October 16, 2024 — We hope this update finds you and your loved ones healthy and safe. We’re especially thinking of those of you who have been impacted by Hurricanes Helene and Milton.
In response to these storms that have devastated farming equipment, crops, and livelihoods, our partner, Rural Advancement Foundation International- USA (RAFI-USA), established the Hurricane Farmer Relief Fund to provide immediate, on-the-ground assistance to farmers. All donations will go directly to support farmers impacted. Please consider making a donation if you’re able.
The Wallace Center team recently returned from a three-day working session with our Winrock International colleagues to create Winrock’s first-ever domestic agriculture and food systems strategy–a strategy that will reimagine how the Wallace Center and Winrock will meaningfully pursue projects that contribute to agriculture and food systems work in the U.S.
Our brilliant facilitators, Julia Mongahan of People Centered Change, and Dorothy Suput of DSuput Consulting, guided the team in creating alignment around core concepts; visioning exercises and small group conversations about a collective identity and our values provided the foundation on which we’ll continue to build as we develop this strategy in the coming months, with the aim of finalizing a strategy in January.
We’re excited to embark on this collaboration with our fellow Winrock colleagues because we believe that working together from a shared vision will create better, more impactful programming.
And while we were together, we heard some exciting news; USDA announced a $1.7B investment in local and regional food and domestically produced foods for emergency food assistance! Of this massive investment, $500M is dedicated to sustaining the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative agreement Program (LFPA), a catalytic federal procurement program created as a COVID-19 pandemic response to help farmers recover from supply chain disruptions.
The Wallace Center and its partners have much to celebrate with this announcement! Scroll down to read more on how the Wallace Center has focused significant resources and attention on LFPA since 2021. For the past three years, we’ve provided technical assistance and peer-learning opportunities through a national community of practice to amplify best practices in the field of Farm to Food Assistance. Through sharing stories of success via our LFPA State Spotlight Series, we’ve helped raise the profile of this innovative federal procurement program and the impact it is having for communities across the country. We’re excited to share these stories with you!
As always, thank you for your support. Take a look at our ongoing projects here and read on below for more about what went on this quarter at the Wallace Center!.
Low-Overhead Dairy Grazing: Exploring the state of dairy in the Midwest
This July, Wallace Center and Winrock International hosted their first farmer workshop in Manitowoc, Wisc., for their Improving the Health of the Great Lakes through Profitable Low-Overhead Dairy Grazing project, funded by the Great Lakes Protection Fund. This project is providing custom assistance for technical and financial planning to a cohort of dairy farmers who are currently grazing and want to expand or improve their operations through reducing overhead costs or scaling their operations. This practice is expected to reduce phosphorous and nitrogen loss from farms across the Great Lakes basin, while making farms more resilient to the “get big or get out” pressures of the dairy industry.
This free workshop was hosted in partnership with the Klessig family of Saxon Homestead Farm at the Farm Wisconsin Discovery Center. Thirty-five participants attended the workshop, which included technical assistance providers, statewide agency staff, farmworkers, and farmers. Participants heard presentations from Winrock International’s senior project manager, Jon Winsten, who presented on the economics of low-overhead dairy grazing; Ashley Hughes of Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship presented on PaddockTrac technology; and Adam Abel, a Wisconsin-state grazing land specialist from the USDA-NRCS presented on heifer grazing.
In a time when dairy farmers work to remain viable and adapt to continuing consolidation and other pressures, this project emphasizes the importance of supporting dairy farmers to remain profitable and sustainable through dairy grazing. This winter, we will continue our work with a cohort of dairy farmers and technical assistance providers. Over the next two years, we’ll have more to share about what we’re learning from findings from working these farms and the kinds of structural change needed to support this system.
Want to know how you can support this project? Contact Project Manager Elisabeth Spratt with questions.
USDA commits support for local farmers and producers; invests $500M in LFPA program
On Oct. 1st, in a huge win for local farmers and producers around the country, USDA announced a $1.7B investment in long-term funding for farmers and communities. Of this funding, $500M is dedicated to support states, territories, and Tribal nations to purchase local foods through the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement (LFPA), a program the Wallace Center has supported since 2021. The impact of this funding is significant. Many of these initiatives build on previous investments in local and regional food systems since 2020 that have helped farmers find new markets and recover from supply chain disruptions.
As the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) wrote in a press release, “This influx of funding will ensure that any delay in the Farm Bill reauthorization does not negatively impact the emerging and growing local food supply chains.”
As part of the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act, the USDA allocated almost $900M to create the LFPA. The program has since distributed funds to all 50 states, and three territories and 28 Tribal governments. In support of LFPA and the states that are creating partnerships, the Wallace Center has conducted research, provided technical assistance, and convened a national farm to food assistance community of practice to amplify best practices in this emerging field of farm to field assistance.
We applaud the USDA’s commitment to strengthening local and regional supply chains through its recent announcement of an additional $500M for the Local Food Purchase Assistance Program (LFPA). LFPA is one of the most successful initiatives from the USDA, helping farmers and producers stabilize their businesses, support the production of local food, and provide nutritious food for those most in need.
In partnership with food systems leaders around the country, the Wallace Center published these eight spotlight stories to help raise awareness of this initiative and generate support for the creation of a permanent LFPA.
Reach out to Susan if you’d like to learn more or support the organizations mentioned.
National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) summer meeting
In August, Wallace Center staff Pete Huff and Jane Jordan spent several days in St. Paul with fellow National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) members. While there, they strategized about federal agriculture and food systems policy.
Highlights from the summer meeting included a visit from Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Xochitl Torres Small, farm tours at Twin Cities area farms and food hubs, and lots of farm bill discussions. We’re so fortunate to have these opportunities to connect with diverse organizations across the country on urgent policy matters.
Thank you to NSAC for their standout work advocating for better food and farming policy in D.C.!
Learn more about the Coalition’s work here.
Keep up with monthly project updates through the Food Systems Leadership Network Catalyst, Regenerative Ag Idea Network Digest, or Pasture Project newsletter!