Current Legislative Activity

Members of the Massachusetts legislature introduced many bills in the 2025-26 session that relate to recommendations made in the 2015 Massachusetts Local Food Action Plan, the 2020 Perspectives on Resilience and Recovery report, and the 2023 Farmland Action Plan.

This list includes bills that most closely align with goals and recommendations from the Local Food Action Plan. We encourage committees to consider these bills, and look forward to working with legislators to further shape these and other bills that move the Commonwealth toward a more resilient, sustainable, and equitable food system. 65 organizations have signed on in support of these bills – download our white paper to see the full list.

An Act relative to urban farmland

Sen. Adam Gomez S.61 / Rep. Pat Duffy H. 121

These bills aim to support the conversion of vacant lots and underutilized land in environmental justice communities into urban farms, community gardens, and other agricultural enterprises. Urban agriculture supports increased economic development, food security, and climate and heat resilience. This idea was inspired by work of Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative and Nuestras Raices, as mentioned in the state’s 2023 Resilient Lands Initiative. GrowBoston has also been working hard at transforming vacant lots into urban farms and gardens. The language from this bill was added to the FARM omnibus (see below) bill and reported out favorably to House and Senate Ways and Means.

An Act to promote food literacy

Sen. Jason Lewis S.392 / Reps. Andres Vargas and Mindy Domb H.375

To help Massachusetts children lead healthy, independent, thoughtful lives, all students in grades K-12 should have access to food system education in school. These bills will add food literacy to the list of topics that students should learn about in school, and provide the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) with opportunities and resources to support those lessons. Joint Committee on Education held a hearing on this bill on September 16, 2025 and the Senate bill was reported out favorably to Senate Ways and Means. The House bill is still in the Education Committee.

An Act protecting our soil and farms from PFAS contamination

Sen. Jo Comerford S.56 / Rep. James Arena-Derosa H.109

These bills will provide financial and liability relief should farmers’ ability to grow crops be impacted by PFAS, establish an account to support technical assistance and education to help farmers adapt to new practices that reduce the use and dispersion of PFAS, and ban the spreading of biosolids on land. Joint Committee on Agriculture held a hearing on this bill on September 16, 2025. The bill has been reported out favorably to House and Senate Ways and Means.

An Act fostering agricultural resilience in Massachusetts (FARM bill)

Sen. Jo Comerford S.55 / Rep. Natalie Blais H.112

Farmers in Massachusetts struggle to remain sustainable, on average earning just 95 cents for every dollar they spend producing food. They must compete in the global marketplace while facing higher input costs, more restrictive regulations, and fewer supportive resources than farmers in other states. These bills will establish a $3 million Next Generation Farmers Fund to provide education grants, direct MEMA to incorporate food production capacity into disaster planning, allow MDAR to protect whole farms in the APR program, establish a state food system coordinator position, allows MDAR additional authority as land is being sold, and more. Joint Committee on Agriculture and Fisheries held a hearing on this bill on September 16, 2025. The bill was reported out favorably to House and Senate Ways and Means.

An Act promoting equity in agriculture

Sen. Jo Comerford S.53 / Rep. Natalie Blais H.111

According to the 2017 USDA Census of Agriculture, BIPOC farmers are represented on only 3% of the Commonwealth’s farms, farms that steward just .3% of the land in farming and sell just .4% of the market value of agricultural goods in the Massachusetts, despite people of color making up 32% of the state’s population. These bills will establish a commission charged with developing recommendations for MDAR to equitably serve socially disadvantaged farmers to address these disparities. The Joint Committee on Agriculture and Fisheries held a hearing on this bill on May 13, 2025. The bill was reported out favorably with changes and sent to House Rules Committee and Senate Ways and Means.

An Act relative to an agricultural healthy incentives program

Sen. Jo Comerford S.104 / Reps. Mindy Domb and Andres Vargas H.222

The Healthy Incentives Program leverages federal SNAP funds by increasing SNAP recipients’ ability to purchase fresh fruits and vegetables directly from farmers, improving health outcomes for vulnerable communities and increasing sales for local farms. These bills will establish the framework for the program’s long-term sustainability. The Joint Committee on Children, Families, and Persons held a hearing on this bill on September 16, 2025 and reported the Senate bill out favorably to House and Senate Ways and Means!

An act supporting the Commonwealth’s food system

Reps. Dan Donahue and Pat Duffy H.120

Many state agencies play roles in supporting and regulating the food system, but because of limited communication between them some of these efforts are duplicative, inefficient, or even contradictory. This bill will establish a state food system coordinator position to serve in an advisory capacity to all agencies to coordinate and inventory food programs, and develop and track metrics related to food system goals. The Joint Committee on Agriculture held a hearing on this bill on May 13, 2025, and was reported out favorably as part of a new draft and sent to House Ways and Means.

An Act encouraging the donation of food to persons in need

Sen. Jo Comerford S.1043 / Rep. Hannah Kane H.3154

Thousands of tons of edible food are sent to landfills each year because of donors’ concerns about liability, and because diverting it to those who need it can be costly. These bills will provide civil liability protection for individuals and food establishments who donate food directly to consumers, and a tax credit to Massachusetts farmers in the amount of the fair market value of the donated food, with a $25,000 annual cap per farmer. A new draft of the House bill was moved out favorably and sent to House Ways and Means. This bill will need to be passed by the House first.

Proposal for a legislative amendment to the constitution relative to agricultural and horticultural lands

Sen. Jo Comerford S.11 / Reps. Natalie Blais and Hannah Kane H.71

Article 99 of the Massachusetts Constitution authorizes lower tax rates for agricultural land, but only on parcels greater than five acres. Changes in management practices have made farming on smaller parcels more sustainable, the subdividing of large tracts of land means many farmers farm on multiple smaller parcels, and rising land prices put larger parcels out of reach for many farmers, particularly beginning farmers and farmers of color. This proposed amendment will remove the acreage requirement, making farmland of any size eligible for tax relief. Joint Committee on Revenue held a hearing on this bill on March 25, 2025. The Senate bill was moved out favorably, and will now move to a constitutional convention later in 2026.