Dear MVGers - We are interrupting our usual weekly update to focus on this one extremely important alert.

While there have been some very positive developments on building a local food shed in Maryland recently - from the new MCPS guidelines officially encouraging vegetable gardening on school property, to the new bill in the MD State Legislature that would encourage the same for school districts across the state - things on the federal level have just taken a very ominous turn for the worse.

In the name of cutting government spending, the newly elected House of Representatives has just passed a stopgap federal spending bill that would make drastic cuts in almost every area of family farming and sustainable agriculture - without cutting a penny from industrial commodity crop farming.  To quote from the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition alert:

"The bill (H.R. 1) unfairly targets programs that serve sustainable and organic farmers.  It makes steep cuts in agricultural research, extension and farm credit.  It makes deep cuts to funding provided in the 2008 Farm Bill for conservation and would terminate programs that serve beginning and minority farmers without making any cuts to commodity or crop insurance funding."  

It is estimated that these cuts will mean a loss of over $325,000 for the University of Maryland Extension program, which operates (among other things) the Master Gardener program, 4-H, and Integrated Pest Management (which provides farmers with alternatives to synthetic pesticides).  The Extension programs, which have been with us since 1914, have already taken serious budget hits, and soon their very existence could be imperiled.

We will return next week to our usual MVG Update format, and return to the celebration of our good food movement here in Montgomery County.  For today, though, I want to ask you to take a moment, two moments if you need 'em, to call Maryland's U.S. Senators to demand that this funding for sustainable agriculture and family farming be restored.  (And I bet you could give them a couple ideas of where money could be cut, if they really want to reduce spending!)  If you don't see this email until the weekend, then please call on Monday or Tuesday. 

Click here for more information on the bill, and a message to give when contacting Senators Cardin and Mikulski. 

Thanks for helping to defend sustainable agriculture and family farming from these reckless and destructive budget cuts.  We'll keep you posted. 

Sincerely,

Gordon Clark, Project Director

Montgomery Victory Gardens 

p.s. - And please click here to help support Montgomery Victory Gardens' efforts with a 100% tax deductible contribution.