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    • Getting to 30% regional food consumption by 2030

      A new report puts forth a regional goal of producing and consuming 30% of New England’s food needs in the region by 2030. Commissioned by the New England State Food System Planners Partnership, a collaboration between six-level food system organizations, including the Collaborative, and Food Solutions New England, it outlines the role New Englanders can play in making the region’s food system stronger and more self-reliant. The report – A Regional Approach to Food System Resilience –  is a product of 16 researchers exploring the opportunities and needs along the food supply chain in New England, and highlights the land, sea, and labor needs of the region, consumer purchase metrics, distribution trends, and population projections that will impact the region’s ability to feed itself in the coming years. 

      Read the report here

    • Town-owned land leased to successful community farm

      Town farms – or poor farms – provided a support system for society’s poor in the 1800s through the mid-1900s in New England. Often on the outskirts of town, the poor farm provided a sense of purpose for paupers who then provided labor for the farm. Just such a poor farm was owned by the Town of Greenfield from the 1850s to 1950s, at which time the Town began to rent the farmland out to farmers. In 2009, a partnership between Mount Grace Land Conservation Trust, the Town of Greenfield, Just Roots, and others began the process of preserving the land under APR. In 2011, Just Roots, whose mission is to increase access to healthy, local food by connecting people, land, resources, and know-how, was given a fifteen-year lease on the 61-acre parcel, to create the Greenfield Community Farm. This farm is realizing its mission by providing community workshops, outdoor education for school children, community garden plots, and more. This story is an excellent example of how a municipality can make more land available for farming while protecting farmland on the edges of population centers.

       

      RELATED ACTIONS

       

      • Land 2.3.1 Fully expend existing bond authorizations provided for the APR Program in the 2008 and 2014 Environmental Bond by 2018, and establish an annual bond cap that allows maximum leveraging of federal farmland protection funds. Increase funding for the APR Program in the next Environmental Bond consistent with goals set in the Farmland Action Plan. See Recomm…
      • Land 2.3.2 Create dedicated APR funding specifically for projects not eligible for NRCS’ Agricultural Land Easement (ALE) program.
      • Land 2.3.3 Increase the APR program’s current per-acre cap.
      • Land 2.3.4 Task the ALPC with reviewing current APR program policies related to housing, farm infrastructure, the 5% impervious surface limit, and limits on renewable energy production if sited away from productive agricultural lands, and recommending changes as appropriate.
      • Land 2.3.5 Work with USDA-NRCS to include in the state Farmland Action Plan any elements needed to enable the Plan to be used as an alternative pathway for ALE program eligibility. See Recommendation 2.1.
      • Land 2.3.6 Allow pre-acquisitions of farmland through the ALE and APR program.
      • Land 2.3.7 Eliminate the requirement that land be in active agricultural use for 2 years to be eligible for the APR program.
      • Land 2.3.8 Support revisions to the Community Preservation Act that will provide additional funding to the Trust. Encourage communities to adopt the CPA, which provides funding streams for open space protection (including agricultural land) and affordable housing, as well as recreation and historic preservation.
      • Land 2.3.9 Provide technical assistance to town Community Preservation Committees, Agricultural Commissions and land trusts about how CPA funds can be used to support farmland protection, as well as affordable housing associated with farmland.
      • Land 2.3.10 Increase the state conservation tax credit, currently at $2 million annually, to $5 million annually, and improve its use with the APR Program.
      • Land 3.11.1 Enact legislation to expand Chapter 61A eligibility to parcels smaller than 5 acres. Consider requiring an increase in the value of production threshold on smaller parcels to ensure that those parcels are being actively used for commercial agriculture.

    • FSIG Grantee: Boston Public Market

      The Boston Public Market was founded in 2015 and has thirty vendors from across Massachusetts selling a variety of local products in a year-round, indoor space in downtown Boston. The pandemic closed the market to the public from March to September of 2020, a much longer closure than what they had originally anticipated. BPM also runs the Dewey Square market, which usually attracts downtown office workers on their lunch break and residents making their weekly shopping trip. 

      Market manager Carrie Dewitt applied to the FSIG program to fund plexiglass for each market vendor at their point of sale, to protect the workers and allow the market to reopen. Without FSIG, she says, they would have been closed longer, but the program allowed them to open back up and provide a safe environment for customers and vendors. 

      The market is an important food security access point, as several of the vendors that sell at BPM are Healthy Incentives Program (HIP) authorized, and regularly see customers from the downtown neighborhoods of the North End and Chinatown. The Dewey Square Market the organization runs in particular is a key access point, and by supplying the vendors with plexiglass they were able to reopen this market as well. 

      BPM also received funding for handwashing stations, which in combination with the plexiglass, helped consumers feel comfortable shopping again. Carrie estimates that foot traffic is around 30% of what they regularly pre-pandemic, but has been steadily rising every month. Without FSIG, they would not have been able to reopen and ensure the safety of the workers and the consumers.

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