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Policies that promote CSA's, small local farms



CSA-L:

I am a researcher at ILSR's New Rules Project, aimed at "designing rules

as if community matters".  We research rules that support family farms,
posting them on our website
(http://www.newrules.org/biz/farms/rules/html) for activists and
government officials to view and (hopefully) adopt.  We also publish a
new Family Farm Rules Bulletin designed to highlight the policies needed

for strong agricultural communities (to subscribe email blevy@ilsr.org).

I am curious to know if there are any policies that CSA's or other small
farms have
encountered that directly support their operations.  I am aware of
several policies such as Berkeley's new school cafeteria program that
requires the purchase of locally grown organic produce.  In several
farmers markets across the US, new systems have been put into place to
allow food stamps and EBT cards to be used.  But it seems that basically

CSA's and other small farms are operating in a marketplace without any
structural benefits to promote them-- at least not yet.  We need rules
that change this, be it new tax credits, purchasing requirements,
labelling requirements, preferencial treatment for locally owned
businesses, etc.  Does anyone have any  examples of local or state
rules?  Please let me know if you do.

Note- clearly national level policies, such as a new tax on energy,
would have profound consequences on promoting local production of food.
However, we're currently limiting our focus on state and local
initiatives already enacted or formally proposed.

Thanks,
Brian Levy


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Brian D. Levy, Research Associate
Institute for Local Self Reliance
1313 5th St. SE, Suite 303
Minneapolis, MN 55414
    Office: 612-379-3815
    Fax: 612-379-3920
    ILSR Home Page: http://www.ilsr.org/
    New Rules Project: http://www.newrules.org/
    Email: blevy@ilsr.org
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