Growing up on his family’s ranch in Texas, Mike Meyer is what some might call a ‘progressive farmer.’ His ranch, which has been in his family’s possession since the 1850s, employs various sustainable techniques. “We don’t disc or plow on that range, ever,” he says. “We’ve been doing this sort of conservation and good stewardship on the ranch for over 30 years.” Mike shares an appreciation for the ranch with his daughter Megan, who currently lives on the range as a wrangler.
“If you said that I was a student of agriculture, that is absolutely accurate,” Mike says. Following his passions, he studied Agriculture at Texas A&M University. After graduating in ‘82, he worked for a small agriculture company before settling into the Feeding America network. In the early days of the pandemic, Mike shared a call with James Kanoff (Farmlink’s former co-CEO). They spoke about the disruptions happening across the agricultural space that called for urgent action from organizations like The Farmlink Project. Mike grew interested in our youth-powered mission, saying: “I thought that what they were doing was great. It was fantastic. The rest is history, so to speak.” After nearly ten years in the Feeding America network, Mike joined The Farmlink Project as Head of Farmer Advocacy last fall.
From day to day, Mike’s role comes down to a lot of outreach. “Farmers, I don’t know if we’re interesting or not, but we’re peculiar,” he says. “You only get less than 20 seconds on your initial discussion with a farmer and that’s it, they’re going to move on. Right? It’s like, who is farming? You know, there’s two million farmers in the United States. There’s 49,000 PAC entities. Those are perishable agriculture, commodity agriculture entities that are licensed to trade produce in the United States. And we’re trying to reach them all.”
Looking to the future of agriculture, Mike stresses about the mistakes his generation has made for the younger generations to fix. “I am the last of the Baby Boomers. Without a doubt, the Baby Boomers are the worst generation this country has produced. We are leaving y’all such a polluted planet. We are leaving y’all with such horrific tendencies. And we are leaving y’all with incredible debt.”
“We’ve not made as much progress as we should have made on racial equality. There’s been some horrific things that have occurred in agriculture. And we have displaced hundreds of thousands of black farmers with just the lending practices of the USDA and how that was controlled. We did not reverse that.”
However, Mike strongly believes that the younger generations have the power to repair these damages. “I actually believe that y’all will solve hunger. And I believe that y’all will reverse the direction. I think you will heal this planet,” he says.
These changes are great. But how’s it all going to be funded?
During the comment process, Farmlink, as well as other food rescue organizations and coalitions, raised critical questions about how the strategy would be funded and, as a result, which measures are feasible. In particular, we hoped for more clarity beyond the draft’s statement that the USDA would use American Rescue Plan Act and Inflation Reduction Act funds and the EPA would use Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funds. Of the 86 programs or initiatives reviewed in the final strategy, only 15 are completely new programs announced in the strategy.
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The other 71 are existing programs or initiatives that either already have a food loss and waste focus or that the national strategy has repackaged as food loss and waste solutions. While we had hopes of new, innovative programs being included in the strategy, the good news with these 71 programs is that most, if not all, are already funded, meaning that they are not reliant on an increasingly turbulent Congress for implementation. Of the 15 new programs, which included the EPA’s new consumer education campaign and several new cooperative agreements with land-grant universities, only 2 had specific funding mechanisms. It has become increasingly clear that food rescue organizations and other stakeholders in the food and agriculture space should not consider this strategy as a new rollout of FLW solutions, programs, and funding but rather as an evaluation of the current resources and solutions and how each can be most effectively utilized to achieve the strategy’s goals. In particular, the framing of many of USDA’s programs as FLW solutions offers opportunities to utilize existing funding, data, and infrastructure to solve one of the United States’s most pressing problems.
Whats next?
Now that we have the strategy, it’s time to truly take advantage of the opportunities it presents. In the immediate future at Farmlink, we’re excited to continue optimizing Section 32 as a critical on-farm food loss solution as we anticipate significant surplus recoveries in the fall. As we move forward, we continue to advocate for dignity with food distribution, emphasizing cultural appropriateness and quality in every pound of food we rescue. As outlined in our comments, food rescue organizations are critical stakeholders and thought partners for the agencies. Our inclusion in the strategy as such is an opportunity we are taking full advantage of to help guide federal action to support farmers, feed communities, and heal the planet.
< BackGrowing up on his family’s ranch in Texas, Mike Meyer is what some might call a ‘progressive farmer.’ His ranch, which has been in his family’s possession since the 1850s, employs various sustainable techniques. “We don’t disc or plow on that range, ever,” he says. “We’ve been doing this sort of conservation and good stewardship on the ranch for over 30 years.” Mike shares an appreciation for the ranch with his daughter Megan, who currently lives on the range as a wrangler.
“If you said that I was a student of agriculture, that is absolutely accurate,” Mike says. Following his passions, he studied Agriculture at Texas A&M University. After graduating in ‘82, he worked for a small agriculture company before settling into the Feeding America network. In the early days of the pandemic, Mike shared a call with James Kanoff (Farmlink’s former co-CEO). They spoke about the disruptions happening across the agricultural space that called for urgent action from organizations like The Farmlink Project. Mike grew interested in our youth-powered mission, saying: “I thought that what they were doing was great. It was fantastic. The rest is history, so to speak.” After nearly ten years in the Feeding America network, Mike joined The Farmlink Project as Head of Farmer Advocacy last fall.
From day to day, Mike’s role comes down to a lot of outreach. “Farmers, I don’t know if we’re interesting or not, but we’re peculiar,” he says. “You only get less than 20 seconds on your initial discussion with a farmer and that’s it, they’re going to move on. Right? It’s like, who is farming? You know, there’s two million farmers in the United States. There’s 49,000 PAC entities. Those are perishable agriculture, commodity agriculture entities that are licensed to trade produce in the United States. And we’re trying to reach them all.”
Looking to the future of agriculture, Mike stresses about the mistakes his generation has made for the younger generations to fix. “I am the last of the Baby Boomers. Without a doubt, the Baby Boomers are the worst generation this country has produced. We are leaving y’all such a polluted planet. We are leaving y’all with such horrific tendencies. And we are leaving y’all with incredible debt.”
“We’ve not made as much progress as we should have made on racial equality. There’s been some horrific things that have occurred in agriculture. And we have displaced hundreds of thousands of black farmers with just the lending practices of the USDA and how that was controlled. We did not reverse that.”
However, Mike strongly believes that the younger generations have the power to repair these damages. “I actually believe that y’all will solve hunger. And I believe that y’all will reverse the direction. I think you will heal this planet,” he says.
Mike Meyer
Head of Advocacy at The Farmlink Project
Growing up on his family’s ranch in Texas, Mike Meyer is what some might call a ‘progressive farmer.’ His ranch, which has been in his family’s possession since the 1850s, employs various sustainable techniques. “We don’t disc or plow on that range, ever,” he says. “We’ve been doing this sort of conservation and good stewardship on the ranch for over 30 years.” Mike shares an appreciation for the ranch with his daughter Megan, who currently lives on the range as a wrangler.
“If you said that I was a student of agriculture, that is absolutely accurate,” Mike says. Following his passions, he studied Agriculture at Texas A&M University. After graduating in ‘82, he worked for a small agriculture company before settling into the Feeding America network. In the early days of the pandemic, Mike shared a call with James Kanoff (Farmlink’s former co-CEO). They spoke about the disruptions happening across the agricultural space that called for urgent action from organizations like The Farmlink Project. Mike grew interested in our youth-powered mission, saying: “I thought that what they were doing was great. It was fantastic. The rest is history, so to speak.” After nearly ten years in the Feeding America network, Mike joined The Farmlink Project as Head of Farmer Advocacy last fall.
From day to day, Mike’s role comes down to a lot of outreach. “Farmers, I don’t know if we’re interesting or not, but we’re peculiar,” he says. “You only get less than 20 seconds on your initial discussion with a farmer and that’s it, they’re going to move on. Right? It’s like, who is farming? You know, there’s two million farmers in the United States. There’s 49,000 PAC entities. Those are perishable agriculture, commodity agriculture entities that are licensed to trade produce in the United States. And we’re trying to reach them all.”
Looking to the future of agriculture, Mike stresses about the mistakes his generation has made for the younger generations to fix. “I am the last of the Baby Boomers. Without a doubt, the Baby Boomers are the worst generation this country has produced. We are leaving y’all such a polluted planet. We are leaving y’all with such horrific tendencies. And we are leaving y’all with incredible debt.”
“We’ve not made as much progress as we should have made on racial equality. There’s been some horrific things that have occurred in agriculture. And we have displaced hundreds of thousands of black farmers with just the lending practices of the USDA and how that was controlled. We did not reverse that.”
However, Mike strongly believes that the younger generations have the power to repair these damages. “I actually believe that y’all will solve hunger. And I believe that y’all will reverse the direction. I think you will heal this planet,” he says.
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