The biggest news is that the we have
identified our top programs to target for funding for the grassroots
agricultural appropriations campaign for Fiscal Year 2007. I spent
hours tabulating surveys from sust ag organizations all over the
country to get a sense of what their priorities programs are that they
would like to receive funding during the ag appropriations this year.
A note of explanation- just because a program is on the Farm Bill and
is supposed to receive funding doesn't mean that it necessarily will.
An example of this is the Farm To Cafeteria Act, which has never
received funding!! I have attached my excel work to show you
how everyone around the country voted. This information was used when
leaders of the movement for sustainable ag got together on a
conference call last Thursday to set priorities for what we will all
work towards in the next year to get funding. It was a very democratic
process of using input from the grassroots to then focus the work that
the National Campaign for Sust Ag will do in terms of federal policy!
I have absolutely loved learning about the appropriations process and
participating in it any ways I can.
Yesterday there was a conference call with
Ferd Hoefner, Kim Levall and a few other folks to determine which
members of the Agricultural Appropriations Subcommittee (both of the
House and Senate) we will target with which programs. This means that
we will only target them (through grassroots action alerts) with 2-3
programs. I can elaborate on any of this if you want a better
explanation.
We also had a conference call with a woman
at the Nat'l Campaign for Sust Ag to be educated on the specifics of
the OTA vs Organic Community issues on the organic standards mess that
took place over the fall. It's really interesting to be on the inside
and be able to get the inside scoop on the hot issues as they are
happening!! I am going to the Upper Midwest Organic Farming conference
(put on by MOSES) next week and there will be a whole workshop
explaining the nitty-gritty of these issues as well.
I have also been working on a project
seeing what the needs are in the Hmong agricultural communities of WI
and how MFAI can help connect them to state resources (technical
assistance, loans for buying land, etc.) I've been interviewing
various people who have experience working with Hmong farmers or
immigrant farming communities to get their input on what the
challenges are and ways we can best help them out.
There's a chance I may get to present in
Spanish at a Risk Management conference in Texas in
April to Latino farmers!! I would lead a workshop on the federal
programs/grant money available to them to pursue sust ag endeavors. I
would help them learn how to apply for federal money and how to
determine which federal program is the most appropriate for what they
want to do. It is still up in the air whether this will happen. But,
honestly this would be a dream come true for me to be able to help
disenfranchised Latino farmers connect with resources for farming
sustainably!!!!
One last thing; I am applying for a second
ag-related internship here in Madison! It is a 10-15 hr/week
commitment organizing workshops for the "Future of Farming and Rural
Life in WI Project" series, through the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences,
Arts & Letters. I'd be working with Wilda Nilsestuen. The workshops
will be focused around Production Ag, Nat. Resources Conservation, Ag
Policy, and Food Systems. Margaret has been very influential in
connecting me to this internship. I have been very candid with both
Margaret and Wilda about the demands of both internships. I'll let you
know if I get the position or chose to take it.
Okay, I'll let your eyes rest now! Now
that we have identified what we will be focusing our action alerts on,
we will begin sending them out in the next couple of weeks.
Files sent:
Priorities Survey4 (Word Doc)
Survey Paragraph for
FY07 (Word Doc)
Approps Survey
Results FY07.xls (Excel)
sawgs &
nat'l groups survey results.xls (Excel)
