In response to the memo the HEAL Food Alliance issued the following statement:

The HEAL (Health, Environment, Agriculture, Labor) Food Alliance is glad to see the House Democrats affirm their commitment to passing a strong and effective farm bill.  We’re glad to see a principled commitment to investing in sustainable agriculture, reducing hunger, and improving equity. However, in many ways, the farm bill is again shaping up to be business as usual. Since its inception, the farm bill has excluded people who work in our food and farm system from consideration in policy making. Without their inclusion, the 2024 farm bill risks once again benefitting a handful of powerful agriculture corporations who are using their power to roll back labor regulations at the expense of working people. 

Recent polling showed that majorities as large as 87% in Michigan and Pennsylvania and 80% nationally expressed support for more and better workplace protections for essential workers in the farming and food industries. That support holds regardless of whether respondents were Republicans (83%) or Democrats (91%), rural (87%), urban (85%), or suburban (85%). We urge the House Agriculture Committee to listen to voters, acknowledge working people as part of our agriculture system in the next farm bill, and to do what is within their power and to work with other agencies (DOL, EPA, etc) to ensure safe and dignified working conditions for farmworkers, meatpacking workers, warehouse workers, and working people across the food chain. 

As referenced in the memo, this farm bill must also be a climate bill that moves away from harmful industrial agriculture practices and towards regenerative practices that use traditional ecological knowledge. Polling shows that voters support investments that help farmers protect water quality and keep more carbon and nutrients in their soil. GA (86%), MI (88%), PA (88%), CO (86%). Majorities of voters in each state – as many as 68% in Michigan – and 66% of voters with a farmer in the house said water pollution caused by agricultural runoff is a threat to their state.

Moving forward, the Farm Bill must dedicate funding support for proven climate solutions, including regenerative agriculture, agroecology, and Indigenous food production methods. These approaches help restore soil, water, air, and biodiversity, as well as increasing carbon sequestration. At the same time, it must provide climate and other protections for working people who are vulnerable to heat stress, wildfires, flooding, and the whims of their employers.

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Dysfunctional Congress Left American Farm Workers in Limbo

By Jose Oliva and Sophie Ackoff

Although Congress was able to make a deal this weekend and avoid a government shutdown, the 21.5 million people working in the food and agriculture system are still stuck in limbo. Congress quietly missed its deadline for the 2023 farm bill amid its dysfunction. While Congress spends the bulk of its time fighting over the basic function of funding our government, reauthorizing the next farm bill is pushed further and further back. Working people have been fighting for a safe and fair farm bill for years, and can’t afford gridlock any longer. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, a handful of industrial agriculture corporations have consolidated control over the food system and are using their outsized influence to see that labor protections never make it into the farm bill. It’s time for Congress to challenge these corporate lobbyists, put aside partisan politics and put constituents first.

As longtime worker advocates, we speak each day with the people growing, harvesting, processing and shipping the food that our communities rely on. We hear the stories of folks working without protection from extreme temperatures– whether it’s scorching heat in Florida fields, Arkansas meatpacking plants, or Illinois warehouse docks. We hear from workers forced to toil at breakneck speeds for hours on end, without time to even get water or go to the bathroom.

This cruelty isn’t an oversight – it’s the lasting legacy of enslavement and exploitation in America’s food and food system. The hallmark labor laws of the New Deal era, the National Labor Relations Act and the Fair Labor Standards Act, both excluded agricultural workers. And each of the 18 farm bills since 1933 have also failed to address their needs.  

Over the years, working people have steadily built power and mobilized for better conditions and fair pay. Now, farm and food workers are demanding a farm bill that finally recognizes their contributions and respects these essential workers. Recently, Mirella Estrada, a member of the Farmworker Association of Florida, shared her testimony with nearly 100 Congressional staffers, recounting long days in the field, sometimes from 4am to 11pm with just 15 minute lunch breaks and limited water. She remembered one day when a coworker wandered away to try to find shade under a tree to cope with the heat. “By the time we got there his life was near ending,” she said. “We tried to provide CPR and dialed 911 but by the time they came he had passed.”

Mirella’s story is one of many. Food and farm workers in Arizona, California, Florida, North Carolina, and Tennessee have already died on the job this year. Between 2017 and 2022, 121 workers died from heat, not including deaths blamed on other workplace accidents or underlying health conditions exacerbated by heat. Farm workers are now 35 times more likely to die of heat exposure than other workers according to the National Institutes of Health.

Extreme heat is also making toxic pesticides more harmful as the chemicals evaporate into the air more rapidly, filling the lungs of farm workers and drifting into nearby homes. 

The agriculture system doesn’t have to be this dangerous. There’s a clear pathway forward, with many pragmatic measures before Congress that would make a major difference for food and farm workers. We support Senator Padilla’s bills to ensure workers have a voice at USDA where decisions affecting them are made; Senator Booker and Representative Khanna’s bill to create safer conditions for processing meat and poultry, one of the most dangerous jobs in agriculture; Senator Booker’s bill to protect farmworkers that bear the burden of pesticide exposure; and Senator Welch and Representative Casar’s bill to ensure that USDA purchases food from companies that pay their employees a living wage.

