Join our 2023 NYS Farm Bill Campaign!

A new Farm Bill is on the horizon. Now is the time to let your voice be heard and join Equity Advocates, Black Farmers United NYS and Food for the Spirit in our campaign to advocate for a Farm Bill that can prioritize strong sustainable regional food systems, advance racial equity and help address food insecurity across our communities. Join us to help create a NYS Farm Bill policy platform in partnership with food systems practitioners, farmers and producers and community based organizations across New York State. 

What is the Farm Bill?

The Farm Bill is a federal law renewed every five years that governs our farm and food policy. ​The most recent Farm Bill, the Agricultural Act of 2018, expires September 2023. This is an opportunity to reshape our food system and build upon the lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic, which has continued to highlight the importance of our local and regional food systems and supply chains as NYS recovers from the ongoing health and economic impact of the pandemic.

About the NYS Farm Bill Advocacy Campaign

In Fall 2022, Equity Advocates, Black Farmers United NYS and Food for the Spirit co-hosted a series of Farm Bill listening sessions designed to hear from food systems practitioners, farmers and producers and community based organizations across New York State. We prioritized outreach to and participation of BIPOC farmers, producers, practitioners AND folks that have direct experience with Farm Bill programs. During each session, we reviewed a brief history of the Farm Bill, the legislative process, and opportunities for practitioners to inform the direction of the 2023 Farm Bill. We also provided background on a selection of Farm Bill programs that are particularly relevant for including: Urban Agriculture Grants, Community Food Projects, Farm to School, Beginning Farmer & Rancher Development Program, 2501 Program, Farmers Market and Local Food Promotion Program, Regional Food Systems Partnership, Nutrition Incentives, Commodity Supplemental Food Program, SNAP, and The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP). Then we facilitated conversations with participants to hear directly about their experiences with these UDSA programs and what needs they had. In total, 158 people from across New York State joined these sessions to share their stories, experiences and priorities for how the 2023 Farm Bill can better support land access and urban agriculture, climate change, community food project funding, nutrition, local and regional food systems, and more. 

You can access the slides here and please see recordings for each of the listening sessions below: 

Next Steps

Throughout our farm bill listening sessions we prioritized hearing from BIPOC farmers, producers, practitioners in NYS as well as individuals that have direct experience with farm bill programs.

We heard from over 200 New Yorkers about your priorities for the next Farm bill and incorporated all of your great feedback and suggestions into a draft Farm Bill Policy Platform—a document that outlines what changes and improvements we collectively want to see in the 2023 Farm Bill. Your role thus far in developing our platform has been extremely vital and deeply appreciated. We hope you will continue to participate by reviewing the draft platform and providing your feedback. Here are two ways to do this: 

  1. Attend a virtual presentation of the Farm Bill Draft Policy Platform to hear a detailed overview of the policy priorities, including breakout sessions to hear your feedback. 

  1. Review the Draft Farm Bill Policy Platform document on your own and make comments on the document or via email. The deadline to provide feedback directly in the document is Wednesday, January 25, 2023.

Thanks in advance for being part of this campaign, led in partnership between Equity Advocates and Black Farmers United NYS.  

To learn more about the campaign and get involved, reach out to Leah Eden, Equity Advocates’ Executive Director, at leah@nyequityadvocates.org.