From Just Food:

Congress begins debates this week on the US Farm Bill, a sweeping piece of legislation that comes up for renewal every 5 years and sets laws for everything from whether schools can buy food from local farmers, to how much of taxpayer money goes to corporate agribusiness to whether or not people can use food stamps at farmers markets. If you care about farmers like our CSA farmers and people's access to food, than listen up.

Find your representative on the NYPIRG website, and ask them to call members of the Agriculture Committee and urge them to support the priorities of the NYC Farm Bill Working Group (they can and should refer to the website). You do not have to be an expert on these issues – they will not ask you questions!

Simply say:

My name is ____ and I live in your district. I am calling to urge you to call members of the Agriculture Committee this week and ask them to support issues in the Farm Bill that affect your constituents. I also hope that you will support these issues when they come up for debate in the full House of Representatives. These issues include: (you can say all, or pick a few):

1. Increasing food stamp benefits and eliminating the 5-year waiting period for legal immigrants

2. Allowing institutions to prioritize regional suppliers in bid specifications when purchasing food for school meal or other federally-funded institutional programs.

3. Making the $30 million funding for Community Food Projects mandatory, not discretionary (which means they might not ever get funded. Community Food Projects started Just Foods CSA in NYC and City Farms programs). This is a big priority for NYC.

4. Fully fund the Conservation Security Program to protect NYC's drinking water. Ask your representatives to contact Congresswoman Gillibrand (NY) and encourage her to offer an amendment during full committee to protect this program.