URGENT ACTION: VA Senate SB51 Vote on Feb. 4 - Sign Revised Petition & Call Senators!

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Action Alert - visit www.farmtoconsumer.org

UPDATE: Tell Senators to Vote YES on SB 51

Martha Boneta, one of the farmers
behind Senate Bill 51

Sign Petition Now!

Take Action Now!

Updates

Senate to Vote on SB 51 February 4, 2014

Use revised petition to email the full Virginia Senate now then follow up Monday/Tuesday with phone calls.

Keep Virginia's most environmentally-conscious land stewards,
small family farms, on the land with more income opportunities without overregulation by local government.

The On-Farm Activities legislation introduced by Delegate Orrock (HB 268) and Senator Stuart (SB 51) aims to strengthen the rights of small family farms, giving Virginians more ways to remain viable. The bills would also allow farmers to sell other products from nearby farms and host events without additional local permits. HB 268 has already passed in the House.

Please take action again and inundate the Virginia Senate with your support of this bill!

See action items below! It's time to free our farmers!

Please share this alert and link with friends and family:

www.bit.ly/FTC-VA1

About the Bill

Small farmers in Virginia supported legislation in the 2013 session, "The Boneta Bill", that would have limited local government's ability to overregulate certain on-farm activities. Although the bill did not make it into law, a taskforce was appointed resulting in new legislation backed by small family farms, consumers and activists as well as the Virginia Farm Bureau and the Virginia Agribusiness Council.

TALKING POINTS
Passage of SB 51 will

provide more income opportunities for Virginia's small farmers, enabling them to sell other products of the farm as well as items from other Virginia farms.
keep the most environmentally-conscious stewards of the land, small family farms, on the land.
keep more of the food dollars spent by Virginia residents in the local and state economy.
enable Virginia consumers to obtain more items directly from farms.

Passage into law will mean that Virginia's small farmers can engage in on-farm sales and other on-farm activities without overregulation by local government.

See details about SB 51 at www.lis.virginia.gov/SB51

Read FTCLDF's press release about the new On-Farm Activities legislation (HB 268 / SB 51).

Take Action

Ask Virginia Senators to vote YES on SB 51.

1. Sign the revised online petition at www.bit.ly/ftc-va1 to email all Virginia Senators.

2. Follow up with phone calls and emails to all VA Senators and ask them to support SB 51

(contact info below).

When you call or write, please emphasize that you want them to support small farms by supporting this bill: "Senate Bill 51: Agricultural operations; local regulation of certain activities."

3. Comment on the Richmond Sunlight webpage about SB 51 at
www.richmondsunlight.com/bill/2014/sb51

Sample Message

Your calls and emails make a difference.

Ask Virginia Senators to vote YES on SB 51; see contact info below.

If you send an email, please be sure to personalize your message! To make a much bigger impact, add a couple of sentences about who you are and why SB 51 matters to you.

SAMPLE MESSAGE for emails or calls:

My name is ___ and I am a Virginia resident. I am calling/emailing to urge Senator ____ to vote YES on SB 51.

Please support SB 51, introduced by Senator Stuart. I support the right of farmers and consumers to engage in direct sales and farm activities. The passage of this legislation will create untold economic opportunity for Virginia farmers!

Thank you for your support.

Committee Email Address List

Email List for Virginia Senate

Copy and paste this list into the "To" field to e-mail every member of the Virginia Senate.

[email protected], [email protected], [email protected],

[email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected],