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FSNE Winter Series #3: Visionary Policy – A Network Approach to Policy, Governance & Democracy
February 18, 2022 @ 10:00 am - 2:30 pm UTC-5
Visionary Policy – A Network Approach to Policy, Governance & Democracy
Please join us for the third event in FSNE’s 2022 Winter Series, bringing regional food system participants and aligned friends together to dig into our shared work, learn together, get inspired, and deepen our connections to one another. Please come for part of all of this event.
In this session, we dive into our network’s focus on regional, aspirational policy to drive change and make progress toward our regional food system goals, Vision, and values. In particular, we will learn about a suite of first-in-the-nation food policies in the state of Maine that represent one robust state-level example of prioritizing values around rights-to-food, ending hunger, and lifting up food sovereignty. The first part of this event (10:00 am to noon) will feature Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation & Forestry Commissioner (and co-author of the New England Food Vision) Amanda Beal and Maine Senator (and FSNE Ambassador) Craig Hickman.
Participants will get a chance to consider:
- What can we learn from this effort in support of democratizing New England’s food system?
- How can we “scale out” or expand policy achievements, like those in Maine, to other parts of our region and country while holding our shared values at the core?
- Which aspirational regional policy goals – at various scales – will have the greatest positive impact towards realizing our shared vision and values?
- Why might coordinated/connected local and state food, farming, fishing and forestry policies represent an area of strategic leverage in our region?
The second half of this event (12:30 to 2:30 pm) will include a panel of guests from around the region to share examples of their food policy work. Participants will have a chance to discuss food policy efforts and connect with others for inspiration and motivation. This practitioners’ panel will include Ken Morse of the Maine Food Advocacy Alliance Project, Winton Pitcoff of the Massachusetts Food System Collaborative, Bill Labich sharing about the Regional Conservation Partnerships, and Ephraim Froelich who is doing policy work with the North American Marine Alliance (NAMA) and AKWA-DC.
This session will be held in English and will be recorded for later viewing. Facilitation by the FSNE backbone staff and Joy Gary of Boston Farms Community Land Trust.
About our guests:
Amanda Beal has served as Commissioner of the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry (DACF) since February of 2019. DACF is charged with: promoting and advancing Maine’s agricultural resources; protecting and enhancing nearly 18 million acres of forestland; managing more than 700,000 acres of state parks and public lands; and administering numerous science-based programs focused on resource management, land use planning, and conservation.
Before leading DACF, she was the president and CEO of Maine Farmland Trust and has served on the boards and steering committees of many agriculture, food system, fisheries, and conservation-related organizations over the years. Beal co-authored “A New England Food Vision: Healthy Food for All, Sustainable Farming and Fishing, Thriving Communities.”
She earned a B.A. from the University of Southern Maine and an M.S. from Tufts University, having completed the Agriculture, Food & Environment program. She is currently a Ph.D. candidate at the University of New Hampshire in the Natural Resources and Earth Systems Science program. She lives in Warren, where she and her husband own a 35-acre farm and are working to establish an orchard with numerous fruit varieties, manage their 25-acre woodlot, and develop a creamery for on-farm cheese production. Amanda grew up on her family’s commercial dairy farm in Litchfield, Maine.
Sen. Hickman is a Harvard graduate and a local business owner, running a successful organic farm and bed and breakfast with his husband. He served in the Maine House of Representatives for eight years, sponsoring and fighting for measures that promote food sovereignty, protect individual rights and civil liberties, combat poverty and hunger, and support rural economic development. He previously served as House Chair of the Legislature’s Committee on Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry and as a member of the Committee on Veterans and Legal Affairs.
He is the first black lawmaker in Maine to serve in both chambers of the Legislature.
Sen. Hickman’s father was a WWII veteran and Tuskegee Airman. Both of his parents were involved heavily in the civil rights movement, teaching him by example about the importance of public service and community.
