Advocacy News: May 2026
May 12, 2026
The Good News
CT Senator Chris Murphy has introduced a bill (bipartisan and bicameral) to increase funding for Agricultural Management Assistance to $30 million and to expand the eligible uses for these funds to include “soil health improvements, composting, implementing organic farming, and food safety certification in addition to existing authorized uses such as water management structure and soil erosion control.” Let’s thank Senator Murphy for introducing this bill!
The Bad News
The Farm Bill passed the House of Representatives on April 30, despite 320 food, farm, and conservation organizations, including CT NOFA, voicing our opposition to a bill that does not fix SNAP, does not support new and beginning farmers, and does not adequately support conservation programs or organic agriculture. Now it goes to the Senate and we need to urge both of Connecticut’s Senators to reject this Farm Bill.
In the spirit of mobilizing to get as much improvement as we can in a bad bill: One bright spot is S. 4470, the Supporting Urban and Innovative Farming Act of 2026, recently introduced by Senator Fetterman. The Supporting Urban and Innovative Farming Act would enable the Office of Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production to:
- Address the unique conservation and business-planning needs of urban and small-scale farmers;
- Enter into formal partnerships with community organizations and technical assistance providers that can more readily reach farmers;
- Enable sub-awards so that farmer training and education can be paired with a modest influx of capital to have a great on-farm impact; and
- Secure reliable, mandatory funding to continue its essential operations.
Our Connecticut Senators are not yet cosponsors of this bill. The best way to get their attention may be to call their offices and ask them to cosponsor this bill, which is specifically designed to help the small-scale, urban, and innovative farmers that CT NOFA represents.
Messages for Senator Murphy
Give your name and town in CT, and say you are a CT NOFA member (and a farmer, if you are one).
- Thank him for introducing a bill to increase funding for Agricultural Management Assistance and expanding it to cover soil health improvements, composting, and implementation of organic farming!
- Urge him to support S. 4470 to help urban and innovative farmers
- But also urge him to reject the overall Farm Bill, which is overwhelmingly a bad bill.
Senator Chris Murphy
202-224-4041 Washington office
860-549-8463 Hartford office
Messages for Senator Blumenthal
Again, give your name and town, NOFA membership.
- Ask him to support Murphy’s bill to increase funding for Agricultural Management Assistance and to support S. 4470 to assist urban and innovative farmers
- But also urge him to reject the overall Farm Bill
Senator Richard Blumenthal
202-224-2823 Washington office
860-258-6940 Hartford office
203-330-0598 Bridgeport office
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