Draft - Early Thinking on Gaps in Food Insecurity Implementation
The draft outlines early thinking on gaps in food insecurity implementation, focusing on expand produce purchasing initiatives and prioritize Washington-grown products. Recommendations include actions to increase purchasing power at the county level and boost participation in nutrition programs. Funding gaps and administrative support needs are highlighted to scale up these initiatives effectively.
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Forum Implementation Teams Gap Analysis Draft
Food Insecurity Draft - Early Thinking on Gaps 2
Overview The following five recommendations are likely ready for early implementation action: 1A, 1B, 1C, 2C, and 2D. Draft - Early Thinking on Gaps 3
Gap Analysis: Rec 1A Ready for Action Expand produce purchasing initiatives, prioritizing Washington-grown products, such as: Rec 1 Sub Rec A State investment in WSDA s Farm to Food Pantry initiative to increase purchasing power at the county level and expand participation beyond the 21 counties currently served to get more locally-grown produce into food banks & food pantries for people in need. Sense of gaps *Gap: WSDA would like to scale this statewide. Current legislative funding request would increase current program's grant amounts and add a handful of new partners-- still not statewide, but David Bobanick at Harvest Against Hunger (contracts with WSDA to help administer the program) believes that's the manageable amount of new partners to add in a single year. Will need additional funding, additional administrative support to scale up and probably as a a multi-year funding strategy. Draft - Early Thinking on Gaps 4
Gap Analysis: Rec 1B Ready for Action Expand produce purchasing initiatives, prioritizing Washington-grown products, such as: Rec 1 Sub Rec B State investment in Food Insecurity Nutrition Incentives (FINI) Program for staffing and incentives for consumers with limited incomes to purchase more fruits and vegetables in farmers markets and grocery stores. ** FINI: now call the fruit and veg incentive program ** Sense of gaps *Gap: State funding was for one biennium. For the program to function, funding needs to be made permanent. Need funding: federal Gus Schumacher (formerly FINI) grant and private sector funding support to provide match. Draft - Early Thinking on Gaps 5
Gap Analysis: Rec 1C Ready for Action Expand produce purchasing initiatives, prioritizing Washington-grown products, such as: Rec 1 Sub Rec C Additional funds to increase the amount of benefits available per participant from $20 per season to $30 per season in the WIC Farmers Market Nutrition Program. Sense of gaps *Gaps: Administrative funding to help with outreach to boost WIC participation Draft - Early Thinking on Gaps 6
Gap Analysis: Rec 2C Ready for Action Explore the use of state resources to maximize participation and access to nutrition assistance programs, such as: Rec 2 Sub Rec C Develop a framework and state plan to ensure that Washingtonians whose eligibility for federal nutrition assistance programs may be endangered or eliminated maintain eligibility for and access to supplemental state nutrition assistance programs. Sense of gaps *Need to convene a group with appropriate state agencies on this topic -- there's legislative interest in how we back fill loss of federal support Draft - Early Thinking on Gaps 7
Gap Analysis: Rec 2D Ready for Action Explore the use of state resources to maximize participation and access to nutrition assistance programs, such as: Rec 2 Sub Rec D Explore data share agreements and IT investments to support eligibility outreach for WIC and SNAP to ensure seamless enrollment for participants who are eligible for both programs, and to make WIC participation easier (e.g. online scheduling for appointments, online classes, etc.). Sense of gaps *WIC and SNAP have had DSA's before, they have lapsed. Draft - Early Thinking on Gaps 8
Agricultural Land Protection and Availability and Next Generation Farming Draft - Early Thinking on Gaps 9
Overview The following five recommendations are likely ready for early implementation action: 1A, 1B, 3A, 3B, and 3D Draft - Early Thinking on Gaps 10
Gap Analysis: Rec 1A Ready for Action Support funding for tools to protect agricultural land from conversion to other uses and assist farmers in transferring and accessing land, including: Rec 1 Sub Rec A Ensure robust state and local funding for voluntary agricultural conservation easements. Under this tool, a landowner voluntarily sells development rights to a qualified easement holder; the land is kept in agricultural production, the landowner receives compensation, and the land can be more accessible to a new farm buyer because the development rights have already been sold. Sense of gaps *Gap: With conservation easement, it is required that land with that any existing water rights must be adequately maintained/stewarded. If not stewarded well, may no longer be valid. Should start to wrap head around if we enact conservation easement to protect land, but gap that should be better considered need to have legal water access at the same time. Recognition that not all ag needs water (in irrigation sense). Providing legal water access is a potentially a missing piece. stewarding water right takes more time and attention. Could lead to secure water availability Draft - Early Thinking on Gaps 11
