Fighting for Fair Food and Farming in the Carolinas
When local producers thrive and nurture communities with healthy foods and a clean environment, we all win.
With a track record of more than 45 years, CFSA is leading the charge in the Carolinas to build a resilient food supply chain that puts people and the planet first. At the heart of CFSAโs vision are small and mid-sized farms and local and regional food businesses that provide healthy food and economic opportunity for their communities here in the Carolinas.
Through our policy expertise, work with coalition partners and legislative relationships โ we represent the needs of farmers. Learn more about our ongoing work, and check out our wins, below.
Legislative Priorities
The U.S. farm bill is a package of legislation passed roughly once every five years that has an enormous impact on farming livelihoods, how food is grown, and what kinds of food are grown. Covering programs ranging from crop insurance for farmers to healthy food access for low-income families, from beginning farmer training to support for sustainable farming practices, the farm bill sets the stage for our food and farm systems.
If you eat, youโre affected by the farm bill. As an advocate for sustainable agriculture in the Carolinas, itโs our job to make sure that this important bill is good for farmers, consumers, and the natural environment. CFSAโs farm bill platform spans key issue areas including natural resource conservation, local and regional food systems, structural reform to farm programs and more.
Marker Bills
In the years between reauthorized farm bills, marker bills are introduced in Congress as both template bill language and to show collective interest in an idea. Marker bills signal policy ideas and build momentum around reform, and those with more congressional support have a better chance of making it into the final version of a farm bill.
- EAT Local Foods Act: The Expanding Access to Local Foods (EAT Local Foods) Act would create a permanent program to sustain the efforts of the U.S. Department of Agricultureโs Local Food Purchasing Assistance (LFPA) program, empowering states and tribal nations to strengthen regional food supply chains by providing funding to purchase and distribute locally grown foods to vulnerable communities.
- Strengthening Local Processing Act: The Strengthening Local Processing Act (SLPA) is the most comprehensive meat processing reform bill in Washington, with specific provisions that address competition, demand for local products and access to value-added services in the meat processing sector. It does so by creating two meat processing training program grants that assist and train small plant operators and employees, encouraging the expansion of the Cooperative Interstate Shipment program and open new markets for local producers, and help small, independent processors scale up and stay viable.
- Local Farms and Food Act: The Local Farms and Food Act is a comprehensive bill that offers reforms to the Local Agriculture Market Program (LAMP), Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program (GusNIP) and the Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Program (SFMNP). The legislation would increase access to each program to catalyze investments in underserved areas and among small producers. These investments will strengthen local and regional food system infrastructure and promote local economic development in both rural and urban communities.
- Agriculture Resilience Act: The Agriculture Resilience Act (ARA) offers a roadmap to achieve net-zero emissions in agriculture by 2040. The first of its kind, the ARA represents a comprehensive approach to addressing climate change throughout much of USDAโs programming, including agroforestry, organic agriculture, grazing management, soil health, on-farm renewable energy and more. With broad public support for government incentive-based solutions to climate change in agriculture, the ARA represents exactly what the public, researchers and advocates have been calling for.
- Opportunities in Organic Act: The Opportunities in Organic Act invests in comprehensive and easily accessible tools that remove barriers for organic and transitioning farmers, and entice more to join them. In addition to supporting organic farming practices, the act makes funding available to support organic supply chain development – from on-farm equipment and infrastructure to organic facilities that can serve producers throughout a whole region.
From food safety rules that impose unjustified burdens on small producers, to zoning laws that stifle family farms, to competitive disadvantages for small-scale processing operations that could connect small farms to larger markets, local food systems face massive regulatory hurdles.
The CFSA policy team is here to monitor proposed changes to regulations and assess their impact on our members. When enforcement began on the USDAโs Strengthening Organic Enforcement (SOE) rule in 2024, CFSA worked closely with our members and stakeholders to document unexpected burdens and costs associated with smaller organic entities. Our job is to advocate for responsible regulations that keep organic growers free of undue burden.