These kinds of bills are backed by voters across the country who understand the value of protecting food and farm workers. Nationally, 80% of voters across party lines support more and better protections for food and farm workers. And in a poll of voters in key agricultural states of Michigan, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Colorado, 61% of voters identified the risk of illness and injury to food and farm workers as a threat to their own community. 

Congress has the opportunity to do right by millions of workers and the majority of Americans who support a fair and safe food system. This year’s farm bill must reimagine, remake and reinvigorate our food and farm system into one that works better for workers, farmers, ranchers, and eaters alike.

Sophie Ackoff is formerly the Farm Bill Campaign Director for the Food & Environment program at the Union of Concerned Scientists. Jose Oliva is the Campaigns Director of the HEAL (Health, Environment, Agriculture & Labor) Food Alliance.

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By Ashley Fent, Campaigns Researcher

As part of the farm bill process, members of Congress introduce “marker bills” to try to get provisions included into the larger bill. We do not expect Congress to pass marker bills as standalone bills – they are often not politically feasible to pass on their own. But they do get people talking and help build momentum for policies that should be included in the larger (“omnibus”) bill. Marker bills are also an opportunity for advocacy, enabling community groups and legislators to work together to address issues that impact our food system and our lives. 

As part of our work on the 2023 Farm Bill, HEAL has been working to get more legislators to co-sponsor the marker bills we’ve endorsed. We believe the provisions in these bills would make a big impact on getting our priorities included in the Farm Bill. 

There are many exciting bills on the table this year, but with limited resources, we can only prioritize a handful of them in our own advocacy work. Here’s more about the bills we’re endorsing:

1. Protecting America’s Meatpacking Workers Act (to provide essential protections to meatpacking workers)

In 2021, building on long-standing worker justice campaigns, Food Chain Workers Alliance, Public Justice, Rural Community Workers Alliance, Venceremos, and HEAL Food Alliance worked with Senator Cory Booker’s office to draft the Protecting America’s Meatpacking Workers Act (PAMWA). 

Meatpacking is one of the most exploitative industries in the country. For decades, people who work in this industry, who are mostly rural, immigrants, and people of color, have endured dangerous work conditions and retaliation when they speak out. 

The USDA currently allows some meatpacking plants to increase their line speeds. PAMWA would mandate an assessment about the impacts of any line speed increase on worker health and safety. It would ensure more regular and thorough safety inspections, better reporting systems, and the development of stronger standards to protect workers from hazards and occupational injuries. Additionally, PAMWA provides measures to allow working people to speak out about labor abuses without fear of retaliation. And it tackles the structures that have made meatpacking corporations overly powerful, by bolstering the Packers and Stockyards Act, cracking down on monopolistic practices, and channeling more resources to small and regional processing plants with fair labor standards. It also calls for a Government Accountability Office report on racism in the system. 

This bill was introduced by Senators Cory Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand, Richard Blumenthal, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Brian Schatz in the Senate and by Representatives Ro Khanna, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Donald Payne, Jr., Raúl Grijalva, Jahana Hayes, and Barbara Lee in the House. It addresses HEAL’s priorities on labor and on cracking down on corporate control. Like the next two bills on this list, it would set an important precedent for including protections for food and farm workers in the farm bill, building toward our long-term goal of getting a labor title added to the farm bill.

• Read more about PAMWA from HEAL Food Alliance and Food Chain Workers Alliance’s factsheet!

2. Fairness for Farm Workers Act (to mandate overtime pay for farmworkers)

In the 1930s, lawmakers excluded jobs held by formerly enslaved peoples from New Deal programs and legislation. This included the farm bill and labor laws like the National Labor Relations Act and the Fair Labor Standards Act. As a result, farmworkers are still denied rights that many of us take for granted, including overtime pay, the federal minimum wage, the right to organize, and child labor protections.

This bill would gradually implement overtime pay for farmworkers over the next four years, with the goal of increasing equity in the trillion-dollar agricultural industry. It would remove exemptions for agriculture overall, as well as for certain categories of farm labor, including non-local minors, small farms, and range livestock production, and employment outside of the farm gate, including in irrigation projects, grain elevators, and processing facilities.

This bill was introduced by Senators Alex Padilla, Dianne Feinstein, Elizabeth Warren, Richard Blumenthal, Cory Booker, Bernie Sanders, Catherine Cortez Masto, Ron Wyden, Chris Van Hollen, Amy Klobuchar, Sherrod Brown, Ed Markey, and Bob Menendez in the Senate and by Congressman Raúl Grijalva in the House. It advances HEAL’s demands on labor in the farm bill.

• Read more about the racist history of farmworker exclusion from labor laws and the farm bill in our farm bill backgrounder and our labor toolkit.

3. Supporting our Farm and Food System Workforce Act (to create a USDA office dedicated to addressing worker issues)

The food industry is the largest private sector employer in the country, employing over 21.5 million people. Yet abuse and exploitation are rampant. The 80% of food industry workers who work in frontline positions face low wages, high rates of food insecurity, and limited labor protections. Farmworkers — the majority of whom are foreign-born, mostly Latine or Indigenous to Latin America — confront especially dangerous (and sometimes fatal)  working conditions. 

The Supporting Our Farm and Food System Workforce Act aims to create a new USDA Office of the Farm and Food System Workforce. This office would provide more opportunities for working people to raise their concerns and interests within USDA, develop recommendations and new initiatives to support workers, and release public reports about its efforts to improve working conditions and livelihoods. The bill would also create an advisory committee composed of key stakeholders, including farm and food system workers, labor unions, and civil rights advocates (among others), and an interagency council of representatives from various federal agencies to improve coordination and planning.

This bill was introduced by Senators Alex Padilla, Sherrod Brown, Kirsten Gillibrand, Elizabeth Warren, Peter Welch, Ron Wyden, and Dianne Feinstein. It aligns with HEAL’s priorities on labor in the farm bill.

4. Justice for Black Farmers Act (to address USDA’s long-standing discrimination against Black farmers)

Between 1910 and the late 1990s, hundreds of thousands of Black farmers lost their land, as a result of discriminatory lending by the USDA and private lenders, violence and intimidation by white people, and a lack of legal recognition for heirs’ property (land inherited without a formal property title or will). By 1997, the number of Black farmers had experienced a decrease of 98 percent. This massive dispossession transferred more than $326 billion in land assets from Black families to white families – not to mention the toll on Black families’ cultural continuities, foodways, and well-being. Black farmers now hold only 0.5% of all farmland in the US and still face the legacies and current realities of debt and discrimination.

The Justice for Black Farmers Act (J4BF) is designed to keep Black farmers on their land and increase opportunities for new and aspiring Black farmers. It includes:

• USDA reforms: J4BF introduces critical reforms in the U.S. Department of Agriculture to end discrimination and increase oversight on civil rights issues, including through the creation of an independent civil rights oversight board and an equity commission.
• Debt relief: J4BF increases funding support for people navigating heirs’ property recognition and farming cooperatives. It would create a new bank for Black growers’ cooperative financial institutions. And it would forgive the debt of farmers who won the Pigford v. Glickman lawsuit against USDA. 
• Land access: J4BF creates a land grant program to transfer up to 160 acres to existing and aspiring Black farmers and provides USDA funding to support them. 
• Training and technical assistance: J4BF provides more resources to historically Black colleges and universities, as well as NGOs serving Black farmers. It also creates a conservation corps to help young and aspiring farmers and ranchers that USDA categorizes as “socially disadvantaged” gain experience.* 
• Fair competition: J4BF would reform and strengthen the Packers and Stockyards Act to put an end to abusive and anticompetitive practices by big meatpacking corporations. This will allow new and existing Black farmers to have a real chance to succeed and thrive, while also benefiting all small-scale family farmers across the country.

This bill is led by Senator Cory Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand, Tina Smith, Reverend Raphael Warnock, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, and Richard Blumenthal in the Senate and by Congresswoman Alma Adams in the House. It advances HEAL’s demands for increased support for BIPOC producers, cracking down on corporate consolidation, and promoting regenerative farming that supports a healthier environment and climate.

• Read more about J4BF from the National Black Food and Justice Alliance: https://blackfoodjustice.org/supportaction 

*Socially disadvantaged producers is a category that USDA uses. In some cases it refers only to farmers and ranchers of color and in other cases it includes women. HEAL does not endorse this term.

5. Fair Credit for Farmers Act (to improve the farm credit system)

Most family farmers depend on agricultural credit to keep their farms going. For many farmers it can be hard to get loans from commercial banks – especially without formal titles or collateral (like in the case of Black farmers holding heirs’ property) or with existing debt. In these cases, the Farm Service Agency (FSA), a public agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is the only option for loans. But even at FSA, farmers (especially farmers of color) face predatory lending practices, discrimination, and an extractive relationship with lenders. 

The Fair Credit for Farmers Act would increase basic borrower protections, improve institutional oversight, and include flexible lending terms for FSA loans. 

This bill is led by Senators Kirsten Gillibrand and John Fetterman in the Senate and by Congresswoman Alma Adams in the House. It addresses HEAL’s demands for increased support for BIPOC producers and particularly for credit justice.

• Read RAFI and NFFC’s factsheet for more info on the Fair Credit for Farmers Act.

• Read RAFI’s account of stories of discrimination in credit access and how this bill would help: https://www.rafiusa.org/blog/farmers-credit-access/ 

• And hear from RAFI’s Margaret Krome-Lukens and Ray Jeffers, discussing the bill on this podcast: https://www.iatp.org/farm-bill-uprooted-episode-three-discredited 

6. Increasing Land Access, Security, and Opportunities Act (to expand the Increasing Land, Capital, and Market Access Program)

Right now, too many existing and aspiring farmers, especially BIPOC farmers, are struggling to access or retain land. This is in large part due to a long history of institutional racism by the USDA and, more broadly, by systemic racism. The issue has been worsened by the corporate squeeze on independent and family farmers. 

