Alliance's Policy Agenda, Farm Aid Grants
Big news from non-profit leaders supporting local food
Illinois Food Policy Advocate Sets 2024 Agenda
The Illinois Stewardship Alliance non-profit is the leading policy advocate for the state’s better-for-people-and-the-planet farm and food community. The Alliance has had big wins in recent years, including the enactment this year of the $2 million Local Food Infrastructure Grant program; click here to read about the program and access an application form).
The Alliance held its virtual annual meeting on December 12, and the big agenda item was for Alliance members to approve a 2024 state policy agenda, proposed by its caucuses (Local Food Farmer Caucus, Soil Health Caucus, Livestock Farmer Caucus, and Food System Leader Caucus).
Here are the agenda details from Illinois Stewardship Alliance:
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Members voted unanimously — and enthusiastically — to pursue these issues for our policy agenda in 2024:
Primary Issues
Primary issues meet the majority of our Good Issue Criteria and must be approved by the Caucus through consensus to commit significant staff and member resources and capacity. In 2024, these are:
Fund the Local Food Infrastructure Grant
Support conservation and climate resilience
Secondary Issues
Secondary issues meet the criteria, require significant staff and member resources and capacity, but do not supersede the capacity and resources needed for primary issues. In 2024, these are:
Fund a state Farm-to-School Coordinator position
Grow cottage food businesses and mobile markets
Multi-Year Issues
These issues meet the criteria, require significant staff and member resources and capacity, and are anticipated to take between two to four years of campaigns. These continue to include:
Good Food Purchasing Policy to shift state procurement to healthy, local, sustainable, fair and humane food
Suite of bills addressing racial equity in Illinois agriculture
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Click the button below to visit the Illinois Stewardship Alliance website, learn about its programs, become a member, and to sign up for their newsletter.
Farm Aid’s 2023 Grants Recognize Leaders in Our Region
As many Local Food Forum readers know, I am a big admirer of the Farm Aid non-profit organization and its decades of work supporting small farms and rural communities. I had the honor of covering the Farm Aid Festival in September near Indianapolis and produced nearly a week’s worth of articles in Local Food Forum (September 24-28).
Now, Farm Aid has released its list of grant recipients sharing in a total pool of $1,346,015 (that’s music legend Willie Nelson, a Farm Aid co-founder, signing grant checks in the photo above). And not surprisingly, the grantees include some of the amazing non-profits and farming operations in our region.
Here we highlight the recipients from the four states that border Lake Michigan… led by Illinois Stewardship Alliance, whose 2024 policy agenda is the subject of the article above (the rest are in alphabetical order). Click the button at the end to view the full list of grantees across the nation.
Illinois Stewardship Alliance, Springfield, Illinois: $9,000 to engage farmers and eaters in regional listening sessions to reflect on progress made in the Alliance’s first 50 years since its founding and solicit grassroots input to establish a bold policy platform for a just transition to local regenerative ag in Illinois for the next 50 years.
Angelic Organics Learning Center, Caledonia, Illinois: $8,000 to create a dynamic and enduring partnership between farmers and consumers in order to foster long-term food systems change in the upper Midwest through organic food production, food access, holistic farm financial planning, on-farm public education, farmland access and technical assistance with a special focus on regenerative livestock production and climate change mitigation. [Note: Angelic Organics Learning Center earlier this month rebranded and is now Farmers Rising.]
Families Anchored in Total Harmony, Inc., Gary, Indiana: $5,000 to support the training and development of urban youth, in grades 6-12, to complete the Junior Urban Master Producer certification.
Family Farm Defenders, Madison, Wisconsin: $8,000 for organizing around the principles of food sovereignty and agroecology to transform the U.S. food and farm system with the goal to decorporatize, deindustrialize and decommodify in favor of relocalizing, re-democratizing and reclaiming agri-culture.
Food Works, Carbondale, Illinois: $9,000 to support peer-to-peer sustainable farming education and networking opportunities that help beginning and established farmers build resilient farms and contribute to the growth of a sustainable farming economy in Southern Illinois.
Hoosier Young Farmers Coalition, Indiana statewide: $5,000 for efforts to recruit, support and promote young and beginning farmers throughout the state of Indiana to create a lively network of young farmers and their allies and collaborate in making our food systems more localized, sustainable and just by providing opportunities for education, connection and innovation.
Human Agricultural Cooperative, Fort Wayne, Indiana; $10,000 to support farmers with more sustainable farming practices that decrease the carbon footprint of food and increase local purchasing.
Legacy Taste of the Garden, Princeton, Indiana: $10,000 to build programs and events that support farmer advocacy; to provide information on opportunities, trainings and assistance focused on Black and Historically Underserved farmers; and to participate and collaborate to build, save/strengthen Black farms and farmers.
Marbleseed, Spring Valley, Wisconsin: $9,000 to support the Grow Organic Program, which fosters farmer-to-farmer engagement, through farmer-led events, and provides relevant and timely resources for the organic farming community, to both strengthen the current sustainable farming movement and empower the next generation of organic farmers.
Michael Fields Agricultural Institute (MFAI), East Troy, Wisconsin: $9,000 to support beginning BIPOC farmers in Wisconsin, Illinois and Minnesota, and to offer free 1-on-1 advising about funding resources, informing Midwest farmers, especially underserved farmers, and farmer-serving organizations about federal, state and private funding resources appropriate to farmers’ needs.
Mino Bimaadiziiwin Tribal Farm (Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa), Bayfield, Wisconsin: $9,000 to build a more integrated food system and advance the food sovereignty goals of the Red Cliff Band through increased food access of nutritious and traditional foods, targeted youth programming, producer support and land stewardship.
Northwest Indiana Food Council: $10,000 for efforts to weave networks, develop programming and advocate for a more just food system that equally values farmers and food producers, and honors the right to food for the most vulnerable community members.
Partners IN Food and Farming, Crothersville, Indiana: $5,000 to support farmer-to-farmer mentorship program for small-scale, diversified farmers, which helps farmers feel a sense of belonging, learn from each other and develop a tradition of mutual aid.
People’s Cooperative Market, Bloomington, Indiana: $10,000 to support a project that cultivates a safe space for BIPOC and underserved farmers and vendors to cooperatively produce and aggregate organic and culturally relevant agricultural products to hungry Hoosiers prioritizing oppressed communities.
Soul Food Project, Indianapolis, Indiana: $10,000 to build a just and equitable food system in the community through urban farms, a youth employment program and an adult apprenticeship program.
Teter Retreat and Organic Farm, Noblesville, Indiana: $8,000 to create an equitable food system that provides the nutrition, community and ecological healing that allows everyone to thrive.
The Land Connection, Champaign, Illinois: $9,000 to provide wraparound services to early- and mid-career farmers including education around organic production and transition, financial risk management and business administration skills needed to grow environmentally, socially and economically viable farms.
Wisconsin Farmers Union, Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin: $9,000 to support farmer-labor solidarity, coalition building and public messaging about shared experiences in the face of corporate consolidation in the food and farming system.