CFSA is closely monitoring the rollout and enforcement of new federal regulations, including the USDAโs Strengthening Organic Enforcement rule and the FDAโs Pre-Harvest Agricultural Water rule, to ensure producers are protected from unreasonable enforcement.
Launched by CFSA in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, FarmsSHARE is a statewide partnership of food hubs, small and mid-sized farms, farmer cooperatives and community-based organizations working together to purchase locally grown food and distribute it free to food-insecure individuals and households across North Carolina.
Existing federal funding for FarmsSHARE is projected to run out by Summer 2025. CFSA is currently seeking a $4 million N.C. budget appropriation to sustain and further catalyze regional supply chain development.
In todayโs economic climate, operating costs can make the difference between profitability and failure. North Carolinaโs policymakers have the opportunity to reduce taxes on our small farm businesses by extending the present-use property tax program to all farms that meet the test for sound agricultural management regardless of parcel size.
North Carolina currently has the most restrictive present-use value statute in the mid-Atlantic region with regard to small-acreage farms. The solution is to simplify the program, removing the minimum acreage requirement and making the regulatory environment more stable and consistently applied for small farm businesses and county assessors.
South Carolina is officially one of the fastest growing states in the nation. With an exploding population and ever-expanding commercial and residential development, S.C. farmland is facing an existential threat. 2024 saw the passage of H. 3951, the Working Agricultural Lands Preservation Act, which helps landowners preserve working farmland through voluntary conservation easements.
CFSA is currently partnering with the S.C. Association of Community Economic Development and others to drive S.C.โs new Farmland Access Working Group. The groupโs priorities are to educate farmers on the benefits of easements and how the process works, strengthen relationships between agricultural organizations and legislators and address state-level challenges to support farm-friendly zoning.
South Carolinaโs local food supply chain, from production and aggregation to distribution, deserves sustained investment to ensure a thriving local food economy.
Recent Wins
S.C. Cottage Food Law Update
Until 2022, South Carolina had one of the strictest home-based food production laws in the country. In cooperation with Clemson Extension, the S.C. Department of Agriculture, S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control and others, CFSA worked with legislators and the cottage industry to expand the foods allowed by the law and to allow these foods to be sold online and at retail stores. In October 2022, the updated S.C. cottage food law guide was published.
COVID-19 Pandemic Response
The early days and weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic saw complete chaos in regional, national and international food systems. While small and mid-sized producers struggled to adapt their business models to closed restaurants, schools and businesses, many city and county governments were quick to deem farmers markets โentertainment venuesโ or โsocial gatherings,โ jeopardizing the livelihoods of farmers represented there.
CFSA led the charge in the Carolinas to ensure farmers markets were rightly classified as โessential businessesโ and remain open.
At the federal level, the U.S. Department of Agriculture launched the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program, a hastily-assembled relief payment system to provide farmers financial assistance to absorb sales losses. The program, however, utilized county commodity prices to calculate payments, neglecting the premium local and organic markups of small and diversified operations.
Thanks to the advocacy of CFSA and our partner advocacy organizations, USDAโs Coronavirus Food Assistance Program 2.0 (CFAP 2.0) featured significant improvements that benefited farmers left out of the original program. The key revisions in CFAP 2.0 included an additional round of price loss based payments and a revenue-based payment program with expanded eligibility for specialty crop and other producers, including livestock.
Recent cFSA advocacy campaigns
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Remembering Wendell Berry (1936 – 2026)
A tribute by Matt Kneece, CFSA Policy Director. Published September 2, 2026. We all remember the first piece of writing…Read More
The State of Organic in 2026: Strong Demand, Uncertain Support
June 17th, 2026 A note on timing: Federal organic policy is evolving quickly in 2026. Several facts in this update,…Read More
2026 Questions for Candidates
Recommendations and template questions for discussing food and agriculture policy with candidates for local, state, and federal office. The Carolina…Read More
Page content last reviewed and updated 8/13/2026.
