Just Food sent me this urgent action point- call your Rep now! If you want to receive newsletters from Just Food you can go to their website and sign up. You’ll receive info on Action Points, Farm Info and Food-Related Conferences in the City. From Just Food:

Act Now on the Farm Bill- Can you imagine life without your CSA? Congress needs to hear from you now!

The Agriculture Committee in the House of Representatives has finished its version of the Farm Bill and some of NYC’s major priorities are missing, including the funding that started Just Food’s CSA in NYC program.

Next week, the entire House, including your representative, will be voting on this insufficient version of the Farm Bill.

Calling is fast, easy and effective. Here is what to do:

1. Find your congressman in the House of Representatives:
www.house.gov or www.nypirg.org

[Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney serves Astoria]

2. Call their D.C. office and ask to speak to the person in charge of nutrition/agriculture or you can also just talk to the receptionist. You can call over the weekend and leave a message. Just call!

3. Say: My name is ______ and I live in your district. I am calling because the House Agriculture Committee has just passed its version of the Farm Bill and the bill will soon hit the House floor. There are two key provisions missing from the committee’s version of the bill that affect your constituents. Please do not vote for a farm bill if it does not include:

1) First, $30 million in mandatory funding for the Community Food Projects Competitive Grants Program. Right now it has discretionary funding, which doesn’t even give us the mandatory $5 million we had in the 2002 bill. I am able to purchase my fresh produce directly from a farmer because of CFP grants. They are vital to the health of our community. [You can just say the first sentence if you want - but it would be great to say the whole thing]

2) And second, a “Fairness to Legal Immigrants Clause” under the Food Stamp program. Currently, legal immigrants have to wait 5 years before they can sign up for food stamps and I feel this is an unnecessary and harmful amount of time to have to wait.

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If you have any questions, contact Molly at Just Food (molly@justfood.org; 212.645.9880 x237)

Thank you!

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 21st, 2007 at 11:05 am and is filed under Food Policy and Action, Local Business/ Community News, Organizations of Interest. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.