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Issue #63 | March 2025
Supporting collective action
toward an equitable, sustainable, resilient, and connected local
food system in Massachusetts.
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Things you can do right now to
support systemic policy change.
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HIP Lobby Day is here!
Join the Collaborative’s Campaign for Healthy Incentives Program (HIP) Funding at our annual Lobby Day at the State House on March 13th, starting at 11am in room 437. The Campaign will be advocating for $5 million for HIP in a future supplemental budget in fiscal year 2025 and $25 million in the fiscal year 2026 annual budget. RSVP here. No experience with advocacy is necessary, training will be provided.
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Highlights of the
Collaborative's work.
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Legislative update
Committee assignments for the Massachusetts legislature were announced in late February. The joint committee on agriculture has been re-established for its second session, and will be Chaired by Representative Natalie Blais and Senator Dylan Fernandes. Agriculture Committee Vice Chairs are Rep. Aaron Saunders and Senator Jo Comerford, who is also the new Vice Chair of Senate Ways and Means. We congratulate the new leadership of the Agriculture Committee and look forward to working with them on our priority bills!
Many food system bills go through other committees as well, including judiciary, revenue, children, families and persons with disabilities, and more. We will share committee hearing announcements for our bills once they are released.
It is the fiscal year 2026 annual budget season in Massachusetts. The joint ways and means committee has announced a schedule of hearings on the Governor’s fiscal year 2026 budget proposal. The Executive Office of Health and Human Services hearing will be on March 25, 2025 at Clark University in Worcester and virtually. Listen in to hear DTA Commissioner McCue speak about the administration’s proposed $18.8 million for HIP. The Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs hearing will be on March 31, 2025, at Cape Cod Community College, as well as virtually. Join this hearing to hear Commissioner Randle speak about MDAR’s proposed budget. Note, neither of these hearings will include opportunity for public testimony. There will be a separate hearing for public testimony, likely in April. We will share the notice for that hearing when it is announced.
The Collaborative is advocating for $5 million in supplemental funding for HIP in fiscal year 2025. For fiscal year 2026, we will be advocating for $25 million for HIP, reinstatement of the local food policy council grant, and full funding for the MDAR administrative budget in fiscal year 2026, among others. We are also advocating for another $25 million for FSIG, but believe FSIG is being moved to the capital budget, per a memo from the Governor’s fiscal year 2026 budget proposal.
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Federal update
The Collaborative is here for farmers and organizations affected by the loss of federal funding or the federal funding freeze; we know this is an extremely uncertain time, and farmers are busy getting seeds started and need security for this growing season. The impact of the freeze of grants for work already completed, or work planned, means that farmers are either absorbing costs they were told would be paid upon completion of work, or will pause work until a future funding source is identified. The just announced cancellation of the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program and Local Food For Schools, are particularly concerning, as those programs supported socially disadvantaged farmers, and enabled schools to build new or deepen existing relationships with farmers respectively. The Collaborative is also deeply concerned about the ongoing impact of these cuts to our service provider and nonprofit partners, who do so much work to support the local food system. The impact of the uncertainty and chaos of the federal changes, plus the December 2024 cut to the Healthy Incentives Program (HIP), is particularly concerning; these cuts together have a multiplying impact upon our partners.
Interested in doing more around federal funding? Here are some resources and a call to action toolkit from the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition.
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Network updates
The Local Food Policy Councils network has had several recent meetings in February including a full network meeting, a cohort of emerging food policy councils, and a conversation about opportunities and challenges for food policy councils to participate in state and federal policy advocacy. We will continue these meetings in March. If you are part of a food policy council or interested in starting one and want to join the network, reach out to Emily Fidanza.
The Urban Agriculture network met in February. Our meeting featured a theme around working with and within municipalities to support urban agriculture. Jason Comcowich of Nuestras Raíces shared how they have collaborated in a variety of ways with the City of Holyoke. Other network members also shared their reflections and experiences working with their municipalities. Highlights included that this is a long-term effort of relationship and trust building, there are a variety of offices to connect with, to look for every opportunity to include food and agriculture in city planning efforts, being aware of local politics, and more. The network will meet again in March and will be discussing urban agriculture and related ordinances.
The Food Waste Reduction network will meet on March 20, 2025 at 11am and feature highlights from partners working on food waste prevention at the source, the first level of the Wasted Food Scale. We will also discuss policy priorities and advocacy opportunities, and an upcoming network mapping project. Interested in attending? Email Emily@mafoodsystem.org.
Agricultural Equity Network
The Ag Equity Network has been hosting a series of conversations aimed at identifying barriers in grants, resources for beginning farmers, and farmers who want to upscale their farming operations. Network members identified the aforementioned areas, but and will discuss these barriers to the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources in the upcoming meeting with MDAR Commissioner Randle on March 14, 2025 at 2pm. A reminder that if you would like to sign up to attend the Ag Equity Network’s Meeting with MDAR Commissioner Randle, you can do so here. This will be a discussion-based meeting so please come prepared to speak. If you have any questions about the network or would like to sign up, please email Norris at Norris@mafoodsystem.org.
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Inspiring work being done by some
of our friends in Massachusetts.
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We are always looking for food system organizations and farms to be featured here. Interested in being featured? Please fill out this form and we will contact you! | |
 | | Copicut Farms, located in Dartmouth, Massachusetts, specializes in raising chicken, cows and pigs to provide meats and eggs through farmer’s markets, farm shares, at-home delivery, and at their retail store. While many consumers have seen the price of eggs increasing at grocery stores, Copicut Farms has been able to keep their price steady. Elizabeth Frary, farmer/owner, says when setting the price of her eggs, she looks at all the costs involved in bringing the egg to the consumer including labor, transportation and the cost of local farmers markets. Ms. Frary says, “the cost of eggs from Copicut Farms reflects very local components- costs reflect what the community around us can afford; how much is it to hire people who live near the farm, what is the fee to be at a farmers markets, and how much does the locally-sourced feed for our animals cost.” While Copicut Farms has not increased the cost of their eggs in recent months, they have altered their behavior on the farm by creating a strict protocol to keep the birds safe. Ms. Frary says, “We feel fortunate to have the ability to isolate our flock, hopefully reducing the likelihood of them becoming infected.”
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Thoughtful insights about
food system issues.
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New Farm Transfer Program launches
It is never too early to start thinking about farmland succession. MDAR’s Farm Transfer Planning Assistance Initiative connects aging farmers and their successors with experienced planners to help plan for retirement. The Initiative, known as the “Farm-Pass” program, seeks to help ease the transition of assets and to help keep farms as farmland. Applications are due by April 15, 2025. For more information, click here.
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Upcoming Food System Events
Know of another great source of events or jobs? Let us know!
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The Massachusetts Food System Collaborative envisions a local food system where everyone has access to healthy food, to land to grow food, to good jobs, and to the systems where policy decisions are made. Read more about our vision and our work.
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