Gap Analysis: Rec 1B Ready for Action Support funding for tools to protect agricultural land from conversion to other uses and assist farmers in transferring and accessing land, including: Rec 1 Sub Rec B Develop streamlined, creative, and low-cost loan financing in support of agricultural land protection and land access for new and beginning farmers. These programs would support, for example, purchase of agricultural land by nonprofits or other qualified entities to prevent conversion of farmland to other uses and transfer farmland to a new or beginning farmer, and creative models for new and beginning farmers like lease-to-own or ground leases. Sense of gaps *Gap: low-cost long-term loan financing. There are a few land trusts that have a pooled investment vehicle to buy and sell farm land. Could be a technical gap to make this work. Not every land trust is able to use this. There is interest in housing and finance commission. Seems to be capital available, there is also a sense of how this could work. *Gap: functional community farm land trust in WA. Conservation easements may be component of larger efforts. - one mechanism of land access that hasn't been developed in Washington. Could a community farm land trust. well developed model, just expanding in WA to be functional. *Gap: More funding opportunities for farmers generally. *Gap: NW farm credit is interested in model with loan financing to do buy-protect-sell but do more competitive package for farmer on backend. Don't have this model set up yet. Draft - Early Thinking on Gaps 12
Gap Analysis: Rec 3A Ready for Action Enact policies that reflect the significance of protecting agricultural land, communities, and infrastructure, and place a high priority on this goal. To achieve this priority jurisdictions should: Rec 3 Sub Rec A Ensure that agricultural zoning code adequately protects agricultural land, agricultural communities, and agricultural infrastructure. Sense of gaps *Gap: outreach needed to help local jurisdictions*Gap: outreach needed to help local jurisdictions understand; help with voluntary action to integrate this work. understand; help with voluntary action to integrate this work. Draft - Early Thinking on Gaps 13
Gap Analysis: Rec 3B Ready for Action Enact policies that reflect the significance of protecting agricultural land, communities, and infrastructure, and place a high priority on this goal. To achieve this priority jurisdictions should: Ensure that agricultural areas are accurately designated, including assessment of areas that are not currently designated as agriculture, but having a high degree of actively farmed grounds or having land suitable and available for agriculture, be considered for additional levels of agricultural protection. Rec 3 Sub Rec B Sense of gaps *Gap: current efforts keep trying to put band aids on ag communities. This could be chance to haver larger program to tackle this (similar to flood plains by design). Robust toolkit that is built on integrity of ag lands in concentrated areas. Tools for local government to do rezoning and assessments; PDRs; landscape and integrity (environmental benefits, habitat benefits, open space benefits). Think in big picture about this. *Gap: Federal contract in Puget Sound around this is ending; need to think about how to continue efforts. Have counties design ag plan and see what areas they are going to protect. Draft - Early Thinking on Gaps 14
Gap Analysis: Rec 3C Ready for Action Enact policies that reflect the significance of protecting agricultural land, communities, and infrastructure, and place a high priority on this goal. To achieve this priority jurisdictions should: Rec 3 Sub Rec D Sense of gaps Develop mechanisms to support agricultural producers for the positive ecosystem impacts that agriculture provides including benefits to water quality, carbon sequestration, wildlife habitat, and other open space values.. *Gap: How does state consider eco system marketplace; how does what the state does intersect with what local do; administrative frameworks. Whatcom has a lot of research in this area (ag and water quality tools to quantify ecosystem benefits; develop marketplace within which you can buy and sell those benefits. Concepts are developed; need administrative frameworks. *Gap: Land trust continue to have interest in carbon markets. Kitsap is doing some work around looking at ecosystem lens for what benefits do lands provide. There may be some models out there to learn more. May need to review new models Draft - Early Thinking on Gaps 15
Small/Medium Scale Producer Market Access and Institutional Purchasing Draft - Early Thinking on Gaps 16
