CSA letter to MPs

Letter to send to your local elected candidate (at the bottom of this page)

Including our demands for government:

• Most CSAs and small farms operate without government subsidy despite providing many public goods, and are excluded from the majority of grants. Will you advocate for inclusive grants and subsidies that adequately reward CSA farms for the public goods we provide?
• Many CSAs farmers are new entrants to farming and begin providing food for their local community with little or no funding or support. We want to see grants offered for horticultural start-ups and grants for new farmers to access land and equipment.
• Will you support our call for a bold cross-departmental horticulture strategy to increase domestic fruit and vegetable production and improve access to fresh, nutritious foods?
• We are pleased to see that Environmental Land Management Schemes have recently been opened to farms under 5 hectares, but we want to make sure that these schemes are accessible to CSAs in practice, that adequate guidance is provided and that farm payment budgets are increased to make the work involved in applying for these grants worth it for small farms.
• The new government has committed to give local areas more power in planning decisions. Will you advocate for greater provision for small farms to facilitate the development of infrastructure and on-site accommodation?
• Will you support the continuation and expansion of the work started during the previous government to produce industry-specific codes of conduct to empower farmers and work towards fairer supply chains? We urge the new government to procure 50% of public food from local organic producers (rather than the current target that half of food purchased in the public sector is locally produced OR certified to a higher environmental standard.)
• Will you help to ensure the new climate change plan to be released in the next year is ambitious in reducing emissions and preventing impacts from climate change?

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