In 2022, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) launched a program to support underserved producers through the Increasing Land, Capital and Market Access Program. The Increasing Land Access, Security and Opportunities Act expands this program, authorizing $500 million for the next five years and increasing pathways for funding to reach young and beginning farmers and shellfish producers. It would make funding available to help growers acquiring land or make improvements and to entities supporting underserved farmers’ access to land, capital, and markets. And it would ensure that the program prioritizes direct financial assistance to farmers and collaborative partnerships. 

This bill is led by Senator Tina Smith in the Senate and by Representatives Nikki Budzinski, Zach Nunn, Joe Courtney, and Abigail Spanberger in the House. It advances HEAL’s demands for more support for BIPOC producers, especially through land access.

7. Closing the Meal Gap Act (to expand SNAP)

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) helps over 40 million people across the country afford groceries. But the dollar amounts of SNAP benefits are based on the insufficient and restrictive Thrifty Food Plan. Because of this, about 40% of households who participate in SNAP still aren’t able to get the food that they need. And many people who need SNAP benefits are currently ineligible because of restrictions on students, formerly incarcerated people, those who are not working, those living in US territories, and more. 

The Closing the Meal Gap Act would raise the baseline benefit for all SNAP households, basing it on a more realistic household budget. It would also provide extra to those with large medical and housing expenses. And it would address additional barriers that people face in accessing SNAP, including eliminating time limits on benefits for those struggling to find work and expanding the SNAP program to Puerto Rico.

This bill is led by Senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Peter Welch in the Senate, and by Representatives Alma Adams, Nydia Velázquez, Barbara Lee, Jahana Hayes, and Summer Lee in the House. It addresses HEAL’s priorities on expanding nutrition programs that ensure all people can get the food they need.

• Read our backgrounder on why we need stronger nutrition assistance in the Farm Bill: https://healfoodalliance.org/farmbill/nutrition/ 

8. Equitable and Values-Aligned Procurement at USDA Act (to ensure that USDA’s food purchasing policies advance equity and sustainability)

With the other members of the Federal Good Food Purchasing Coalition, HEAL has been helping to draft a bill that would move USDA toward values-aligned food purchasing.  

The federal government is a major food purchaser, with USDA alone buying billions of dollars worth of food each year. Changing USDA’s purchasing practices could have an enormous impact in moving toward a more just and healthy food system, by providing needed support for values-aligned producers and local and regional food economies and by persuading other government agencies and non-governmental institutions to follow suit in their own purchasing standards. 

The Equitable and Values-Aligned Procurement at USDA Act would require USDA to prioritize values-aligned producers in its food purchasing agreements. The bill requires USDA to prioritize purchases of food from beginning and/or BIPOC growers, from producers who support diversified and resilient supply chains, from growers who use organic or regenerative farming practices, and from producers who ensure workers’ well-being (including through collective bargaining agreements and labor unions). 

This bill is led by Senator Ed Markey and is still in development. It addresses HEAL’s priorities on labor, increasing opportunities for BIPOC producers, supporting communities rather than corporations, and promoting practices that help the climate and environment.

• Read more about equitable public procurement policies and their successes in state and city governments on the Federal Good Food Purchasing Coalition website and the Good Food Communities Campaign website

9. Supporting Urban and Innovative Farming Act (to increase funding for urban and suburban farmers)

Small- and micro-scale farming is increasing in urban and suburban areas. For many people – especially for people of color whose neighborhoods and diets have been affected by food apartheid – growing produce is an important way to access nutritious and culturally important foods. This bill would improve the Office of Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production, increase research and programmatic funding support for urban and suburban farmers, and support communities in developing composting and food waste initiatives. 

This bill was introduced by Senators John Fetterman, Sherrod Brown, Ron Wyden, Bob Casey, Ed Markey, Chris Van Hollen, and Ben Ray Luján. It addresses HEAL’s priorities around climate and the environment and could dovetail with our priorities around nutrition, investing in communities not corporations, and supporting BIPOC producers.

*Photo credit for header photo: Jam Rose & Rion Moon

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Real solutions to the climate crisis already exist – on fields and farms, in communities, grassroots organizations, and in agricultural collectives.

Currently, the Farm Bill props up industrial agricultural practices and corporations that wreak havoc on our ecosystems while polluting our air, water and food, including their false climate solutions that perpetuate extraction and exploitation.

The US food and agricultural system has an outsized impact on greenhouse gas emissions, with high levels of methane from factory farms as a major contributor. Meanwhile, farmers and workers are on the frontlines of the climate crisis, with massive hurricanes, flooding, drought, wildfires, and other weather events affecting their lives and livelihoods.

Ecological farming holds perhaps our greatest promise for climate resilience, supporting biodiversity, healthy soils, water retention, carbon sequestration, and more.

For the farm bill to truly address climate change, it must center climate justice. 

Photo by Rion Moon & Jam Rose

Climate justice is the transition from extractive systems to regenerative ones. It’s about  recognizing how our survival is interconnected to our environment and the planet. It’s about addressing the inequality of the climate crisis by centering communities on the frontlines – folks of color, low income and those in the Global South – who are most impacted by climate change.

