Make Your Voice Heard!

Elected officials receive shockingly little feedback from their constituents, so a small group of citizens actually DO have the ability to create change! With over 23,000 owners, we want you to get comfortable with contacting your elected officials and make your voice heard about issues important to sustainable agriculture and food systems.

Here’s the goods

We give you the info and the ask, you give just 1 minute of your time to hop on the horn and take an active role in our democracy. Pretty sweet deal, eh?

Step 1: Find your state and national elected officials:

• State: https://legis.wisconsin.gov/
• National: https://www.govtrack.us/congress/members

Step 2: Contact their office and let them know this issue is important to you.

Strategy

The most effective strategy is phone calling. If you can't call on the phone, email is the next best bet followed by a letter and lastly social media.

1. Be respectful! A thoughtful and polite statement delivered calmly is best received.
2. Be brief. Keep it short and to the point.
3. Give them your address: Comments coming from their constituents as opposed to those outside their district get much higher priority.

August 2022 topic: Organic Welfare Standards

Virtual listening and comments: Friday, August 19, 2022

Deadline for written comments: October 28, 2022

The USDA is on the move to reinstate the Organic Livestock and Poultry Standards, an action that is  supported by organic farmers, consumers and retailers. The rule - which took 10 years to develop and governs the regulations around organic animal living conditions, transport and slaughter - was withdrawn by the former administration. 

At Outpost, we commend the USDA's proposed amendments to the organic animal welfare standards which includes:

• Add new provisions for livestock handling, transport and slaughter.
• Add new provisions for avian living conditions.
• Expand existing requirement covering livestock care and production practices.
• Reinstate requirements recommended by the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB)

Public comment period

The USDA has lined up a virtual listening session to be held Friday, August 19, 2022 from 11 - 1 PM CDT.

• To give oral comments at this session, you must register in advance by August 15.
• There is no need to register to simply listen in. 
• Refer to docket number AMS-NOP-21-0073 
• https://www.ams.usda.gov/event/listening-session-organic-livestock-and-poultry-standards
• Send written comments directly to: Regulations.gov (Deadline to comment: October 11, 2022)

Sample script:

I am a constituent calling to encourage you to support the proposed amendments to the reinstated Organic Livestock and Poultry Standards. These amendments include:

• Add new provisions for livestock handling, transport and slaughter.
• Add new provisions for avian living conditions.
• Expand existing requirement covering livestock care and production practices.
• Reinstate requirements recommended by the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB)

As a proponent and supporter of humane animals standards in food production, and as a consumer of meat and poultry, ensuring animals are treated humanely is extremely important to me. I expect that animals raised for food are able to live out their natural lives in conditions that are conducive to their optimal wellbeing, health and welfare.

Thank you. 

Past Call to Action Campaigns

August 2021 topic:  Support the COMPOST Act

There’s a mountain of valuables going to landfills. We’re not talking about Rolexes and gold coins, but rather organic material like grass, leaves and food waste. The EPA says food scraps alone make up 24% of garbage! Aside from not being eaten, it then rots away and releases methane, a potent greenhouse gas that leads to climate change. Luckily composting can flip this process and create a nutrient-rich soil additive that helps plants thrive and captures carbon in the ground.

Another added benefit of commercial composting is that it produces the conditions necessary to break down plant-based plastics and turn them back into soil. While petroleum-based plastics will live on in the environment for hundreds of years, only then breaking down into microplastics that foul our water and air, composting can turn bio-based cups and containers back into valuable farm inputs such as fertilizer and eventually back into food.

The COMPOST Act (Cultivating Organic Matter through the Promotion of Sustainable Techniques) that has been introduced in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives seeks to provide funding for commercial compost projects from a wide variety of sources both public and private, large and small. It also would add composting as a conservation practice for USDA conservation projects. If we are going to reverse climate change, eliminate our dependency on single-use petroleum-based plastics, support farmers and add jobs we need composting to be part of the circular solution!

May 2021 Topic: Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act

Every year the United States alone burns or buries in landfills 32 million tons of plastic. We produce the most plastic waste per capita of any country on the planet, and an astounding 91% of that plastic is never recycled. Due to the pandemic we have seen an explosion in disposable plastics. As a grocer with the health of our community at the forefront, we have pledged to eliminate single-use petroleum-based plastics from packaging Outpost food by 2022. To achieve this goal we need the support of government when it comes to reusable packaging and fostering commercial composting facilities so innovative containers made from renewable materials can be kept out of the waste stream.

The production of plastic creates greenhouse gases, contributing to climate change. When they do break down microplastics are created, and are found in everything from the water we drink to the blood in our bodies. This is especially harmful because there are 144 chemicals or chemical groups known to be hazardous to human health that are actively used in plastics. Plastic litters our streets, rivers and neighborhoods. The petrochemical industry and the pollution it creates disproportionately harms people of color and low-income communities at every step of the plastic lifecycle, from extraction to refinement, manufacture, transportation, disposal and waste.

The Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act of 2021 will tackle the exploding crisis and transform waste and recycling management in the United States. The legislation seeks to meaningfully address the plastic pollution crisis through initiatives such as:

• Shifting the responsibility for waste management and recycling programs to manufacturers and producers
• Setting up a national beverage container refund program
• Establishing minimum recycled content standards
• Phasing out certain single-use plastics that aren’t recyclable
• Expanding the definition of toxic chemicals to include toxic plastics

February 2021 Topic: Regenerative Agriculture

Regenerative agriculture describes farming and grazing practices that rebuild soil health that fights climate change by sequestering carbon and improving our water supply. Instead of spraying chemicals on fields then breaking up the soil with plows causing runoff into our waterways, regenerative agriculture focuses on improving the soil through practices like no-till farming, planting cover crops, utilizing compost instead of chemical fertilizers, and rotational grazing that leads to healthy and humane treatment of livestock. This improved soil pulls carbon from the atmosphere and locks it in the ground as a way for farmers to confront climate change and the unpredictable weather patterns they deal with every season.

We are calling on elected officials from all levels to support the long-term vitality of our farming families and rural communities by including regenerative farming practices in the next round of stimulus funding. These techniques are good for the planet, the water we drink, our local farmers and the animals they raise.

September 2020 Topic: Stimulus Funding to include Climate Change

Outpost believes that climate change will drastically impact our food systems and other ways we do business. COVID-19 has created havoc in our communities and changed the shape of business. Right now states and the federal government are passing legislation and creating programs to support our economy and create jobs as the coronavirus continues to take its toll. We believe a share of those programs need to go to support the development of clean energy in order to continue to mitigate the effects of climate change. Now is a great time to invest in renewable energy so we not just maintain the current infrastructure but invest in the energy of the future. Help us get this message out!