What a shock to walk into a grocery store and find nothing but empty shelves! Or to miss meals usually eaten at daycare, school or a senior center. Or to need help buying groceries because you find yourself suddenly unemployed.
The coronavirus pandemic is exposing the fragility of our food system, especially for the one in four Americans who rely on federal government nutrition assistance each year.
TAKE ACTION: Tell Congress to make sure no one goes hungry during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. It’s time to pass a #GreenStimulus for universal access to healthy food!
The $2-trillion stimulus bill passed by Congress includes nearly $25 billion for food assistance.
That’s not enough. Congress needs to provide more relief to meet the vast and growing need for access to healthy food now—and beyond.
For a truly resilient and nourishing food system, we need a Green Stimulus that would:
• Strengthen organic standards.
• Compensate farmers for regenerative agriculture practices that sequester carbon in soils.
• Direct federal support to small-scale producers who make investments in local and regional food sovereignty.
• Foster robust scientific expertise, free of corporate influence, in regulatory decision-making and federal programs.
• Prevent food shortages and wasted surpluses by establishing supply management programs, including government purchasing.
• Establish a parity pricing system that ensures farmers are paid the full costs of production plus a reasonable profit and farm workers earn a living wage.
• Provide universal access to healthy organic food through nutrition programs and at a fair price in all communities.
• Support indigenous farming practices, end biopiracy and prevent the contamination of native seeds.
• Give beginning, socially disadvantaged and regenerative farmers fair access to land and credit, including through no-interest, no-match loans to fund land and equipment purchases for pasture-based, organic and specialty crop operations.
• Commit to reparations for black farmers and indigenous communities.
• Incentivize community and cooperatively owned farmland, and make government-owned land available to incubate beginning farmers.
• Support regenerative ocean farming, low-carbon aquaculture focused on seaweeds and shellfish.
• Prepare fishing communities for the impacts of climate change.
• Secure the rights of immigrant workers and their families to healthcare, food and shelter, while providing pathways to citizenship.