At HEAL we believe the farm bill can and should support restorative agricultural practices that nourish ecological communities and restore biodiversity while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. That’s why we are advocating for a farm bill that centers those with real climate solutions.

Black, Indigenous, and other producers of color have long practiced ecological agricultural techniques even as they have been forced to confront land seizure, industrial agriculture, and the contamination of their land and water. Many of these practices are rooted in cultural traditions that hold deep respect for the land, water, seeds, and life that sustain us.

For hundreds of years the Diné have practiced “alluvial farming” — planting crops in the sediment deposits of floodplains. Roberto Nutlouis of Nihikeya, a HEAL member organization based in the Black Mesa region of the Navajo Nation, shared why his community is building regenerative systems based on Indigenous Diné knowledge.

Nihikeya volunteers planting squash plants in fields to rehabilitate floodplains.

“In our creation narrative, our people have experienced social and ecological calamity at least four times. And this is one of them. Yet our people persevered. And part of the solution was looking back within and remembering. Not every generation is given that opportunity and that burden,” said Roberto. 

Diné land stewards and farmers are restoring traditional agricultural practices to tackle drought and land degradation brought by climate change and colonization.

Similarly, Northeast Farmers of Color Land Trust (NEFOC) are also using regenerative practices to heal the human and environmental trauma caused by extractive and property-based models of land use. NEFOC, a HEAL member organization, is a network of over 600 aspiring and practicing BIPOC land stewards engaging in mutual support and knowledge sharing.

In addition to better ecological practices, we also need deeper changes in how we think about and relate to the land and each other, according to Larisa “Lala” Jacobson, Climate Justice & Policy Co-Director at NEFOC.

NEFOC gathering in 2019 at Soul Fire Farm

“If there’s mutual interdependence and we focus on the connective tissue between life and between beings, which is in essence the Land, then we can be climate resilient. If there are delusions of supremacies, like white supremacy, then that breaks down, and we are all more vulnerable to climate change — especially the people and other beings who are pushed to the margins,” said Lala.

We must also remember that the fights against capitalism, racism, and colonization are interconnected and global. Like BIPOC producers in the US, food producers in Africa, Asia, and Latin America are also facing severe threats to their agricultural traditions and livelihoods due to climate change. By centering climate justice in the farm bill, we can support food producers both here in the US and across the Global South impacted by the climate crisis.

In order to meet climate goals, HEAL is fighting for a farm bill that:

• uplifts the climate solutions small-scale producers and land stewards are already practicing
• recognizes and supports traditional and Indigenous environmental knowledge
• includes provisions that make it possible for BIPOC producers to access land and credit — like Senator Booker’s Justice for Black Farmers Act.

Photo by Rion Moon & Jam Rose

As we continue our fight for climate justice in the farm bill, it is important to recognize that there are solutions. And we don’t have to wait for politicians, companies, or billionaires to dream them up. Join our Alliance this week in the fight for more just food systems. Call your Congress members and urge them to center climate justice in the upcoming farm bill! 

HEAL’s vision is for a 2023 Farm Bill that transforms our destructive food and farm systems, our health, our planet, and our communities, and prioritizes the well-being of BIPOC and rural communities and human and environmental health.

Learn more about the survival of our ecosystems HEAL policy priority for the 2023 Farm Bill.

Ashley Fent is an ACLS Leading Edge Fellow, conducting background research to inform and raise public awareness about ongoing campaigns and policy directions. Before coming to HEAL, she taught courses on environmental justice issues at Vassar College and worked as a researcher at Community Alliance for Global Justice, a small nonprofit in Seattle. She holds a PhD in Geography from UCLA, an MA in Anthropology from Columbia University, and a BA in Geography from the University of Washington. Ashley lives in Tacoma, Washington, on the occupied land of Coast Salish peoples. She enjoys dancing, painting, and being outdoors in the summer.

Navina Khanna is a co-founder and the Executive Director of HEAL. For over 20 years, she has worked toward social and ecological justice through food and farming systems, and her leadership is widely respected for uniting changemakers across sectors and communities. Navina holds an MS in International Agricultural Development and has formal training in somatics, as a yoga teacher, and in permaculture design. She has previously served on the leadership teams of Urban Tilth, the US Food Sovereignty Alliance, Oakland’s Food Policy Council and as a member of Oakland’s Equitable Climate Action Plan Committee and the Young Climate Leaders Network. She currently serves on the board of Friends of the Earth Action and as a member of the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Food and Nutrition Security Task Force. A first-generation South Asian American living in Oakland on occupied Ohlone land, Navina’s worldview is shaped by migration and grounded in movement. She most easily finds joy immersed in soil, music, and community.

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Community care is ensuring every person has access to sustainable, nourishing food they can afford. 

Nutrition in the US is most often decided, not by personal or individual choice, but by where you live, what you do, and what you can afford to buy. And for communities of color, food apartheid and systemic racism further limit the nutritious food we have access to.  

As a doula, I have become acutely aware of how the barriers and inequities pregnant people face while accessing the care and nourishment they need are deeply connected to those impacting our food and farm systems. 

