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Yes Farms, Yes Food

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A Beacon of Hope for Local Food Access

You’ve seen the bumper sticker: “No Farms, No Food” or perhaps its positive inverse: “Yes Farms, Yes Food.” Both are reminders—or maybe warnings—pasted onto the back of any number of Subarus and pick-up trucks around New England gesturing to the connection between working farms and the food we eat every day. It’s an important message (our members certainly drive with bumpers adorned), and while memorable in its simplicity, it begs some questions. What kind of farms? And where? Food for whom, exactly?

For better or worse, our current national policies around food and agriculture provide plenty of answers. Take the farm bill, for example. Passed about every five years, this massive package of legislation funds the vast majority of agricultural and nutrition programs in this country. It sets policy dictating which farmers and what kinds of farms get government support, and carves out who is (and who is not) eligible for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and other forms of food assistance.

In farm bill discourse, food production and food access are too often treated as two opposite poles—never the twain shall meet—or simply as bargaining chips to force Democrats and Republicans to come to the table. Our government often invests in SNAP benefits at the cost of divesting from sustainable farming supports. These efforts could instead be seen as two sides of the same coin. SNAP benefits, which are proven to help lift people out of poverty and give folks critical access to nutrition, could also bolster local economies and support farm viability, clean drinking water, healthy soil, and climate stabilization if our national policies also prioritized the existence of local organic farms.

This short-sighted thinking continues in the farm bill proposal recently introduced by House Agriculture Committee Chair Glenn Thompson, which divests from both food security and climate-smart farming practices. (Editors’ note: The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition [NSAC] has excellent and comprehensive analyses of both the House and Senate Farm Bills, examining both packages’ approaches to food, farm, and conservation policy and funding. See the NSAC Blog for the full complement of context and analysis.)  The House Farm Bill proposes what amounts to a $30 billion cut in SNAP funding and undermines critical support for organic farmers and others seeking to adopt climate-friendly practices. These policies reveal disdain toward people needing food assistance and antagonism toward farmers concerned about anything beyond their short-term yields.

In a stark, though welcome, contrast, the Senate Agriculture Committee, led by Chair Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, and including Vermont’s own Senator Peter Welch, also recently released their version of the Farm Bill. The Senate version includes many provisions that importantly would support organic and small diversified farms. It would protect and increase funding for conservation practices that support climate change mitigation and resilience (such as organic farming), improve and expand nutrition assistance, and include direct support for farm workers and other food system workers.

Customers pick up local, organic food at People’s Farm Stand in Burlington, Vermont. Photo courtesy of NOFA-VT.

We’re seeing synergies between farming and food access closer to home here in Vermont, as well; our Vermont state legislators have recently set a powerful example of how we can do things differently. By appropriating $300,000 to NOFA-VT’s local food access programs, Crop Cash and Farm Share, our policymakers have demonstrated that they understand it is possible (and even popular) to make policy choices that keep people fed while investing in local, organic farms. These programs are a win-win, subsidizing the cost of locally grown food either by partially covering the cost of a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) membership or by giving people extra cash to buy fruits and vegetables when they spend their SNAP benefits at farmers markets, resulting in income for local farmers. Equivalent programs are making big, tangible impacts around the region, and we are finally seeing new state-level funding and support. With $1.2 million in new funding for Maine Harvest Bucks and a proposed $20 million contribution to the Massachusetts Healthy Incentive Program, policymakers across New England are dedicating new levels of support to similar intersecting and impactful nutrition and farm viability efforts.

Our collective food security depends on a viable agricultural sector. Public investment in programs like Crop Cash and Farm Share puts locally grown food within reach for neighbors and community members with limited incomes, allowing them to buy food that aligns with their values while directly reinvesting in their own community. It helps farmers reach more customers and ensures they are paid a fair price for their products. It brings in federal dollars that so often leave the state through multi-national chain grocers, instead circulating them in our local economy.

“Our government often invests in SNAP benefits at the cost of divesting from sustainable farming supports. These efforts could instead be seen as two sides of the same coin.”

This effort to expand local food access programs is just one piece of the puzzle in the broader strategy outlined in Food Security in Vermont: Roadmap to 2035, a new report authored by NOFA-VT, the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets, and a number of other food access and equity advocates around the state. The roadmap presents perhaps the clearest articulation yet of how the State of Vermont can make policy choices that ensure food security for everyone who lives here, and lays out an achievable timeline for reaching that reality. Developed and informed by community members from all walks of life, the roadmap lays out a framework giving voice to what Vermonters already know: Investing in our farmers is an investment in our future. This report has set the stage for future policy efforts to be grounded within a collaborative strategy toward ending hunger, and we’re excited to see what new initiatives emerge moving forward. 

As we celebrate this legislative victory and our step toward food security, it’s clear that the State of Vermont has clarified the bumper sticker slogan: Yes to our local, ecological farms, and yes to food for all people. By keeping this momentum and sticking to our values, maybe better federal and state policy for our food system is truly possible.

