Advocacy Report: September 2026

By Dr. Kim Stoner, Director of Advocacy for CT NOFA

Even while midterm Federal elections are heating up for Congressional races, and state elections for all of the legislators, the Governor, and all of the other constitutional officers are also rolling along, behind the scenes coalitions are building for legislation to be introduced next year.

Federal Level

The Fam Bill

Congress is still struggling to pass a Farm Bill. The last Farm Bill was passed in 2018, and a new one is supposed to be passed every five years — which would have been 2023. Congress has been proposing various versions of the Farm Bill since then without getting anything the House proposed passed in the Senate. Traditionally, the Farm Bill has been a bipartisan compromise combining food programs (like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, SNAP) with agricultural support programs. This tradition has fallen apart — it is hard to do anything on a bipartisan basis these days. SNAP was cut back severely in the “One Big Beautiful Bill” last year, and Democrats in the Senate say they will not let a Farm Bill pass until that is fixed. Probably no Farm Bill until after the election — or maybe after the newly elected Congress begins next year. You can see the principles and marker bills the NOFA chapters and MOFGA agreed upon for the Farm Bill (in 2023!) here.

State Level

CT Environmental Rights Amendment

I continue to lead the CT Environmental Rights Amendment Alliance, working to get the basic human right to clean and healthy air, water, and soil and a safe climate into the CT constitution. This has been a long, hard fight, but as environmental protections have been slashed at the Federal level by the current administration and the courts, building up the power to protect the environment at the state and local level is more important than ever. Click here to stay informed about our work on the CT ERA.

Food for All CT Campaign

CT has the highest level of food insecurity of any state in New England, and with the Federal cuts to SNAP already starting to affect families in our state, the situation will be getting worse. CT NOFA has joined the steering committee for the Food for All Campaign, led by the CT Food Sovereignty Collective. The goals are to fill the gaps in access to good healthy food for everyone and to build the capacity for that food to come from local farms. Where will the money come from? The proposal is to build a Permanent Food Fund, using a portion of the taxes on prepared meals or taxing unhealthy food like sugary beverages. We are still working on all the details, but will be launching the campaign soon.

Shared Ground: Planning for the Future of Agriculture in the CT Environment

CT NOFA is teaming up with the New CT Farmer Alliance and the Working Lands Alliance to bring together farmers, soil health advocates, and environmental organizations to talk about how to plan for a healthy agricultural future for CT in a changing environment. How do we preserve farmland and make it accessible to a new generation of farmers? How do we plan for agriculture and soil health to be part of the nature-based solutions we need for climate change? How do we prepare for and recover from the increase in weather disasters? We have a date and location for this conference: November 18, at the Meriden Public Library. Save the date and watch for publicity.

Working Group on Modernization of Pesticide Reporting

Going back to my days as an entomologist at the CT Agricultural Experiment Station, I have advocated for a better system for reporting pesticide use. The system we have now is archaic. Farmers and commercial pesticide users have to keep records of their pesticide applications, but they report to the state by taking a picture of their paper records and sending that to the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. The only way to get data on what pesticides are used, how much, and where is to go through the file cabinets at DEEP by hand. Special Act 26-10 created a working group to modernize pesticide reporting, and I am on it. Want to know more? Here is the website for the working group, and our next meeting is Monday, September 14 at 9:30. We will be reviewing systems used by other states around the country.