Gap analysis forthcoming Draft - Early Thinking on Gaps 17
Infrastructure and Rural Economic Development Draft - Early Thinking on Gaps 18
Team is seeking feedback on its approach to pivoting from landscape to gap analysis Current thinking for developing ideas for early implementation action: What are the roots of what's working in one region and how might those roots be put down in other communities or accelerated in a region? Said another way: What's happening now that has legs and we can see being applicable/catalyzed elsewhere? How and why did the successful project get accomplished and what are the barriers to catalyzing similar efforts elsewhere? For example, how can the successful examples of Port investment in food system enterprises be brought to other port districts in Washington? How can successful food hub enterprises be established in other regions of Washington? Draft - Early Thinking on Gaps 19
Impacts of Climate Change Draft - Early Thinking on Gaps 20
Overview Team indicated all recommendations are likely ready for early implementation action. Draft - Early Thinking on Gaps 21
Gap Analysis: Rec 1A Ready for Action Work with policy makers, university researchers, Tribes, and agencies to project future agricultural water availability needs across the state, and to identify strategies to reduce water use conflicts. Rec 1 Sub Rec A Develop a strategy and set of policies to ensure water availability for Western Washington agriculture. Consider an Office for Western Washington Basins to coordinate efforts. Sense of gaps There is a lot of work going on at a basin level that we need to be conscientious about. However, Washington is one of the states that does not have a comprehensive water plan or strategy. There are positives and negatives to this. In the CRB, Ecology OCR has a Legislative mandate to solve water problems for in-stream and out-of-stream needs (including agriculture), with a formula to address the "competing demands" framework. The rest of the state doesn't have any kind of mandate that prioritizes or considers agricultural water on par with other competing demands. It could be that the gap that the FPF recommendation could drill down into is to address the missing or incomplete consideration (e.g. priority, mandate, etc.) for raising the profile of ag water supply in the calculus of basin water allocation outside of the CRB. Draft - Early Thinking on Gaps 22
Gap Analysis: Rec 1B Ready for Action Work with policy makers, university researchers, Tribes, and agencies to project future agricultural water availability needs across the state, and to identify strategies to reduce water use conflicts. Rec 1 Sub Rec B Develop and implement a comprehensive strategy to increase water storage for agricultural purposes, using a cooperative approach to negotiations that will ensure that storage has neutral or positive environmental benefits and does not negatively impact fish and other core environmental requirements Sense of gaps Gap analysis still in progress Draft - Early Thinking on Gaps 23
Gap Analysis: Rec 1C Ready for Action Work with policy makers, university researchers, Tribes, and agencies to project future agricultural water availability needs across the state, and to identify strategies to reduce water use conflicts. Rec 1 Sub Rec C Identify strategies to reduce impacts of sea level rise and prepare for and mitigate the effects of salt and sea water intrusion into aquifers and drainage systems. Sense of gaps The UW CIG report projects a modest amount of sea level rise (< 1 foot) by 2050 and more significant increases (~1-3 feet) by end of century for most coastal locations in Washington. I've asked to see if their model has a GIS layer that can be overlayed on the NLCD or WSDA Cropland Data Layer to assess the locations / # of acres that may be affected. It's not clear to me at this time that we have a good handle on whether impacts would be limited to events (storm surges) or more permanent (saltwater intrusion), but the bottom line is that there are some locations with coastal area ag where costs and maintenance of land reclamation / drainage infrastructure will be further stressed than it already is. If you can't drain a piece of land, you can't farm it. However, most functional farmland in the coastal areas is already highly engineered for drainage, so this is not a "new" problem as much as it is an "intensified" problem. The current regulatory and economic limitations on this infrastructure may be more critical than sea level rise? Draft - Early Thinking on Gaps 24
Gap Analysis: Rec 2A Ready for Action Promote research and programmatic investments in agricultural viability, resiliency, and market development. Rec 2 Sub Rec A Research and development have proven to be the most cost-effective means for supporting farmer responsiveness to an uncertain future. The State should continue to support the public-private partnerships in breeding, crop protection, and soil health that provide adaptable varieties, integrated pest management strategies and decision-support systems, and increased investment in soil health as a bank of resilience to climate change. Sense of gaps Gap analysis still in progress Draft - Early Thinking on Gaps 25