Eloni, HEAL Communications Manager, as a child in her home in Ellicott City, MD

Like many of the pregnant people and families I support, I grew up in Maryland in a majority Black, Asian, and Brown neighborhood where many families in my community, including my own, have relied on SNAP and food assistance programs to nourish themselves. 

Currently, over 34 million people, including 9 million children, in the US are food insecure. And these rates are expected to rise as cuts to food stamps, rising food prices, and stagnant wages persist. By centering food insecure folks in the upcoming Farm Bill we can begin to address the shortcomings of food and nutrition policy. 

Recently (and disappointingly) Biden passed a debt ceiling agreement that expanded work requirements for adults 50 to 54 years old to receive SNAP and other food assistance programs – putting 750,000 older adults at risk of losing their benefits and ability to nourish themselves. 

SNAP benefits and where we lived provided my family and community both access and agency to choose where our food came from: whether from our local H mart and produce markets where we bought affordable fruits and veggies and ancestral foods, or large chain grocery stores and farmers markets, all were within 5 miles of our homes.

The neighborhood I grew up in, however, was located in a predominantly white and affluent county with access to an abundance of affordable and nutrient dense food options. Just a few miles away, my extended family members living in segregated neighborhoods in Baltimore had significantly less nutritious food options due to food apartheid and systemic racism.   

Low income families of color living in areas where supermarket redlining and food apartheid drive food access often pay higher prices for lower quality groceries. And in settler colonies like Puerto Rico, where imported food prices are higher than on the mainland due to shipping tariffs, residents are ineligible for food assistance programs.   

Expanding eligibility requirements for SNAP ensures more food insecure folks – including incarcerated people, farm workers, and folks with disabilities and chronic disease who experience food insecurity at higher rates –  have access to the foods they otherwise would not be able to receive nor could afford.  

It is vital now more than ever to address food insecurity and protect food assistance programs, like SNAP which are currently under threat. Nutrition assistance programs are a proven tool to combat food insecurity and poverty and are a lifeline for millions 

A new bill introduced by Senator Booker and Rep Blunt Rochester would expand a nutrition incentive program (GusNIP) to increase access to fresh fruits and vegetables for low income communities, while also providing markets for local farmers. 

Photo by Rion Moon & Jam Rose

This week, HEAL is calling on the Senate and House Ag committees to increase investment and expansion of SNAP and GusNIP, support the Puerto Rico Nutrition Assistance Program, and oppose new cuts to nutrition assistance programs. 

Join us by calling your Congress members in support of a farm bill for thriving futures for us all! 

HEAL’s vision is for a 2023 Farm Bill that transforms our destructive food and farm systems, our health, our planet, and our communities, and prioritizes the well-being of BIPOC and rural communities and human and environmental health.

Learn more about the nourishing people HEAL policy priority for the 2023 Farm Bill.

Eloni Porcher is a storyteller and strategic communicator who crafts messages, builds strategies and conducts research to inform communications and development for HEAL and its members. Her previous experience includes research, digital comms and media relations in global health, community development and nonprofit sectors where she specialized in gender health issues impacting BIPOC communities in the US and women across the Global South. Eloni has a B.A. in Communication Studies and minor in International Studies from Northeastern University and is currently based in the Washington, DC – Baltimore region on Piscataway land.

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Corporate agribusinesses, through consolidation, have amassed massive power over food production lines, controlling each step from “farm to fork.”  Before I joined the HEAL Food Alliance as an Organizer, I supported beginning farmers and livestock producers in the Midwestern “corn belt,” a region dominated by commodity farming and the base for many large corporate agribusinesses. 

I learned firsthand the challenges farmers face while striving to build successful farm businesses due to corporate consolidation. Small-scale livestock farmers and ranchers watched their wealth dwindle as the rise of concentrated animal feed operations, or CAFOs, replaced their operations and hollowed rural communities. 

Celize Christy, HEAL’s National Organizer

I learned how vegetable farmers’ opportunities to compete in the marketplace were reduced by seed company mergers, like Bayer-Monsanto, which took over a third of the seed industry.

But this corporate takeover of our food production systems is ultimately by design. Modern agricultural policies like the farm bill support the industrialization and corporate consolidation of our farm and food systems. 

According to Policy Director Sean Carroll of the Land Stewardship Project (LSP), “factory farms are the dominant corporate power” in many parts of the Midwest region where most farming businesses are owned by a single family or group. LSP is a Minnesota-based grassroots organization that is committed to breaking down power and consolidation in the food farming system. Phasing out factory farming is a key focus of the organization’s work, which helps community members build power against powerful regional players so they have a fair chance at building viable farming and ranching operations. 

Sean Carroll and Organizer Matthew Sheets spoke with HEAL about why breaking up corporate consolidation and factory farming is necessary for small independent farmers, as part of our Platform for Real Food Toolkit series. 

“Factory farms are the dominant corporate power in this region. Most of the businesses in town are now owned by the one family or group that owns those barns. People feel the impact this has on their community…Factory farming drives out small and midsize farmers,” said Sean and Matthew.  

