TAKE ACTION
Ensure COVID-19 RELIEF Aid Gets to Farmers
The global COVID-19 pandemic is touching nearly every part of our lives – including the organic community. Necessary measures to contain the spread of the virus have resulted in the immediate loss of key markets for farmers, and ongoing uncertainty threatens farmers’ and the entire organic community’s ability to plan for the growing season just underway.
Congress is currently debating a coronavirus economic stimulus bill, and you can help make sure that the farmers and farmworkers who keep us fed are included in that support. Now is the time to make sure that farmers and farmworkers are included in any COVID-19 Congressional support. The COVID-19 outbreak has created a crisis for farmers and farmworkers across the country. And for the safety and security of the country, we must have a stable, secure food supply during this time.
This legislation is moving very quickly. Call your members of Congress today!
Find your Senators and Representatives and their contact information here.
Tell them this is what we need to see in the stimulus or farm recovery package:
Aid for vulnerable farmers and farm workers: Provide direct payments to farmers who have lost revenue from local and regional markets due to this crisis and ensure farm workers are included in emergency unemployment assistance
Resources to connect local farmers to families in need: Invest in community-based emergency efforts to buy food from farmers and get it to those who need it most
Credit to keep farmers in business: Expand farmers' access to credit and offer debt flexibility to ensure they can plant, grow, and harvest the food that we need this year
Labor to harvest food: Ensure foreign and domestic agricultural workers are fully available by expediting entry of previously interviewed H-2A workers returning to their previous host farms and streamline the vetting process for new workers
Here’s what that support can look like in our communities:
Direct aid for the vulnerable producers most impacted by this crisis, including farmers who sell to local, regional, and direct markets who aren’t well served by traditional disaster payments
Increasing the government’s ability to purchase local farm products and get them into the emergency food system for those in need
Investing in community efforts on the front lines—like new approaches for connecting growers with new customers and food aid, helping farmers boost food safety measures, and more.
You can help: please take action today!