Sen. Hickman represents Senate District 14, which comprises Chelsea, Farmingdale, Gardiner, Hallowell, Manchester, Monmouth, Pittston, Randolph, Readfield, West Gardiner, and Winthrop.
Ken Morse grew up and worked on a family apple orchard in Waterford, Maine which produced about 60,000 bushels a year. Ever since his 20s, he’s been engaged in community organizing, mostly around food. For years, he helped organize food co-ops and worked at Fedco Warehouse helping to distribute food around the state. More recently he’s directed Healthy Oxford Hills, a community health coalition in western Maine. For five years, he’s been the Maine Rep to the National Farm to School Network and helped organize the Maine Farm to School Work Group which last year gave birth to the Maine Farm to School Network, which Ken coordinates. He is passionately devoted to recreating local and regional food systems and serves on the Leadership Team of Farm to Institution in New England and as Coordinator of the Maine Network of Community Food Councils.
Bill Labich has led Highstead’s Regional Conservation Program since 2007, helping to develop the capacities of Regional Conservation Partnerships (RCPs) and regional partners to conserve more land collaboratively and in the service of more resilient communities and regions. Bill coordinates the RCP Network and the Northeast Forest Network and co-coordinates the Northern Appalachian Trail Landscape Partnership–all three of which he co-founded.
Trained as a professional forester (University of Maine at Orono) and a regional land use planner (University of Massachusetts Amherst), Bill came to Highstead with twenty years’ experience engaging forest landowners, municipal officials, RCPs, and the public in the elements of whole landscape conservation and stewardship, working for Connecticut Audubon Society, New England Forestry Foundation, and the Franklin Regional Council of Governments.
With Highstead, Bill has co-authored papers on Regional Conservation Partnerships, on Wildlands and Woodlands, and on cross-boundary collaboration. Bill’s RCP Handbook serves as a reference for emerging RCPs throughout New England and the Mid-Atlantic states, and he advises peers on collaborative landscape conservation, nationally.
Since 1993, Bill has worked as a volunteer to increase access to nature by urban youth of color from across Massachusetts. Bill likes to garden, hike, fish, and bicycle.
Ephraim Froelich leverages more than a decade of experience as a policy expert and relationships developed at the highest levels of government to achieve legislative and regulatory results. He was born and raised in Juneau, Alaska. He holds a bachelor’s degree in government from Dartmouth College and a J.D. from the University of Maryland School of Law. Froehlich worked for United States Senator Lisa Murkowski in Washington, D.C., as lead policy advisor on fisheries, wildlife, maritime transportation, environmental change, and the Arctic. He next joined Alaska Governor Bill Walker’s administration as senior advisor on fish and game and as the deputy director of federal relations. In 2018, Froehlich served on the board of the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute. Froehlich founded AKWA-DC LLC in 2019, a policy consulting firm focused on fisheries, maritime, and the environment. He enjoys getting outside whenever possible with his sons and partner to camp, hike, and fish and is an avid soccer and basketball player.
Winton Pitcoff is Director of the Massachusetts Food System Collaborative. Prior to being part of the team that founded the Collaborative, he was project manager for the development of the Massachusetts Local Food Action Plan. He has worked on food system policy issues at all levels of government, with organizations such as New England Farmers Union, NOFA/Mass, and others. He is also coordinator of the Massachusetts Maple Producers Association and editor of Maple Syrup Digest, an international trade journal.
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Food Solutions New England is a regional network supported and coordinated by the University of New Hampshire Sustainability Institute.
The FSNE network does not endorse or oppose specific candidates for elected office or proposed legislation. Instead, we seek to inform, educate and advocate for general policy ideas that align with the network’s stated values and vision for a just, sustainable and resilient regional food system. While FSNE receives support from the UNH Sustainability Institute, our activities do not reflect the positions of the University of New Hampshire, the University System of New Hampshire, or its Board of Trustees.
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