Great Lakes and Upper Midwest FAQs – Farm Bill Roundtables 2021-2022

Attendees at these meetings hailed from Tribal communities across the upper Midwest and Great Lakes regions. While there were many individual Tribal producers at these gatherings, there were equal amounts of Tribal leaders, along with food, nutrition and agriculture department staff from Tribal government-managed programs.  

FAQs:  

Question:

Are there ways for youth and student curriculums for agriculture-focused students that are more culturally based, compared to a focus on land and property management?

Answer to meeting attendees: 

• The NFBC has several proposed solutions for the 2023 Farm Bill that would possibly open opportunities for more Native-centric instruction. They have called on the Agricultural Research Service to launch research projects focused on the role that traditional knowledge plays in the environmental, natural resource, and ecological arenas as well as the food science, nutrition, and health arenas.1 The coalition is also calling for a separate funding authority like the Sun Grant or Sea Grant authorities allowing multi-Tribal, multi-state, and consortium approaches to meet the research, education, and extension needs of Indian Country. Finally, grants for youth organizations must include the provision of grants for youth organizations in Indian Country that focus on developing food and agriculture leadership and scientific knowledge programs. 

Question:

What is the status or chance that wild rice (mnomen) is classified as a specialty crop?

Answer to meeting attendees: 

• While there are occasional discussions in Congress and from the non-Tribal wild rice lobby about classifying mnomen under this designation, the NFBC continues to reiterate the positions of its members and partners in opposition to this. 

Question:

Are there examples of Tribal food and agriculture codes that a Tribe looking to establish a department of agriculture can use?

Answer to meeting attendees: 

• Yes, these are available through organizations like the Indigenous Food and Agriculture Initiative. The Model Tribal Food and Agriculture Code is a foundational document, intended as a starting point for Tribes exercising their sovereignty in the space of food and agriculture. Example model code chapters include, but are not limited to, traditional foods and seeds, health and nutrition, agricultural and food safety, conservation, land use and agricultural business entities. It is free of charge and only requires a signup. 

Question/Comment:

What steps are being taken so that USDA has the training to appropriately serve Indian Country?

Answer to meeting attendees: 

• Each USDA agency has staff interacting with Tribal populations, whether nutrition program staff and recipients or individual producers utilizing conservation or insurance programs. They all have respective trainings but they can vary in quality and effectiveness. 
• USDA FNS is in the midst of rolling out technical assistance training for its staff in their interactions with an American Indian-owned contractor.  
• The Indigenous Food and Agriculture Initiative also published a guide on how USDA can properly engage in consultation with Tribes. The resource is a guide for USDA staff on how best to interact with Tribes, their citizens and governments. 

Question/Comment:

Are there authorities to encourage USDA to support Traditional Ecological Knowledge in forest and fire management practices?

Answer to meeting attendees: 

• The 2018 Farm Bill provided a pilot project for 638 self-governance authority allowing a limited number of Tribes to undertake Tribal Forest Management Demonstration Projects. These provisions have had an incredibly positive impact in Indian Country but are limited in scope. This is why the NFBC is calling on Congress to extend Tribal self-governance authority in the Forest Service, specifically allowing greater participation in Tribal Forest Protection Act (TFPA) projects through the application of “638” contracting authority to TFPA projects on Forest Service or Bureau of Land Management (BLM). 
• While not specifically for forestry and fire management, the NFBC has called for the development of a new section of the Conservation Title to explicitly allow Tribes within a state or region to develop traditional, ecological knowledge-based (TEK) technical standards for all conservation projects allowed under the Farm Bill. This new section would codify current NRCS practices that encourage TEK-based conservation and would further recognize the fact that Tribal jurisdiction and use of traditional practices to improve conservation project implementation are decisions best left to Tribal governments and individual Indian producers who live on those lands and are engaged in ongoing activities that are designed to improve environmental conditions, habitats, and their lands for agricultural purposes. 

Question/Comment:

Why are Tribes not prioritized in land sales in their historic jurisdictions?

