A Fair Share for Farm and Food Security
By Pete Price, Chair of CAFF Policy CommitteeIn February, the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) unveiled plans to allocate a new pot of funds for the promotion of many of the crops grown in the state. CAFF advocated that some of those funds be devoted to programs that support family scale farmers, low-income consumers, and benefit the environment. The verdict is still out as to whether those programs will receive any funding.
The new funds actually came from the federal government - a first for Congress, which for decades has limited its largesse to a handful of "program" crops like corn, wheat, and soybeans. Last year, when Congress enacted emergency agricultural assistance legislation, it included $133 million for "specialty" crop growers - i.e. everything that's not a program crop.
California, which produces everything from avocados to walnuts and about 350 food and fiber crops in between, is far and away the biggest state recipient of the new funds. In fact, we got $64 million, almost half of the overall amount. While some farm groups and politicians wanted CDFA to follow the subsidy model and write checks to individuals farmers, CAFF and its We worked with other organizations, including the California Sustainable Agriculture Working Group, California Certified Organic Farmers, Community Food Security Coalition, and Center for Food and Justice, to form the Fair Share Coalition to advocate for a more progressive allocation of the funds.
The Fair Share Coalition developed a proposal for allocating roughly $15 million of the $64 million for programs that support family farmers and low-income families. Family farmers need practical tools to help them steward the land using biological farming techniques that are developed in real world conditions. And they need new marketing outlets such as farmers' markets, community supported agriculture, and schools to be economically viable. Meanwhile, Californians are increasingly looking for food they can trust, whether at the grocery store or in their children's lunch room.
These are the issues that formed our Fair Share Plan for Farm and Food Security, which we presented at each of the five hearings the California Department of Food and Agriculture held around the state last fall to decide how to spend its funds. CAFF members spoke at several of the hearings, describing why direct marketing is critical to their survival and how institutions such as the UC Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program enable them to better protect soil and water resources.
The proposals called for a total of $15 million in funding to:
In February, the California Department of Food and Agriculture released its plan for allocating the $64 million in specialty crop funds. Much of the funding was allocated under generic titles such as "Buy California" which may simply go to the traditional crop associations who can match funding for promotion. Most of the specific proposals made in the Fair Share Proposal were not mentioned, but the coalition partners will be meeting with Bill Lyons to determine if they are embedded under the broader categories.
The one specific proposal that was clearly funded was $2 million in funding to support the UC Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program's Biologically Integrated Farming Systems project.
If direct marketing or farm-to-school programs are important to your viability, we hope you will call CDFA Secretary Bill Lyons at (916) 654-0433 to let him know why you think it is critical to allocate funding for these programs from the specialty crop funds. After the meeting, we will post an update on the outcome of the meeting on our website (www.caff.org). The commodity boards and other players have had a seat at the table for years. CAFF members will need to remain vocal to help ensure that family farmers and consumers who want food they can trust get a seat too.
