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As in years past, National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) members gathered in Washington, DC on February 10-13, 2025, for our annual winter meeting. This event offered NSAC members the opportunity to connect and work on strategy for shared priorities and collective actions. It was also a vital opportunity to take to Capitol Hill and engage directly with Members of Congress to educate them on important issues and policy impacts. An especially timely topic of conversation for NSAC members and farmers visiting the Hill this year was the Trump Administration’s ongoing funding freeze implemented through a flood of Executive Orders and efforts of the Department of Government Efficiency to terminate lawful, signed contracts between USDA and community organizations nationwide.

During opening remarks, Coalition Director Sarah Hackney offered grounding in the Coalition’s 35-year history of achievements, conducted in a nonpartisan manner across many administrations and political moments, always in service of the interests of sustainable farmers and ranchers along with rural and urban communities. She emphasized that NSAC remains committed to integrity, stewardship, collaboration, and justice. Part of living these values includes holding firm in our commitment to advancing equity in food and agriculture policy. Policy decisions over history have disenfranchised many members of our society — and, in turn, hard won reforms, investments, and programs by NSAC and the broader movement can help address these injustices and build a more resilient, sustainable, equitable food and farm system that benefits everyone. The Coalition remains steadfast in our commitment to representing our communities and prioritizing these issues as central to our work.

As at every member meeting, NSAC Policy Director Mike Lavender provided updates and context on the prospects of a new farm bill based on the current political moment. He also offered our members some insight about upcoming expected legislation, such as the budget reconciliation, and how it might impact our priorities.

If you follow NSAC, you are familiar with the three grassroots campaigns the Coalition has been working on for a few years now. At our most recent policy council meeting, these priorities were reaffirmed, signaling our continued commitment to policy that invests in resilient local and regional food systems, levels the playing field for small- and mid-sized farms, advances equity and opportunity across the food system, and helps build a climate-resilient future.

The funding freeze has galvanized our efforts to make sure that the immediate impacts of the funding freeze are addressed – by demanding the release of funding owed on all signed agreements – and that the programs our members and their farmers and communities rely on continue to be funded and function well through the annual appropriations process and the next farm bill reauthorization. 

Although a snowstorm blanketed Washington, DC during the meeting, by Wednesday morning most of the roads had been cleared and except for a few delays and shifts, NSAC members and farmer advocates brought their voices to Capitol Hill, holding meetings with nearly 150 Members of Congress. Funding freezes were top of mind for many members and the prospect of snow was not going to deter them from making their way to the Capitol. Many of us breathed a collective sigh of relief as we realized early on February 12 that these meetings were set to go. 

This year, in addition to roughly 100 representatives from NSAC member organizations, we had over 30 farmers in attendance from 17 states join our lobby day. The common element throughout these meetings was how important USDA programs and staff are to their farms, communities, and families. They emphasized the urgent need for Congress to step in and ensure USDA releases all funds owed under signed agreements. 

In a story that highlighted NSAC member Pasa sustainable Agriculture, Pasa Executive Director Hannah Smith-Brubaker highlighted how much of USDA programming has focused on large farms, but that the funding freeze has affected programs that were designed to reach out to and help small farmers for the Partnership for Climate-Smart Commodities Program. Pasa staff brought those concerns to Capitol Hill when they met with Pennsylvania lawmakers during the NSAC lobby day. 

There is always interest from NSAC members to share lessons learned with each other about their experiences meeting with members of Congress. In an effort to uplift voices from the ground and hear from those most affected by agriculture policy, the Winter Meeting included a farmer panel to hear from members and some of the farmers who made their way to Washington, DC this year. The panel included Jeremy Adams, President of the Arkansas Farmers Market Association, Raymond Kelley of Cheyenne Cattle Company and Conway Wholesale Produce, Adam Peterson, Food Systems Policy Manager at Chicago Food Policy Action Council, and Daviiid Toledo, President of Contemporary Farmer, Inc.

During the panel, farmers and advocates highlighted the need to address the funding freeze and funding cuts, noting the strain and uncertainty they place on communities throughout the US. Raymond Kelley urged members of Congress to address these issues. “I wish they had a better understanding of the importance of having bills passed. It’s a waste of time. There are a lot of urgent things that farmers need,” he said. 

Daviiid Toledo reflected on the fragility of life in the US and uplifted how SNAP benefits people from all walks of life:

“There are so many people using SNAP that we need to remember that and paint that picture that it’s college students, that it’s AmeriCorps, they’re seniors. There are people in between. Your house could burn down from one day to the next and everything that you built could be gone. American life is fragile and when it comes to SNAP they need to understand those real-life stories that could happen to them or to anybody.”

Adam Peterson, for his part, while eating in the Rayburn House Office Cafeteria, noticed the offerings were the same as almost every other institutional meal program found in hospitals or institutions of higher education. He wondered then how in a place that has so much power and influence as the US Senate, where he had his lunch in the middle of the day between meetings, people are eating the same institutional food as everywhere else: 

“It hit me that this is the way that this is  – what the majority of people are eating – and this is the system that we’re living in… and how is no one championing change there? It’s not a little thing, but it is the intersectionality of food. It’s housing, transportation, dignity, and sovereignty. It’s 90 percent of what people eat.”

Jeremy Adams hoped Congress would reconnect with the reality that the majority of people in the US live with and face. “They need to see what reality is like on the ground. They have been elevated from the rest of us for too long and they just don’t understand what it’s like any more,” he said. “I think everyone in Congress who wants to cut funding for nutrition programs should do the SNAP challenge for two weeks and see what the people who have to rely on those programs have to do to survive… and for them to do a pickoff with the migrant labor that we rely on.” 

Many NSAC members have been fierce advocates of our coalition’s priorities for decades, and know the weeds (pun fully intended) of the policy and technical knowledge work – truly the backbone of our movement. One of those figures is Mark Schonbeck of the Virginia Association for Biological Farming (VABF) and the Organic Farming Research Foundation (OFRF), who this year received the NSAC’s first-ever Perennial Advocate Award. The award honors members who have meaningfully and consistently participated in our coalition’s work over many years. Some of that participation includes having taken part in more than one farm bill campaign, having participated consistently, providing meaningful insight, and cultivating Congressional champions. 

The award was introduced by Coalition Director, Sarah Hackney. NSAC’s founding Policy Director, Ferd Hoefner spoke of all the ways that Mark has helped the coalition with his technical knowledge, providing comments and technical expertise through decades of work in the Coalition as part of VABF and the OFRF. The award was formally presented by Margaret Krome of the Michael Fields Agricultural Institute who shared some of their personal experiences as longtime friends and allies in our movement. Mark has been involved with the VABF in various positions, including board member, newsletter editor, and policy liaison. With a solid scientific background and eye, he has made significant contributions to NSAC, our movement, and to farm policy that works for farmers and growers. Recently, Mark co-presented with NSAC staff at the VABF Conference in Roanoke, VA. 

Mark, who is always humble, accepted the award with deep gratitude for the coalition as a whole, and that he looked forward to recognizing others as or more deserving than him of this recognition. We are truly lucky to have such thought leaders in our movement. Congratulations to Mark again from everyone at NSAC.

As we wrapped up with a final round of commitments and next steps, NSAC staff and members felt energized for our continued work and advocacy ahead, understanding that we are facing unusual challenges but that, now more than ever, we need to lean on each other to continue to build our community and our movement. We also committed to take each other to task and we will continue to do so.

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