Answer to meeting attendees: 

• This is something that the NFBC is trying to change and is advocating for in the Farm Bill.  The NFBC is requesting an amendment to the legislation that gives Tribes “first right of refusal” on USDA-owned and managed lands being put up for sale. A priority first identified by the National Congress of the American Indians, NFBC continues to push for Tribes’ first right of purchase on USDA lands that are ancestral territories of a federally-recognized Tribe that are being put up for sale. 

Question/Comment:

There has been an increase in interest from Tribal producers wanting to provide for the FDPIR pilot program and use it to market. However, without that 638-pilot being permanent, many are hesitant to take on the risk of expanding operations to meet the FDPIR needs. How can Tribal producers market food currently being provided for the FDPIR pilot program if the 638 pilot program isn’t made permanent?

Answer to meeting attendees: 

• The request for full self-governance authority in USDA is a priority for the Native Farm Bill Coalition. 638 pilot projects in forestry and local sourcing of food distribution programs have been a success, but the NFBC is requesting full self-governance authority across the whole of USDA, including the establishment of an office of self-government. 

Question/Comment:

Would a hemp exemption in the Farm Bill be able to waive testing regulations for Tribes?

Answer to meeting attendees: 

• A Tribe would also need to seek such a waiver through its USDA-approved Tribal Hemp Production Plan. The 2018 Farm Bill directed USDA to issue regulations so states and Tribes have a consistent, nationwide regulatory framework around hemp production. After Tribal consultation on proposed regulations, the Department issued regulations effective in March 2021. As of October 2022, 53 Tribal Hemp Production Plans have been approved, eight hold the USDA issue the producer license, and two are under review. 

Question/Comment: 

Many Tribes continue to face difficulties with establishing a Tribal department of agriculture, lack of support for organic farming, and difficulty of matching fund requirements.

Answer to meeting attendees: 

• The NFBC has called for the Tribes to be included alongside states in the National Organic Program. If Tribes could certify in their jurisdictions, this would also ensure that Tribal Nation-owned farms that otherwise qualify for organic certification would not have to subjugate their sovereignty to a state government. 
• The financial considerations in standing up any new department for Tribal government are always a challenge, and because of this the NFBC continues to support full 638 authority across USDA. Allowing Tribes to enter self-governance agreements with the Department allows for local prioritization and need from the Tribal government and the communities it serves.  
• For Tribes interested in the planning stages, organizations like the Indigenous Food and Agriculture Initiative’s EATS Academy contains resources available to help planners strategize, implement design Tribal departments of agriculture. IFAI’s Model Tribal Food and Agriculture Code is a foundational document, intended as a starting point for Native Nations exercising their sovereignty in the space of food and agriculture through Tribal legislation. 
• The NFBC has called for adjustments in the upcoming Farm Bill that would allow the Agricultural Marketing Service to utilize cooperative agreement authority with Tribal organizations to provide improved technical assistance to Native producers seeking to transition to organic production.

Question/Comment: 

Are there current or future intertribal trade opportunities, especially with sister Tribes across the border in Canada? 

Answer to meeting attendees: 

• There are organizations that work towards this, including the Jay Treaty Border Alliance and the International Inter-Tribal Trade and Investment Organization.  
• For Tribal producers, the Intertribal Agriculture Council’s American Indian Foods Program is dedicated as a platform for American Indian food businesses to showcase their products and share Tribal cultures with the world. 
• The Native Farm Bill Coalition has called on Congress to clarify that Tribal Nations on international boundary lines with bands or communities across international borders may have food products sourced from those bands — especially traditional and culturally significant food products—be considered domestic for the purposes of FDPIR sourcing. Some Tribal Nations participating in programs like FDPIR have identified opportunities to trade food products with sister communities that reside within other countries today, but prior to colonization, had been part of the same Tribal Nation for thousands of years and remain connected regardless of the modern existence of international boundary lines. Some of these Tribes may have treaty rights that facilitate easier trade across international borders with their communities across these arbitrary boundaries. Agricultural trade is a valuable part of economic development for all communities and Tribes are no exception. Those nations whose communities are bifurcated by modern international boundaries would have expanded opportunities to move their own food products into programs like FDPIR if waiver authority existed within USDA to enable these products to be designated domestic in these limited circumstances. 

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