Local Food Lobby Day with the Illinois Stewardship Alliance. April 7, 2016
On Thursday, April 7th, local food advocates, farmers, and citizens from across the state will come together in Springfield for Local Food Lobby Day to encourage their legislators to support local food and farms. Local Food Lobby Day will consist of a lobby training, a legislative update on the important bills, and lunch (consisting of locally grown and prepared food of course!). Following lunch we will descend upon the capitol to educate legislators about the importance of local food systems and advocate for positive policy solutions that support local food systems.
When: April 7th, 2016
Where: The Illinois State Capitol Complex and Arlington’s Restaurant (210 Broadway St. Springfield, IL)
Training: On the morning of April 7th following the welcoming address at 10:30 a.m. in the upstairs room at Arlington’s Restaurant we will review recent legislative activity on local food related legislation, go over what we will be doing to raise awareness about local food issues, discuss local food legislation that we will be lobbying for, teach you how to navigate the Capitol complex, and train you how to lobby and interact with your legislators.
Lunch: After the legislation overview, training, and orientation we will have a short working lunch from 11:30 a.m. until 12 noon. Following lunch we will walk to the Capitol to begin advocating for local food and sustainable agriculture.
Lobbying: After lunch we will begin our visits at the Capitol Complex to ask legislators for their support of local food and farm issues. We will lobby until around 3:00 p.m.
Cost: The cost for attending the lobbying training and orientation, lunch, and lobby day is FREE for Illinois Stewardship Alliance members. For non-members the cost is $10. Organizational members may register 2 FREE attendees. Become a Member Today and attend for Free!
This year, there are several key pieces of legislation on which will focus our efforts.
Co-op Law – Last year the Illinois General Assembly passed legislation that made some small but important updates to the Illinois law that governs food/grocery type co-ops like Common Ground in Champaign-Urbana; increasing the level of financial support co-op members can contribute to their co-op. The original law in Illinois governing food co-op was written in the early 1900’s and had not been updated since! Over the summer, fall and winter, since that bill was passed and signed into law, a coalition of organizations, current co-ops and co-ops in formation began working together to develop legislation to re-write the whole law governing food/grocery type co-ops in Illinois.
Double-Value Coupons SNAP Incentives – Following years of successful SNAP (Food Stamp) incentive programs at farmers markets across the country, like the Urbana Market on the Square’s, where each dollar a SNAP recipient used at a farmers market would be matched at some level usually 1 to 1; the 2014 Farm Bill created a new SNAP incentive grant program, known as the Food Insecurity Nutrition Incentive Program. The down side of the new federal program is that it requires the market or organization applying for the grant to provide a 50% match. Here in Illinois a coalition led by the Illinois Alliance to Prevent Obesity, the American Heart Association and the Experimental Station in Chicago has formed in order to try to get a small state SNAP incentive program created that could provide grants to serve as the full or partial match to prospective federal funding. That coalition is most likely going to be introducing legislation this spring for that very purpose!
Seed Law Exemption for Seed Libraries – As the presence of seed libraries in Illinois grows, the Alliance is looking into legislation that would clarify our existing seed laws to make clear that they do not apply to non-for-profit community seed libraries. The purpose is to prevent the kind of situation that has cropped up in other states like Pennsylvania where state regulators have shut down small seed libraries housed in public libraries. To check out existing seed libraries in Illinois, visit seedlibraries.weebly.com
Those three legislative ideas listed above are just a few of the likely food and farm related bills that are bound to surface at the Illinois General Assembly this spring and without the support of engaged citizens at the grassroots level, ideas are all they will likely ever be. Good food and farm policy that supports small family farms, local food systems and sustainable agriculture will not happen on their own; they require farmers and consumers to “Move Beyond the Fork,” and get engaged in the legislative process.
