May Advocacy News
May 7, 2025
Several CT NOFA State Advocacy Priorities Are Ready to Move Forward in the State Senate!
Action Alert #1
Contact your State Senator to say you want Senate Bill 1497 to pass with all the important items in the Farm Bill Amendment (LCO 7746). (If you don’t know how to reach your State Senator, look here.)
With a bit less than one month left in the legislative session, the “Farm Bill for Connecticut,” proposed by Senator Cathy Osten, co-chair of the Appropriations Committee, is now available, and it includes many of CT NOFA’s priority items.
In an Uncalled Amendment LCO 7446 to Senate Bill 1497, Senator Osten has laid out her Farm Bill priorities. Here are priorities in this amendment important to CT NOFA, our farmers, and our communities:
- Section 504 would exempt hoop houses and high tunnels for agricultural use from building standards related to hurricane proofing of permanent or temporary structures.
- Section 505 would establish the Farmers’ Crop Loss Reimbursement Grant Program to reimburse farmers for crop loss due to significant acute weather events. DoAg would set up the details. Any application would be acted upon not later than 60 days after receipt.
- Section 506 would authorize $10 million in bonding for the Farmers’ Crop Loss Reimbursement Grant Program.
- Section 507 would establish immunity from civil liability for agritourism businesses (including pick-your-own, farm markets, etc.) for certain causes.
- Section 517 would appropriate $1 million for CT Grown for CT Kids, a popular program bringing schools and early childcare centers together with farms and gardens for educational experiences.
- Section 518 would appropriate $2 million for shipping container gardens for schools and food pantries.
- Section 519 would appropriate $5.6 million for the Local Food for Schools Incentives Program,
- Section 520 would appropriate $3.7 million for the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program, which connects underserved communities with locally grown healthy food.
Action Alert #2
Also tell your Senator you support Senate Bill 1522, increasing the funding for the Community Investment Account.
Another bill important to CT NOFA is Senate Bill 1522, which would increase the recording fee for the Community Investment Account. The fee funding this account has been at the same level for 20 years, and provides funding for farmland preservation, the FarmLink program matching farmland owners with farmland seekers, the agricultural viability grant program, and several other agricultural programs. (It also funds preservation of open space, historic preservation, and affordable housing.)
Recent Posts
Advocacy News: May 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.
Our Vision for a Future of Resilient, Plentiful, Healthy and Locally-Grounded Farming and Food
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.