WORC member groups have long stood up for sustainable rural communities, preserving clean air and water, and the long-term benefits of an agricultural economic base.

In recent years, these values have lead many of our local chapters to break new ground in the field of developing productive capacity, processing capacity and markets for local foods. While WORC and its member groups tend to focus on public policy, there are also some practical local development organizing steps that will help invigorate rural communities and small western towns and cities around local food.

Here are some examples:

• Each year in September, the Powder River Basin Resource Council hosts a Farmers Market, local foods feast and community harvest celebration.
• The Yellowstone Valley Citizens Council in Billings connects local producers and local consumers through a local foods buying club.
• Dakota Rural Action published a consumer’s guide to eating local foods, the South Dakota Local Foods Directory. The directory features more than 60 producers and local businesses.

Local food systems once fueled vital local economies across the WORC state region. A WORC fact sheet details some of the economic and employment benefits of replacing food imports with locally grown and processed foods.

Fixing the Food Safety Bill
The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Food Safety Modernization Act by a vote of 215-144. President Obama signed the bill on January 4, 2011. Under an amendment by Senators Jon Tester and Kay Hagan, food producers would not be subject to new federal requirements if they:

• Sell the majority of their food directly to consumers, restaurants, and retailers within the state, or within a 275-mile radius of where it was produced, and
• Have less than $500,000 per year in sales.

These producers would continue to be overseen by local and state food safety and health agencies.

See WORC's statement.

Senate passes food safety bill with Tester-Hagan amendment
By a vote of 73-25, the Senate passed S. 510, the Food Safety Modernization Act, with the Tester-Hagan amendment in it.

Read WORC’s news release.

Common sense amendment
Senator Jon Tester of Montana introduced an amendment to S. 510, the Food Safety Modernization Act.

The Tester amendment would

• remove direct market farms below $500,000 in annual monetary value of sales from FDA jurisdiction over farming and harvesting of raw agricultural products.
• set a threshold of $500,000 annual monetary value of sales exempting small processors from Hazard Analysis Control, trace-back and record keeping sections in the bill.

WORC and its allies delivered a letter supporting Sen. Tester’s amendments.

Profiles of producers affected by S. 510
Side by side comparison of S. 510 with and without the Tester amendment
Q&A on the amendments
Read WORC fact sheet.
See background briefing on proposed amendments
Read WORC news release

Resources for policy makers, letters to the editor, editorial boards, and interested persons.

Child Nutrition Act

The Senate passed a child nutrition bill, S.3307: Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, by unanimous consent in August of this year. The Senate bill contains major improvements to the nutritional quality of school meals, including $40 million in mandatory funding for Farm to School.

 The House of Representatives passed their child nutrition bill, H.R. 5504: Improving Nutrition for America’s Children Act, out of the Education and Labor Committee on July 15, 2010.

Click here for a comparison of the House and Senate child nutrition bills.

Food, Farms and Jobs

Local food systems once fueled vital local economies across the WORC state region. In this fact sheet, WORC details some of the economic and employment benefits of replacing food imports with locally grown and processed foods.

Links

Farm to School site with lots of good tips and links to help you organize local food in your schools.

The National Agricultural Law Center has a "reading room" on laws relating to "Local Foods"

Links and resources aimed at building local food systems in Montana. Much of this information is beneficial to any state or community looking to build a local food system.

The Community Food Security Coalition brings together a broad alliance of advocates for healthy local food systems, food security, and sustainable agriculture.