CSA in NYC
Farmland, Food, and Politics: What You Need To Know
Presenters: Nadia Johnson, Just Food; David Haight, American Farmland Trust; Jen Small, American Farmland Trust, Flying Pig Farm
Nadia Johnson discussed food policy at the local/city level. She works primarily with food justice, legalizing bee keeping, and food and climate change issues.
Until this past year, there had been no comprehensive city-wide food policy initiative.
There had been some individual campaigns, including:
- FRESH (food retail expansion to support health), which focuses on zoning and financial incentives to establish grocery stores in under
served neighborhoods.
- Green Carts program, which encourages mobile food carts selling fresh produce—see Local Law 9 of 2008, permitting 1,000 Green Carts.
- Healthy Bodegas Initiative, which encourages bodega owners in under-served neighborhoods to provide healthy produce and works with
community groups to increase consumer demand.
- Health Bucks program, which encourages food stamp recipients to purchase produce at farmer’s markets.
- Local Produce Link, which brings fresh produce from local farmers to food pantries and soup kitchens.
In 2010, New York City’s City Council put together FoodWorks New York, its first comprehensive food system plan. This consisted of five goals (not policy yet, just ideas for what to aim for):
- Improve the city’s food infrastructure
- Create new and better jobs in the food industry
- Keep more local food dollars in the local economy
- Reduce diet related diseases like obesity, heart disease, and diabetes
- Reduce environmental damage from the production, transport, and consumption of food
More on FoodWorks New York is available at: http://council.nyc.gov/html/releases/foodworks_12_7_09.shtml
The next steps for this initiative are to develop policy and to decide on appropriate metrics (what to measure, what numbers are meaningful, and how to measure things). Developing best practices is currently in the research stages, focusing on outreach to food justice groups, activist groups, hunger action groups, etc in order to develop appropriate policy initiatives. The timeline for developing policy is this spring. To have your voice be heard, meeting with representatives through a group, such as a non-profit organization or neighborhood organization, will probably be most effective.
2010 has also seen the release of FoodNYC, from the Food and Climate Summit, which outlines the Manhattan Borough President’s 10-point blueprint for a sustainable food system. These 10 points are:
- Support urban agriculture
- Support regional food production
- Improve regional capacity for food processing and distribution
- Develop new markets
- Procure regionally grown food
- Educate New Yorkers as to food-related issues
- Better manage food waste
- Reduce use of plastic water bottles
- Cultivate the food economy
- Improve government oversight and coordination of food policy and programs
This final point is particularly crucial, because right now there is very little to encourage the development of food system policy. There is one Food Policy Coordinator at the Mayor’s Office under the Department of Health, who runs a multi-department task force. This task force is health-based, therefore does not address any farm, environmental, or CSA-focused concerns. A Department of Food and Markets with a broader jurisdiction would help address these concerns.
FoodNYC is available for download at: http://www.mbpo.org/uploads/FoodNYC.pdf
For a more detailed summary of the above-listed initiatives, Nadia Johnson of Just Food, e-mail her at nadia@justfood.org
David Haight spoke about food policy at the New York State level.
State and local politics are very important, and they can be easier to influence than decisions made in Washington.
The current economic situation in New York is causing trouble for channeling funding into food initiatives, but it would be a mistake to say that the reason food initiatives are underfunded is lack of money. These wouldn’t require “new” money, but the rechanneling of existing funds, such as economic development dollars, transportation dollars channeled to food processing facilities to reduce the need for new highway infrastructure, etc. This year, New York State’s budget was $130 billion dollars (with an $8 billion deficit). So there is money, the difficulty is making sure that money is sent to the issues that we care about.
Food initiatives are losing funding. People in the metro New York City area dominate New York State’s politics—there are lots of elected officials representing NYC’s five boroughs, Westchester, and Long Island. This can lead to farming issues being under-voiced. Examples of farm and food initiatives losing funding are:
NYS Farmland Protection, which pays farmers to put easements on their land. The proposed budget will cut this by 50% next year.
- The Environmental Protection Fund, which pays for NYS Farmland Protection and other initiatives. The proposed budget for next year would cut this fund by a third. Additionally, the state has borrowed money from this fund since its creation in 1993 in order to balance the budget in bad years. This was always done with the promise to replenish the fund. Now the state is unable to repay the borrowed money, and farmers who have put easements on their land will not be paid for years.
- The Integrated Pest Management Program’s funding may be eliminated next year.
- The Agricultural Development Fund, which put capital money into food distribution and processing of good local food to strengthen the farm and food economy, has had its funding held up, and no new projects are being accepted.
- The Farm Viability Institute, which does outreach, training, and offers economic advice to local farmers has been proposed to be eliminated.
- Farmers Market Grants have been proposed to be eliminated.
- The Hunger Prevention and Nutrition Assistance Network, which helps fund food pantries, is expecting significant budget cuts.
These proposed budget cuts and program eliminations are a problem for more than just the next few years—once programs have been eliminated, it is very difficult to get them reinstated. Fortunately, it is an election year, which means that constituent voices matter more than usual.
Rallies are being organized; those interested should look into the “No Farms No Food” rally in Albany this month.
Calling your representatives directly and voicing the importance of the above-mentioned food and farm bills will also be helpful.
In the long-term, it is good for organizations to build close ties with elected officials. These ties can make a huge difference in advocacy. Even including elected officials on the organization’s mailing list can begin to build a relationship.
As for the national level, President Obama’s initiative provides good publicity for New York City’s efforts; for example, the bee campaign, and the “people’s garden” that might translate well to City Hall. Hopefully some of the research initiatives to investigate the impact and future of America’s land use decisions and food systems will strengthen the arguments for building a responsible food system in New York City. However, the budget cuts are very worrisome at the national level, too, and it is uncertain what promises will be able to be fulfilled.