Gap Analysis: Rec 2B Ready for Action Promote research and programmatic investments in agricultural viability, resiliency, and market development. Rec 2 Sub Rec B Consider the long-term sustainability of soils and agricultural lands in developing policies, recognizing that the impacts of climate change create new stresses on soils but also potential opportunities that can promote soil health and new production opportunities. Sense of gaps Gap analysis still in progress Draft - Early Thinking on Gaps 26
Gap Analysis: Rec 2C Ready for Action Promote research and programmatic investments in agricultural viability, resiliency, and market development. Rec 2 Sub Rec C Promote agricultural innovation, technology adoption, and management regimes that reduce input costs, energy demand, and greenhouse gas emissions. Sense of gaps Gap analysis still in progress Draft - Early Thinking on Gaps 27
Gap Analysis: Rec 2D Ready for Action Promote research and programmatic investments in agricultural viability, resiliency, and market development. Rec 2 Sub Rec D Create and deploy voluntary carbon credit programs or green incentive payments that can increase agricultural resiliency and support food producers. Sense of gaps Gap analysis still in progress Draft - Early Thinking on Gaps 28
Gap Analysis: Rec 2E Ready for Action Promote research and programmatic investments in agricultural viability, resiliency, and market development. Rec 2 Sub Rec E Improve water storage in soils by increasing soil organic matter. Sense of gaps Presuming the Soil Health Initiative is funded, we should be able to address this more comprehensively across the state. Draft - Early Thinking on Gaps 29
Gap Analysis: Rec 2F Ready for Action Promote research and programmatic investments in agricultural viability, resiliency, and market development. Rec 2 Sub Rec F Support statewide efforts to achieve the food waste reduction goals established by the legislature in 2019, recognizing that wasted food is also wasted water and creates the worst kind of greenhouse gas emissions, ones that have no corresponding benefits. Sense of gaps Gap analysis still in progress Draft - Early Thinking on Gaps 30
Gap Analysis: Rec 3A Ready for Action Ensure agricultural adaptation resources are well coordinated, funded, and staffed to support farmers in making informed business decisions in a changing climate. Rec 2 Sub Rec A Increase and improve access to technical assistance to meet increasing demands around climate adaptation. Sense of gaps We've only recently gained a sufficient handle on the triage question to be able to start deeper analyses of farm level strategies that can be affected by management. We have produced a good set of case studies (heavy to the dryland grain systems of the interior) of farm-level strategies for adaptation and mitigation of climate change. Draft - Early Thinking on Gaps 31
Gap Analysis: Rec 3B Ready for Action Ensure agricultural adaptation resources are well coordinated, funded, and staffed to support farmers in making informed business decisions in a changing climate. Rec 2 Sub Rec B Identify an appropriate agency to coordinate with other Western States on a strategy for climate adaptation in agriculture and food production. Sense of gaps Agree that the role may not be confined to a single agency, but there is a need for high level policy coordination, with direction from the Governor's office. There will likely be critical policy decisions that will need to be understood well in advance of their impending ecological deadline, and the need for leadership to ensure that these are worked on in a timely fashion is a priority. I respectfully disagree with the suggestion that this should wait. Draft - Early Thinking on Gaps 32
Gap Analysis: Rec 3C Ready for Action Ensure agricultural adaptation resources are well coordinated, funded, and staffed to support farmers in making informed business decisions in a changing climate. Rec 2 Sub Rec C Identify current food and agricultural products that are most likely to be impacted by a changing climate and recommend specific strategies, like variety development, that can enhance adaptation. Sense of gaps Gap analysis still in progress Draft - Early Thinking on Gaps 33
Gap Analysis: Rec 3D Ready for Action Ensure agricultural adaptation resources are well coordinated, funded, and staffed to support farmers in making informed business decisions in a changing climate. Rec 2 Sub Rec D Increase engagement of businesses to discuss what public-private partnerships are needed to ensure appropriate adaptation, with an understanding that there are benefits and challenges in terms of public research dollars and private benefits. Sense of gaps Gap analysis still in progress Draft - Early Thinking on Gaps 34
