops.

Congresswoman Chellie Pingree introduced HR3286, the Local Food, Farms, and Jobs Act, to support the local-food movement. It has over 65 cosponsors in the House and Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio has introduced a companion bill, S.1773, in the Senate.

It makes several commonsense reforms to the Farm Bill, including investing in infrastructure, creating insurance plans for diversified farm, helping schools buy local food, and allowing customers to use SNAP cards at farmers markets.

Hear Chellie's TEDx talk on local food policy

UPDATES

July 12, 2012: House Agriculture Committee passes Farm Bill with Pingree local food provisions

June 21, 2012: Senate passes Farm Bill with Pingree local food provisions
May 9, 2012: Video from Farm Bill hearing
May 8, 2012: Maine farmer testifies to subcommittee about organic production in Farm Bill

April 30, 2012: Senate committee passes farm bill with some of Congresswoman Pingree's local food provisions.

Click the links below to find out more
Get the latest | Fact sheet (pdf) | Full text (pdf) | List of cosponsors | Senate companion: S1773 | News coverage |

Local Food and Farms Homepage | Local Food Legislation | Resources for Farmers
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