{"id":7012,"date":"2022-01-21T15:24:02","date_gmt":"2022-01-21T20:24:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/waterkeeperschesapeake.org\/?p=7012"},"modified":"2023-01-25T19:43:25","modified_gmt":"2023-01-26T00:43:25","slug":"investing-recovery-funds-for-a-resilient-local-food-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/waterkeeperschesapeake.org\/es\/investing-recovery-funds-for-a-resilient-local-food-system\/","title":{"rendered":"Inversi\u00f3n de fondos de recuperaci\u00f3n para un sistema alimentario local resiliente"},"content":{"rendered":"

Join us online on February 15 at 4:30pm for a webinar discussing ARPA and how local governments could invest their State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF) in infrastructure for a more resilient local food system.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

On\u00a0March 11 President Biden<\/a>\u00a0signed the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) into law to aid public health and economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. State and local governments in Maryland are receiving a total of $6.4 billion which includes funding for flood mitigation, polluted runoff, sewage and clean water infrastructure, among other priorities. If invested wisely, these local funds (called\u00a0State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds or SLFRF<\/a>)\u00a0represent a huge opportunity to address a wide range of issues.<\/p>\n

Fair Farms<\/a>\u00a0wants to see SLFRF funding allocated towards infrastructure needed for a more resilient local food system. Fair Farms advocates for regenerative agricultural practices that build healthy soils that improve water quality, ecosystem health, and\u00a0reduce\u00a0farm risk from extreme weather events.\u200b Robust regional agricultural infrastructure is\u00a0key<\/em>\u00a0to regenerative agriculture.\u00a0<\/strong>Healthy soils not only reduce polluted runoff, they underpin the delivery of clean drinking water. Amazingly, even a small improvement in soil health can lead to an\u00a0additional 20,000 gallons<\/a>\u00a0of water held per acre. This is because healthy soil is full of pores that absorb and hold water. Therefore, our guidance advocates for lowering barriers to adopting regenerative agriculture, such as lack of regional processing infrastructure, which is also critically important for local food system resiliency. The pandemic taught us the keys to resilience are flexibility, redundancy, and the capacity to adapt. Maryland experienced food shortages during the pandemic, because of weak supply chains that originate far beyond its borders.<\/p>\n

Local organizations and individuals\u00a0can be great partners in helping governments set their goals. To ensure that you have a voice in how your local government invests its SLFRF funding, we encourage you to reach out and advocate. Contact your local governments either directly or indirectly. For example, Fair Farms plans to ask its membership to contact their county governments. To make it as easy as possible for them to do so, we will provide them their county contact\u2019s information, and sample talking points. Here are links to those documents, as well as information about additional sources of ARPA funding:<\/p>\n