“When you put up a big operation that’s got 100,000 cows, that means you’re driving out a hundred small farms with 100 cows off of their land. The effect trickles down to processing too. Those who can get a hundred cows at a time get a much better price at the butcher or processor than someone who can send a few cows at a time.” 

Factory farms drive out small meatpacking operations who are unable to compete in an unfair market, which impacts workers too.  Large corporations are able to undercut their prices with high speed lines and low wage labor made up of mostly immigrants and refugees, all while remaining largely unchecked by federal regulations. 

My experiences in the Midwest taught me that small, independent, community-owned farms, cooperatives, and food operations are the foundation of creating resilient regional food systems. 

By cracking down on harmful corporate practices, reversing consolidation and prioritizing small, independent food operations and farms, we can also increase protections for workers and build sustainable food systems. 

The 2023 Farm Bill must ensure the resiliency of our food systems by investing in the infrastructure of local and regional food systems. This includes  farm system reform policies that crack down on monopolistic practices of corporations, creating a fairer market that allows independent farmers and local food systems to thrive. And equitable investments in BIPOC-owned businesses, cooperatives and community owned operations. 

While the 2023 Farm Bill is up for renewal Congress must take steps to safeguard farmers, ranchers, consumers and meatpacking workers from deceptive, monopolistic practices in the livestock, meat and poultry industries. 

This week, HEAL is urging Congress to prioritize the health and well-being of our communities over corporate profits by  enforcing the Packers and Stockers Act and passing the Protecting America’s Meatpacking Workers Act in the upcoming Farm Bill. Join us by calling your Congress members in support of a Farm Bill for thriving futures for us all! 

HEAL’s vision is for a 2023 Farm Bill that transforms our destructive food and farm systems, our health, our planet, and our communities, and prioritizes the well-being of BIPOC and rural communities and human and environmental health. 

Learn more about the communities, not corporations HEAL policy priority for the 2023 Farm Bill.

At HEAL, Celize connects members to campaigns, programs and the alliance’s greater network. Celize comes to HEAL’s campaign and policy work by coordinating farmer-led education programming, advocating for BIPOC farmers in Iowa, and coalition building and organizing with sustainable agriculture organizations. Celize earned her B.S. in Animal Science and Global Resource Systems with a minor in Spanish from Iowa State University and a M.S. in Rural Sociology and International Agricultural Development from the Pennsylvania State University. Celize roots herself in the stories, voices and experiences of both urban and rural farmers from her time in the Midwest. Celize currently lives in Dallas, Texas on occupied Jumanos, Kiikaapoi, Tawakoni and Wichita Land Land and enjoys exploring local businesses, drinking ginger tea, and playing with her miniature pinscher pup, Luz.

The post It’s time to invest in communities and break up corporate power in the Farm Bill! appeared first on HEAL Food Alliance.

For many Black, Indigenous, and other people of color in the US, land and water stewardship play a central role in our culture, way of life, economic livelihoods, and the sustainability of our communities. 

However, due to white settler colonialism, the opportunity to farm has been unjustly stripped from the majority of BIPOC communities in the US through many avenues, including government policies and programs. 

Now, it is time to ensure that government policies and programs not only correct these racist practices that have led to massive land loss, but also help return land stewardship to BIPOC communities. 

One critical place we can do so is the farm bill, a massive piece of federal legislation that dramatically shapes our food and farm system through the investment of hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars.

Historically, the farm bill has been used to aid the forced removal of Black and Indigenous farmers from their lands – agencies like the USDA intentionally gave loans to white farmers while discriminating against Black farmers. This racist practice has led to huge loss of land, wealth, and opportunity for BIPOC producers and their families. 

Photo by Jam Rose & Rion Moon

As National Organizer at HEAL Food Alliance, I helped organize a roundtable discussion with the Federation of Southern Cooperatives, RAFI-USA, and the Midwest Farmers of Color Collective, where Black, Indigenous, and other farmers of color shared the mistreatment and discrimination they’ve faced from banks while applying for loans. 

Access to credit and loans are vital resources for producers and growers to sustain their farms.  Over a dozen farmers of color participated, and we quickly saw many questionable practices were commonplace, such as loan officers changing the requirements to receive a loan or denying loans outright despite applicants having decent credit and debt-to-income ratios.

Ed Hunt, a member of the Lumbee Tribe in North Carolina, shared at the roundtable how both he and his father have struggled to receive loans for their farms, despite good credit and high down payments. 

“If you don’t inherit land, you’re in trouble, you’re not farming. So for a person of color, it’s not gonna happen, ” said Ed Hunt to Civil Eats reporter Lisa Held.

Recently, the USDA has made efforts to address its own discriminatory lending practices with debt relief programs for farmers of color – but there’s still so much more that should be done. 

USDA technical assistance programs, trainings and grants should also be more accessible to BIPOC farmers. Oftentimes there is little outreach to communities of color – especially those that are non English speaking. Including culturally-appropriate outreach and assistance in the farm bill would make USDA opportunities in reach for more growers of color.  

Including the Justice for Black Farmers Act, introduced by Senator Booker and Representative Adams (with input from some HEAL members and partners) in the farm bill could help restore and prevent land loss for generations of Black farmers. 

