Policies to promote local and sustainable agriculture good for economy, local farmers, and consumers

Congresswoman Chellie Pingree said the Farm Bill that passed the Senate today contains numerous provisions that she authored and championed to promote local agriculture, sustainable farming, and help young farmers.

Among the provisions included in the Farm Bill that Pingree championed include:

· $100 million to heop people who receive SNAP benefits buy local foods by providing EBT terminals at every farmers markets, making Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)s eligible for SNAP, and funding a new program that will provide 2-for-1 credits at Farmers Markets for the purchase of fresh fruit and vegetables at Farmers Markets by SNAP beneficiaries. "This is a big incentive for SNAP beneficiaries to buy fresh, local food," said Craig Lapine of Maine Cultivating Community. "We've been running a double voucher program with private funding for a few years but we're optimistic that this additional funding will help us keep the program going and even expand it."

· $150 million in funding (a 300% increase) in the Farmers Market and Local Food Promotion Program. In addition to helping promote farmers markets, for the first time, this program will help local producers by supporting project like community kitchen facilities, where food can be processed, stored and transported. This gives local producers access to more markets and can make the food they raise more valuable. In Topsham, an organization called Maine Harvest wants to turn the former Navy Commissary into a food hub where local farmers and producers could process, store and sell food. "We want to create more economic opportunities for farmers and give them access to markets by putting together a lot of small farmers so they can sell to large purchasers," said Tod Yankee, co-founder of Maine Harvest. "A program like this could be just what we need to help us get up and running."

· Funding was more than doubled, to over $55 million, for the National Organic Certification Cost Share Program. Certification costs can be prohibitive for smaller farmers and this program helps pay for their organic certification,which can lead to better prices for the food they produce.

· $63 million for the Value Added Producer Grant Program. This program helps local farmers earn more for what they raise by turning raw ingredients, like milk, into higher value products like artisanal cheese.

· Organic Crop Insurance – Undoing a long-standing 5% surcharge for organic crop insurance. Previously the crop insurance program actually discriminated against organic farmers, by charging them 5% extra for insurance premiums but when there was a crop failure, they were only compensated based on the lower prices of a non-organic products. The provision in this farm bill levels the playing field for organic farmers.

· Diversified Crop Insurance – For the first time whole farms, not just single crops on a farm will be insuredthrough this new program. This crop insurance is designed for the needs of diversified farmers, and not just large-scale producers of crops like corn,cotton and soybeans.

· $290 million for the Specialty Crop Block Grant Program. 'Specialty crops' are really the food that most consumers eat—apples, tomatoes and carrots for example. This program provides funding for research and marketing to help raise the value of these crops. (Examples of how the program was used in 2013 in Maine are on page 20 of this document)

· $100 million in funding for the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program to encourage young farmers and veterans to start a career in agriculture. Funding is included to provide financing and increase outreach and education opportunities for farmers who are just starting out.

· $100 million grant program tohelp states promote local maple syrup sales

Working with farmers and local food advocates from around the country, Pingree wrote and introduced the Local Farms Food and Jobs Act which included many of these provisions. Over the last three years, thousands of people around the country contacted their members of Congress, urging them to include the proposals in Pingree's bill in the final version of the Farm Bill.

Pingree, however, voted against the Farm Bill when it passed the House last week because of cuts to the SNAP program (food stamps), provisions that allow payments to flow to wealthy farmers who are already making close to a $1 million a year, and a crop insurance program that subsidizes farms even when they are making large profits. While it includes needed and welcome improvements, ultimately, the farm bill lacked real reform that would put our food system on a trajectory to re-grow lost infrastructure, feed more hungry families, and grow our rural economies.