National Campaign for Sustainable Agriculture

Our Work

Broadening and Deepening Support
Policy that Works, for People and the Land

Together with our partners, we shape and promote federal agriculture policies that:

support sound environmental stewardship and agriculture based economic development that is good for farm and ranch families and their communities,
give consumers real choice about how their food is produced,
promote social justice and humane practices.

The National Campaign provides a forum for innovative ideas and practical solutions percolating up from real-world grassroots experience about the way food is grown, produced, processed and marketed. We then work to translate these ideas into the policy improvements that will lead to systemic change affecting the daily lives of farmers, workers, consumers, and the natural resources we all depend on. Throughout this process we help people make their own voices heard in the halls of government.

The National Campaign's work and organizational structure is based on three important beliefs:

An open, participatory process among local, state, regional and national groups is key to shaping policies that reflect what is really needed and truly sustainable;

Concerted action from all regions of the country by many different constituencies from all communities—urban, rural and suburban—stands the best chance of winning desired outcomes.
To affect fundamental changes in federal policies, the very diverse interests and groups comprising the sustainable agriculture movement need to speak with a unified voice about the ideas, sound alternatives and priorities that unite them.

NATIONAL CAMPAIGN GOALS

To foster democracy in action, through a strong network of grassroots, state, regional and national organizations working on a unified strategy for federal agriculture and food policy.

To help the grassroots win for themselves needed reforms to federal food and farm policy, rulemaking, and implementation.

NATIONAL CAMPAIGN STRATEGIES

POLICY DEVELOPMENT AND PROMOTION
POLICY IMPLEMENTATION
OUTREACH AND CAPACITY BUILDING

POLICY DEVELOPMENT AND PROMOTION: The substantive work of identifying critical issues and developing consensus policy principles is done by National Campaign policy committees under the capable leadership of National Campaign staff. From 1999 to 2002, we worked with our partners to develop and promote major new policy initiatives in the 2002 Federal Farm Bill, which now need to be shaped and defended through rulemaking, funding, and implementation.

POLICY IMPLEMENTATION: The National Campaign and its partners also play an important role in monitoring and informing the public and the media about how Farm Bill and other federal agriculture programs, such as the National Organic Program, are delivered, how spending is distributed, which constituencies are being served and what results are being achieved. We are working to ensure that partners, farmers and communities throughout the country are informed of the programs and funding streams available to help them achieve economic, environmental and social goals. We are currently working with partners to:

Track and disseminate information about the accessibility of programs and to work with the grassroots to communicate how those programs can be used to achieve on-the-ground economic, environmental, and social goals;

Help farmers and other constituencies we serve access as much information as possible about the programs, funds and services available.

Facilitate peer to peer connections throughout our network and beyond through our sustainable agriculture program matrix, program fact sheets and other materials.

OUTREACH AND CAPACITY BUILDING: We work to help build the capacity of individual partners and our network as a whole to educate, organize and mobilize diverse constituencies to develop policy, and advocate for change. We provide our partners with organizing assistance, as needed, to help increase the number and skills of grassroots activists and to expand our base of allied organizations and coalitions.

Tools we're developing to build partner capacity include:

* Organizers' Toolkit
* The Sustainable Agriculture Movement Database
* Federal Sustainable Ag. Program Primer and fact sheets

MEDIA AND COMMUNICATIONS: A significant challenge we face, as a movement is the complexity of our message. Our movement is about systemic and structural change, which means we work across a broad range of issues. We are developing accessible, plainspoken messages that:

make clear what is at stake in creating a food and agriculture that truly works for people and the land,

enable people to see clearly the connection between issues they care about—such as clean water, biodiversity, animal welfare, access to healthful, affordable food—and the role of federal policy to change and the underlying structure of the food system,

Media and Communications Tools we will be providing include:

* A series of fact sheets or talking points for use with various partners
* A press package
* Sample press releases, op eds, and letters to the editor for partners to adapt.
* Timely policy updates and action alerts through email and website.
* A quarterly printed newsletter and bi-weekly e-mail news updates.
* Collaboration with our partners on organizing press conferences, meetings with editorial boards, and writing and submitting op ed pieces.