Maddie Kempner is the Policy Director at the Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont (NOFA-VT). NOFA-VT advocates for public policy that supports a just, sustainable food system at the state and national level.

Issue 4 Feature Autumn 2024 Farmlands Food SystemsVermont

local food

Seeds Against Hunger

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Isabelle Barraza (right) tasted a tomato with Anna Son; both are members of The Food Project.Members of The Food Project, a nonprofit that aims to provide healthy food for those in need, weeded a row of lettuce at a farm in August.Janyia Flonory, with The Food Project, planted scallion seedlings. The nonprofit provides summer jobs for area students.

Nonprofit tackles food insecurity by building a sustainable system

By Auzzy Byrdsell September 9th, 2024 in the Boston Globe

A group of about 50 people walked through rich rows of okra, bright red tomato plants, and other ripe vegetables at one of The Food Project’s farms in August.

They were touring the nonprofit’s Dorchester farm and greenhouse to learn more about its efforts to provide fresh and affordable food to people of any economic background in Massachusetts, a critical need in a state where 34 percent of households reported not having or not being able to afford enough food each month.

The Food Project is trying to remedy this issue by providing food to needy families and educating teenagers from the Boston area and Eastern Massachusetts about agriculture and nutrition. It grows around 200,000 pounds of food each year that it sells at affordable prices at project-run farmers markets in Boston’s Dudley neighborhood and in the city of Lynn, the first farmers markets in the state to accept electronic SNAP benefits and pilot a Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program-matching program that’s now used across Massachusetts, according to The Food Project’s website.

It also installs 100 raised-bed gardens each year for local households and organizations as part of the nonprofit’s firm belief in people’s right to grow their own fresh food.

In an attempt to bring more awareness to the problem of food insecurity, Governor Maura Healey’s administration held the state’s first annual Urban Agricultural Week in August showcasing eight local farms, including The Food Project. The Massachusetts Department of Agriculture sponsored tours of the farms, providing transportation between them. People could see how the farms tackled food insecurity and learn about their different programs and initiatives.

John Wang, The Food Project’s co-director of strategy and organization support, said since the project was founded in 1991, one of its goals has been finding which communities are facing food insecurities and why.

“Whether it’s intentional or unintentional, there is a system that doesn’t grant access for local fresh, healthy foods for certain folks,’’ he said.

A study from The Greater Boston Food Bank showed people reporting the most food insecurity were largely from historically marginalized communities or struggled economically. The study, which surveyed over 3,000 Massachusetts adults from November 2023 to March 2024, found those who reported that they lacked basic access to safe and nutritious food were mostly people from Black, Hispanic, and Alaska Native communities; college students; and LGBTQ+ people.

Danielle Andrews, Boston farms and greenhouse manager at the project, said the organization prioritizes and works with families they can directly affect and educate on how to get fresh foods. She wants The Food Project to address what she said is a misconception that families don’t want fresh fruits and vegetables.

“My experience is that everybody actually really does want them and they can’t afford them, so figuring that out is really just better for all of us and leads to a healthier society,’’ she said.

During the Aug. 12 tour, people saw that over 20 youth workers were spread out from the project’s garden to the greenhouse in their green Food Project shirts. Some held baskets of harvested crops, and others worked on the grounds, planting.

The Greater Boston Seed Crew is an agricultural youth development program that hires teenagers ranging from ages 14 to 18. The project pays them $15 an hour and teaches thembasic agriculture and farming. Students can work in the summer or during the school year.

They learn harvesting, weeding, preparing beds for planting, transporting crops, and managing farming equipment and facilities.

Nox Southard, 17, said more youths should get involved with agriculture. Southard, a peer leader for the crew who was working his third summer with the program, said most people his age don’t participate in agriculture because they have not been exposed to why it’s important and what kind of work is available for them.

“You don’t ever think, ‘I can do this,’ until you get in a real-life space of moving things around, seeing people you’re helping, handing things to people, and even kind of suffering in the heat some days,’’ he said.

Before joining The Food Project, Southard thought jobs meant having a strict supervisor who dictated tasks to their employees. But he found his supervisors at the project flexible and understanding.

Since theSeed Crewfocuses on motivating students to work in or learn more about agriculture, crew members are encouraged to communicate with their supervisors. Everyone working at The Food Project believes in the mission, so those in the crew are receptive to feedback about how they can improve their work on the farm.

Southard said joining the project brought him out of his comfort zone and gave him a new perspective on how youth can influence what food families have access to. He wants to encourage more middle school and high school students to get involved in agriculture and advocate for farmers to open up more space for youth in the profession.

Under the hot sun, Southard loaded newly harvested tomatoes in a truck. He was glad The Food Project gave him a direct connection to farming and agriculture and taught him about food insecurity in the state. He looks to share this hope for change.

Auzzy Byrdsell can be reached at austin.byrdsell@globe.com.