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Locally Grown: Farm Products Guide
Our annual printed guide to local food, farms, and Local Hero businesses is out now, and we can't wait to share it with you!
Subscribers to the Daily Hampshire Gazette and The Recorder received copies of Locally Grown: Farm Products Guide in their papers this morning and a limited run of The Republican subscribers will receive copies next week.
We'll be delivering stacks to farmers' markets, grocery stores, farm stands, and lots of other community locations in the coming days and weeks, so keep your eyes open, or contact us at 413-665-7100 to get a copy mailed to you!
Looking for asparagus, plants for Mother's Day, or farmers' markets RIGHT NOW? You can always find what you're looking for in CISA's searchable online guide to local food and farms!
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Tell your story at Field Notes!
Local food and farming will take the stage at Field Notes: An Afternoon of Storytelling on November 18th at the Academy of Music, and we are seeking story submissions! Whether you're a farmer, farm worker, enthusiastic home chef, restaurateur, or anyone else with a hand in the local food system (that includes all of us!) we want to hear your story. Pitches are due by May 18th.
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Get to know your Local Heroes
Farmer Profile: Hartman's Herb Farm and B&B
"The calls start at 7 in the morning and keep going until 11 at night," says Lynn Hartman. "The kids say that we're the 7-Eleven of herb farms." Powered by third, fourth, and fifth-generation farmers, Hartman's Herb Farm and B&B is just about the definition of a bustling family farm.
Read the full profile here.
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Farmer video profile: Mycoterra Farm
From a multi-million-dollar mushroom farm on the west coast, to a closet in the basement, to a former equestrian center, Julia Coffey has grown mushrooms just about anywhere you can think of. Take a look inside Mycoterra Farm in the latest installment of "Breaking Ground: Beginning Farmer Stories."
Watch the video profile here.
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Donate to CISA today!
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Mountain View Farm, Easthampton
Elizabeth Solaka photo
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We've been supporting farms and local food for 25 years, and we're looking forward to another 25 years and beyond. We need your help to make it happen: please give generously and help keep local farms strong!
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HIP action alert
Thanks to advocacy efforts, emergency funding to end the HIP suspension is making its way through the legislature.
HIP funding for the 2019 fiscal year (starting in July) was included in the budget proposal released today by the Senate Committee on Ways and Means, but at a lower level than advocates have requested. Please call your state senator to advocate for the full amount needed to fund this vital program.
In the meantime, HIP retailers can accept SNAP benefits, and some farms and markets are offering their own EBT matching programs as a stopgap measure. Contact Mia with questions.
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Inequities in the local food system
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Elizabeth Solaka photo
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"As much as we celebrate the successes and strengths of our local food system, we must acknowledge the inequities built into it, including widespread hunger, unequal access to farmland and business opportunities, and troubling circumstances for farm workers. Our local food system doesn't exist in isolation from the larger world, and our current structures don't exist in isolation from our nation's history."
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CISA's 2017 Annual Report Our 2017 Annual Report is now live! Read all about our work from the past year, including the Healthy Incentives Program and our direct support to farmers.
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Welcome, new Board members!
We're pleased to welcome three new members to CISA's Board of Directors: Insiyah Mohammad Bergeron, Shawn Robinson, and Catherine Sands.
Read their full bios.
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Senior FarmShare distribution at the
Holyoke Senior Center
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Now accepting applications for Senior FarmShare
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Local Farmer Award winners
Congratulations to all of this year's Local Farmer Award recipients! The Local Farmer Awards, funded by a group of philanthropic leaders and businesses led by The Harold Grinspoon Charitable Foundation and Big Y, gave $135,000 in awards to 59 farmers operating in western Massachusetts to fund infrastructure improvements on their farms.
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Quick Links
Check out our press page for news stories about local farms and local agriculture, along with our weekly interview series on WRSI, monthly column in the Daily Hampshire Gazette, and more! Go to press pageFarm tours, film screenings, workshops, special local meals -- there's always something happening in the Valley! Go to events listingJob opportunities, land, equipment. Go to classifieds |
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Please do not take images or content to use on your own site or project without CISA's explicit permission. Please feel free to link to our newsletter. Archives can be found at buylocalfood.org.
Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture is an equal opportunity provider and employer.
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