Photo by Jam Rose & Rion Moon

Justice for Black and Indigenous Farmers is long overdue — it’s time for a farm bill that centers and prioritizes Black, Indigenous and other farmers of color.  This week, HEAL is calling on Congress and the Senate and House Ag committees to support the Justice for Black Farmers Act. Join us by calling your Congress members in support of a farm bill for thriving futures for us all!

HEAL’s vision is for a 2023 Farm Bill that transforms our destructive food and farm systems, our health, our planet, and our communities, and prioritizes the well-being of BIPOC and rural communities and human and environmental health. Learn more about the opportunities for all producers  HEAL policy priority for the 2023 Farm Bill.

Maleeka is HEAL’s National Organizer, where she builds the people power we need to create food systems that are good for our communities, good for our health, and good for the planet. Prior to working at HEAL, Maleeka mobilized coalitions to advance equitable climate policy as Co-Director of Policy at Climate Action Campaign and Chair of the San Diego Green New Deal Alliance. Maleeka has served as Director of Membership for the San Diego Democrats for Environmental Action and Assembly District Delegate to the California Democratic Party. Maleeka has also served on the Steering Committee for the California Green New Deal Coalition, the Stewardship Committee for the San Diego Food Systems Alliance 2030 Food Vision, and County Board of Supervisor Nathan Fletcher’s COVID-19 Equity Task Force. Maleeka has lived and worked in South Korea, Thailand, and Brazil, and has a B.A. from Colorado College. Maleeka currently lives in San Diego on Kumeyaay land and enjoys playing in the ocean and walking dogs in her free time.

The post We must center BIPOC farmers & producers in the farm bill! appeared first on HEAL Food Alliance.

I became enamored with the restaurant industry when I first came to the US. I was 13 years old and my parents were fleeing a bloody civil war that claimed the lives of several members of our family. Despite being a teacher in Guatemala, here in the US my mother could only find work in a restaurant.

It was only after I began working in the industry myself that I soon realized the glamor and fast-paced energy I glimpsed through the windows of my mother’s workplace was just a mirage. It was in fact the reflection of abusive managers, racism and a sexist environment unlike anything I had ever experienced.

Later, while studying American history at university, I learned that the restaurant industry’s treatment of workers was a legacy of slavery. Food workers, like farm and restaurant workers were purposely excluded from major pieces of legislation that guarantee rights for most other workers. And these exclusions took place because the majority of these workers were and continue to be people of color.

While working in the restaurant industry I became an organizer and learned about the farm bill — a massive piece of legislation that encompasses a wide range of agricultural and food-related policies that is redrafted every five to seven years.

Despite the critical role working people in our food system play to ensure that food is produced, processed, made and delivered, food chain workers aren’t even mentioned in the farm bill. It is yet another glaring omission of people of color, immigrants, and all workers. Including food and farm workers in the Farm Bill is necessary to ensure that our rights are protected, and we receive adequate support and resources to live dignified lives.

According to Food Chain Workers Alliance, a HEAL founding member, there are over 21 million people working in the food system today. Food chain workers often face significant challenges in their line of work, such as low pay, poor working conditions, and lack of access to healthcare and other benefits. Including food supply workers in the Farm Bill would ensure that we receive adequate protections and resources to do our jobs safely and effectively.

A Senator Booker bill, Protecting America’s Meatpacking Workers Act, mandates higher safety standards and working conditions for workers, including protective equipment and social distancing measures.

The Restaurant Workers Bill of Rights (spearheaded by HEAL member ROC United) would eliminate the $2.13/hour minimum wage for tipped workers, amongst other improvements. Centering these bills and others that create better standards for food workers in the farm bill, should be a no-brainer.

The food supply chain is complex, and each worker in the chain plays an essential role in ensuring that food is produced, processed, and delivered to consumers.

Including food supply workers in the farm bill would benefit everyone who eats. As the Farm Bill comes up for renewal, policymakers should consider the importance of including a labor title in the bill and take steps to ensure that their rights and welfare are protected.

Join HEAL’s week of action for a Farm Bill that supports thriving futures for us all. Call your Congress members and ask them to include the Protecting America’s Meatpacking Workers Act in the upcoming Farm Bill!

HEAL’s vision is for a 2023 Farm Bill that transforms our destructive food and farm systems, our health, our planet, and our communities, and prioritizes the well-being of BIPOC and rural communities and human and environmental health. Learn more about the secure dignity and fairness for food chain workers and their families HEAL policy priority for the 2023 Farm Bill.

Jose Oliva has a long history in labor organizing and has served in several leadership positions at Casa Guatemala, Chicago Interfaith Workers’ Center, Interfaith Worker Justice’s National Workers’ Centers Network, Center for Community Change, and the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United – the national organization of restaurant workers. Jose was the Co-Founder and Co-Director of the Food Chain Workers Alliance a national coalition of food-worker organizations that collectively represents over 350,000 workers. Jose is also a 2017 James Beard Award recipient and a 2018 American Food Hero Awardee.

The post It’s time to secure rights for food and farm workers in the Farm Bill! appeared first on HEAL Food Alliance.