The US government is beginning to make long-overdue investments in rural infrastructure, including $167M to improve access to high-speed broadband and $466M to build climate resilience in tribal communities. Similarly at the state level efforts are emerging to support the development of regional food economies, like the recent $600M investment in California.
So what?
This investment ensures critical flows of funding to American farmers and ranchers, especially to historically mariginalised farm communities that have been impacted by the history of extraction and oppression within the American agricultural system.
However, the redevelopment of physical and technical infrastructure for product storage and processing facilities which are needed to adapt to support greater species diversity and batch sizes from small grains and mixed farming systems, is relatively nascent except for those leading the most ambitious regenerative agriculture efforts.
To see how these different signals across the agriculture system are impacting the future system that we envision, keep an eye out for the upcoming report from
Growing our Future.
Sources
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USDA Invests $167 Million in High-Speed Broadband in 12 States https://www.usda.gov/media/press-releases/2021/08/11/usda-invests-167-million-high-speed-broadband-12-states -
Bureau of Indian Affairs Releases Blueprint for Implementation of $466 Million in Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Funding for Indian Country | Indian Affairs https://www.bia.gov/news/bureau-indian-affairs-releases-blueprint-implementation-466-million-bipartisan-infrastructure -
Bill Text - AB-125 Equitable Economic Recovery, Healthy Food Access, Climate Resilient Farms, and Worker Protection Bond Act of 2022. https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB125
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