Every two years, RAFI identifies key campaigns to focus our policy work. Several considerations are involved when determining what policy campaigns should be chosen:
- Campaigns are informed directly by the issues we hear from farmers and other people who work in the food system.
- Then, RAFI staff look at these food system issues and align them with the congressional calendar and upcoming policy opportunities.
- Finally, RAFI evaluates the capacity of our staff, stakeholders, and partners to move these campaigns forward.
Take a look at our campaigns below!
Current Campaigns
- Fair Credit for Farmers
- Improving access to loans at the Farm Service Agency by advocating for the Fair Credit for Farmers Act, a bill we co-wrote that increases access, reduces risk, and makes the process fairer for farmers.
- Advocating for better staffing levels at FSA county offices
- Improving accountability for Farm Credit and other lenders by defending a new rule requiring they report demographic data of who they are lending to (Sec. 1071)
- Protecting Conservation Resources for Farmers
- Using the Congressional budget process (appropriations) to increase funding for NRCS state and county staff capacity, require USDA to fill vacant staff positions, and prohibit them from closing NRCS county offices.
- Advocating for NC NRCS to adopt a new conservation practice that will better support pastured hog and poultry growers.
- Monitoring NRCS’s new Regenerative Pilot Program
- Grocery Gap
- Organizing producers and grocery stakeholders to develop regionally-rooted grocery retail and wholesale policy solutions
- Supporting food system organizers in using the Grocery Gap Atlas to refine their advocacy goals
- Advocating for antitrust legislation like the Fair Competition for Local Businesses Act that would strengthen Robinson-Patman Act enforcement.
- North Carolina Grassroots Mobilization
- Organizing producers across North Carolina to have a united voice for small- and mid-sized producers to influence policies
- Making space for producers to connect with each other, identify priority focus areas for the state, and to get organized for long-term solutions
- Practicing our commitment to pursue policy solutions with producers who are impacted
