What We Care About: Farms, Food, People
Food and Farm.
Practical words - connecting us to immediate needs and daily work. Aspirational words - connecting people to a sense of community and family, with obligations and stewardship.
The Food and Farm Caucus gathered last February at Washington Days to share ideas and create fellowship. In August, we gathered again for Demofest - with a full hour of education on local food issues and critical legislative priorities. We have called, emailed, zoomed and facebook’d to continue those conversations.
And so what do Food and Farm members care about?
We care about the food we eat and the systems that bring food to our table --- fresh, healthy, local food. We care about sustainability in farming - economic security for our farm families and prosperity for our rural communities. We value and want to protect our water and energy future.
We see how agriculture is driven by big systems and we need people power to guide those system. We know that the Farm Bill is supposed to be Our Bill -- and we want to claim it back.
We shake our heads while bad policy occupies the time of our state legislators - and we see how community disengagement has been long in the making.
We see threats to our rural schools and hospitals. We see our food and farm work force, urban and rural, and their need for better pay and benefits.
We suspect that lazy policy around cannabis and hemp manage to hurt citizens and miss economic opportunity at the same time.
And we see that Kansas must take action on deeper issues - social and racial inequity, the rights of women to their reproductive decisions, and respect for LGBTQ individuals.
These are the issues that our members discuss and are taking action on. The Food and Farm Caucus is here to create community - so we can work on issues together.
If these concerns speak to you – we invite you to engage.
A commentary by Bill H, Chair of the Food and Farm Caucus
"Kansas Farming" - a painting at the US Courthouse in Wichita, work by Richard Haines ca 1936, photo by Carol Highsmith 2009, archived at the Library of Congress #2010720934 (public domain)