News

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 concluding its annual retreat, the Northeast Organic Farming Association Interstate Council (NOFA IC) reaffirms the values that have grounded our work for 55 years. Our vision is that every person is able to live their life with healthy food, clean water and air, community, livelihood, dignity, and purpose within the means of our life-giving planet. We seek that vision on every level, from our households and farms to our communities, states, bioregions, nation, and world. For that vision to be fulfilled, every person, no matter their origin or circumstances, must have all their basic human needs met without degrading the air, water, soil, ecosystems, and climate which we have been given and on which we depend for our lives.

The Farm Bill will get a vote in the House of Representatives this week. It is a terrible bill, and we need to put on all the pressure we can to stop it. Seven years into what is supposed to be a five year process, the House Farm, Food, and National Security Act favors Big Ag, and not family farms in countless ways. Of specific interest to CT NOFA are pesticide industry provisions that would strip states and cities of their power to regulate certain pesticides and would shield the manufacturers from liability.

As a core partner in the ongoing Transition to Organic Partnership Program (TOPP), CT NOFA has provided support to Connecticut farms that are pursuing organic certification. One of the farms that has achieved organic certification with support from the program is River Ridge Farm (Portland, CT), one of the first farms to become a program participant.

On March 20, 2026, the Government Administration and Elections Committee (GAE) voted overwhelmingly (13 yeas; 6 nays) to advance the resolution to put the Connecticut Environmental Rights Amendment (CTERA) on the ballot. Proposed as SJ 37, the amendment would be added to the state constitution’s Bill of Rights and recognize the right of all the people of Connecticut to clean and healthy water and air, soils, ecosystems, environment and a stable climate.

As a core partner in the ongoing Transition to Organic Partnership Program (TOPP), CT NOFA has provided support to Connecticut farms that are pursuing organic certification. One of the farms that has achieved organic certification with support from the program is Hoadley Hills Farm, the first organically certified livestock farm in Connecticut.