First-Time Farmer is a Bonafide Changemaker
Ed Dubrick and his wife Lindsey are owners of DuChick Ranch, a pastured chicken and turkey farm that they started in 2019 in Cissna Park (east-central Illinois). They didn’t initially intend to become Good Food advocates seeking policy changes.
But when their efforts to expand their poultry sales at their region’s farmers markets became tangled in a web of expensive county-by-county regulations and fees, Ed became active in the Illinois Stewardship Alliance efforts to create a fairer, statewide regulatory process that was enacted in 2022.
Ed’s work helping persuade state lawmakers to pass the bill earned him the Alliance’s 2022 Changemaker of the Year Awar. And in 2023, while maintaining the farm, Ed took a position with the non-profit organization as its policy organizer.
So it was a natural progression for Ed to participate with a large group of local food advocates from the Alliance, Chicago Food Policy Action Council and Illinois Environmental Council who flew into Washington, D.C. earlier this month to try to persuade lawmakers and their staffs to support their farmer-and-environment-friendly agenda for the upcoming federal Farm Bill.
Ed crafted a column about his experiences — titled “From Cynic to Changemaker: How this Small Farmer Got a Seat at the Table with Congressional Members” — that was first published on the Illinois Stewardship Alliance’s website. I am turning it into a two-part series, the first here focused on the D.C. visit and the second, to be published Tuesday, on his connection with the Alliance.
Thank you, Ed, for the content and for all you do to support the local food ecosystem.
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My wife Lindsey and I own and operate DuChick Ranch LLC, a small poultry and produce farm in Cissna Park, Illinois. I also work a full-time, off-farm job for the Illinois Stewardship Alliance, of which I’ve been a member for a few years, and this past fall accepted an offer to join their staff.
In this blog, I’ll talk about what took me to D.C., what we did there, how my life’s journey brought me this amazing opportunity, and why I feel compelled to impact change in this way.
Farm Bill 2024
So why was I in Washington, D.C. with a group of farmers talking about ag policy? Well, every five years Congress must pass a Farm Bill. The Farm Bill is a MASSIVE piece of legislation that touches all of our lives.
That may sound like an exaggeration, but I assure you it is not. If you eat food, this bill touches your life. This bill impacts who grows the food, what nutritional assistance programs are implemented, who can access land and capital, what types of farming practices are encouraged or discouraged, and the health of our natural resources.
The current 2018 Farm Bill expired on September 30, 2023, but was extended at the 11th hour for one year, so now it will expire on September 30, 2024.
Congressional members are now actively working on the next version. The 2018 farm bill was mostly drafted and negotiated in 2016 and 2017. Now take a second to think about how much has transpired and changed in the last seven to eight years.
We seen tremendous swings in commodity, land and input prices. We have seen an increase in racial tensions. We have gone through a nationwide pandemic that proved to us how fragile our national/global food system truly is. We have seen a resurgence in the need and desire for local food. We have seen a powder keg of global tensions come to near breaking points multiple times, further shining light on our need to be more resilient domestically. We have seen our weather to continue to be volatile and ever-changing.
The 2024 Farm Bill must address all of these issues and have the foresight to set our country up for success over the next five years.
Washington D.C. Trip
As a new staff member, I was blessed to be able to join a few of my colleagues and attend the winter meeting that National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) held in Washington D.C. this year.
The Illinois Stewardship Alliance is a member of NSAC. The Alliance has a small staff, and because of that, we focus primarily on state policy issues. We lean on the resources provided to us by NSAC to stay informed and take action when needed on federal policy.
There is no better time to take action on federal agriculture policy than during a Farm Bill year. The winter meeting was an excellent opportunity for us to hone our lobbying skills and learn more details about Farm Bill policies regarding racial justice, farm safety-net programs, local and regional food systems, nutrition programs, and conservation programs.
Senate Agriculture Committee Chairperson Sen. Debbie Stabenow of Michigan even came and addressed our group with a status update on current Farm Bill negotiations and her priorities for its upcoming passage.
The winter meeting culminated with a farmer fly-in. The Illinois Stewardship Alliance had a dozen farmers join us and participate in a Lobby Day at our nation’s capitol. The alliance partnered with the Illinois Environmental Council and Chicago Food Policy Action Council to arrange meetings with 17 different Illinois Congressional members and their staffs.
I had the chance to meet Robyn Kelly, my congresswoman, as well as many others. At these meetings, our group’s members shared their heartfelt stories and asked their legislators to support policies important to them, their farms and their communities.
For most of the meetings I wore two hats. I wore my Illinois Stewardship Alliance staff hat coordinating meetings between our members, helping them find their voice, and helping them navigate the trickier points of bills. I also was able to wear my DuChick Ranch hat, advocating for policies that are important to Lindsey and me and our farm, and ones that would impact our community.
Specifically, I asked congressional members to support the Strengthening Local Processing Act (SLPA), the Strengthening Local Meat Economies Act (SLMEA), and the Whole Farm Revenue Protection (WFRP) Improvement Act:
• SLPA would invest in infrastructure and workforce development programs to increase the capacity of our local and regional meat processors, and in turn increase the capacity of local farmers to feed their communities.
• SLMEA would direct the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) — the nation’s largest meat purchaser — to source 20 percent of its meat purchases from small and regional processors rather than continue to support only the largest multinational packing companies.
• The WFRP Improvement Act would make insurance plans for small diversified farmers easier to get and more effective by reducing the amount of paperwork required, fixing shortfalls in the current plan, and increasing access for more farmers. Commodity farmers have access to revenue insurance; our food farmers need it too.
Other group members advocated for a suite of other bills as well:
• Justice for Black Farmers: This would go a long way in righting wrongs of systemic racism in USDA programs, while also creating measures that would prevent it from happening again. It works to prevent further land loss to America’s few black farmers left and aid in land access for aspiring black farmers.
• Agriculture Resilience Act: Weather becomes more volatile because of climate change. This creates the urgent need to fund technical assistance, conservation projects and research for farmers as they try to adapt their crops and practices to an ever-changing world. This proposal would provide funding for those projects.
• Small Farm Conservation Act: This proposal would create a subset of programs under the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) that are better designed to support the needs of small, diversified farms. It would streamline the application and enrollment process and train NRCS field staff on small-scale agriculture conservation practices.
• Local Farms and Food Act: This proposal aims to reform the Local Agriculture Market Program (LAMP), Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program (GusNIP), and the Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Program (SFMNP). It would increase access to these programs to catalyze investments in underserved areas and among small producers, and in turn promote economic growth in rural and urban areas.
Impact of Our Trip
Thanks to the actions of Alliance members in D.C., we have shaped the future Farm Bill. Lawmakers heard our stories and answered our requests for support. As the Farm Bill continues to take shape, our lawmakers now have better insight into the needs of their constituents. They’re better educated on the importance of local and regional food systems, agriculture conservation, and addressing racial inequity in agriculture.
It meant so much to me that while we were there, in person in these offices, that Alliance members and supporters throughout the state were also calling their representatives as part of our Farm Bill call-in day. The outpouring of support was, in a word, AMAZING.
Traveling to D.C. isn’t possible for everyone, but that doesn’t mean your voice cannot be heard. Your legislators need to hear from you so that they can make informed decisions on behalf of their constituents.
Part 2 of Ed’s essay will follow in tomorrow’s Local Food Forum.
Bob’s World, and Welcome to It
More fun with the sunset, on Sunday.