Congress must pass a 2023 Farm Bill before the end of the year, a measure which not only impacts farming but also what's on our plates.

The Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association has a vision of a future where local food nourishes communities and agricultural practices protect the environment.

Christine Hughes, board member of the Association's policy-steering committee and owner of Village Bakery and Café in Athens, said policies promoting soil health through methods such as cover crops and diverse crop rotations will build a more climate resilient food system.

"These kinds of techniques are needed to be spread further than just the people that are doing the certified organic production," Hughes asserted. "And also the farmers, they can't really carry this responsibility on their own. They need policies and resources that will encourage these kinds of practices."

The Association's members throughout Ohio have developed five key priorities for the 2023 Farm Bill. They include increasing investments in local food systems; funding organic and sustainable farming research, reducing agricultural consolidation; and providing more support for beginning farmers and farmers of color.

Hughes pointed out the recent supply-chain issues are just one example of the importance of investments in local food systems. As a restaurant owner, Hughes argued more support is needed for practices to help local growers and producers weather difficult seasons.

"We only buy from local producers for lettuce, for example," Hughes explained. "This year was the wettest year that our farmers have had, and we actually had to take salad off the menu because we didn't have a local source for tomatoes and lettuce because of extreme rain."

Droughts, flooding, extreme heat and storms are among the challenges faced by farmers throughout the U.S.

Hughes added transforming the agricultural system from extractive to regenerative will create a healthier food system and help the climate.

"Agriculture is a huge part of the solution that we need for the climate crisis," Hughes contended. "If standard organic farming practices were implemented worldwide, 12% of world greenhouse-gas emissions would be taken out of the atmosphere and sequestered in the soil, sometimes for decades."

A meeting on sustainable fishing in Seattle could inspire greater protections for Washington state's waters in Olympia. The State Innovation Exchange held the "Sustainable Aquaculture and Working Waterfronts" convention with lawmakers from 13 states.

Emma Newton, senior associate with agriculture and food systems program for the State Innovation Exchange, said big corporations dominate agriculture and farming, but large-scale, industrial fish farming isn't in the United States - yet.

"However, we are seeing increased interest in putting these large-scale, essentially factory farms of the ocean in our waters, and they're a direct threat to our ocean ecosystems, our local fishers and the native fish populations," she said.

Newton added the convention focused on how policymakers can protect sustainable and local fishing economies and tribal food sovereignty.

Rep. Mia Gregerson, D-SeaTac, attended the convention and said the state banned some fish farming practices after tens of thousands of non-native Atlantic salmon escaped a fish pen in 2017. Gregerson added the state needs to go further to protect the region from industrial fish farming.

"We're only able to control the policy for about three miles off the shore, and so it's going to be really important then, right, to make sure that we have a state coastal zone management plan that prohibits the same type of farming beyond just state waters," she said.

Newton added events like the one in Seattle are important because policymakers are able to connect with communities and the people working on these issues, making them more effective in their decision making.

"They're able to know that they don't have to go to the large corporations or the lobbyists for the information they need. They can go directly to the community. They're building relationships that circumnavigate the traditional way that policy is being made," Newton said.


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Farmers in Iowa are studying interactions between crops, water usage, carbon and nitrogen storage, and how those factors combine to affect longterm soil biodiversity. It's part of a seven-state project in the Midwest.

Researchers are looking at the effects of crop combinations on soil and moisture across the Corn Belt.

Iowa State University Agronomy Professor Sotirious Archontoulis is running one research site in the five-year, $16 million project.

He's monitoring how crop management, carbon and nitrogen content affect soil moisture - and will try to predict the impact on the viability of future crops.

"We have the same setup in many different environments to capture different organic matter, soil hydrology conditions," said Archontoulis, "so we get a better understanding of the complexities in the agronomic system."

Archontoulis said scientists can also study greenhouse gas emissions from the soil.

He said these ultimately affect its health and can have an impact on large ag operation waste runoff, which is known to pollute nearby ground and surface water. The research is gearing up now.

Based on the computer model's findings, Archontoulis said researchers can make recommendations to farmers based on - for example - how much nitrogen the soil is losing in certain places, and how they can adjust planting schedules as a result.

"We can say, 'This cropping system with this management practice typically loses that amount of nitrogen,'" said Archontoulis. "'However, the other combination of cropping system could reduce nitrogen loss and improve productivity by X%, so this is a better strategy to move forward.'"

Archontoulis said the research begins across the Midwest this summer.




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Washington state has allocated nearly $1.5 million in grants to support local food systems and supply chains. The Washington State Department of Agriculture distributed the funds to 40 projects, supporting farmers, food and meat processors, and distributors.

Galen Van Horn, local food system and supply chain specialist with the Washington State Department of Agriculture directed distribution of the funds and said there has been consolidation in the large-scale market that small and mid-sized operations can combat.

"We've just seen a clear need for investment to support those small and mid-sized operations and make sure the infrastructure is scaled to meet their needs, and that we don't just have very, very large food system infrastructure - like processing facilities and aggregation points - that are only really scaled for very large farms and food businesses," he explained.

The seeds of the program began in 2021, when the Washington Legislature distributed federal COVID-19 recovery funds to support local food infrastructure because of the pandemic's impact on supply chains. Since 2023, the Local Food System Infrastructure Grant program has distributed $8 million in state funds.

Van Horn said the program is popular and received nearly $19 million in requests - well over what it could provide. One project selected in 2022 was the nonprofit Columbia Community Creamery, which received more than $450,000.

"They got a large grant to get the equipment necessary to receive bulk milk deliveries, and then process that into jars and have it ready to be consumed. A lot of food safety involved there," he continued.

The Washington State Department of Agriculture expects to start the next application round in the summer or fall of next year. Van Horn said the agency looks for proposals that impact the regional food system, are achievable and ask for a reasonable amount of money.


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