Adamah Farm Bill Campaign
Adamah’s legacy of raising Jewish voices to address modern food issues via the Farm Bill leans on ancient wisdom.
Intentionality and foresight around questions of how we feed ourselves are deeply Jewish. Our food laws connect farming practices and what is ethically and spiritually fit- kosher (כָּשֵׁר)– to eat. The biblical food system weaves conservation and justice together through shmita (שמיטה) and pe’ah (פֵּאָה).
The Farm Bill is federal legislation that authorizes programs related to how food is produced and distributed. It is a useful vehicle for addressing food’s relationship to climate, conservation, equity, and public health.
Our membership in the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition guides our work in partnership with secular and interfaith research, advocacy, and food justice groups. We are also informed by the work of our regenerative farms in Connecticut and Maryland, both of which use Farm Bill funding for innovative, ecologically in-tune practices like reforesting with carbon sequestering nut trees, or rotating crop fields with prairie plants for pollinator habitat, erosion control, fertilizer reduction, and soil health.
Stay tuned for new updates and action opportunities as legislation begins to move.
Learn about potential 2026 Farm Bill legislation from our partners:
Learn about Adamah’s past food advocacy:
- 2024 House Farm Bill Markup Call to Action
- White House Seder – Adamah Leads Blessing Over Karpass Passover 2023
- Adamah Celebrates Jewish American Heritage Month at USDA with Secretary Vilsack Spring of 2023
- 2023 Adamah Farm Bill Campaign Webinar and Call to Action
- 2022 Farm Bill Campaign Alert
- 2021 Farm Bill Campaign Alert
- 2019 Farm Bill Appropriations Campaign Alert
Building on centuries of Jewish wisdom, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel Z”L said:
The opposite of good is not evil; the opposite of good is indifference. In a free society where terrible wrongs exist, some are guilty, but all are responsible.
Terrible, fixable wrongs exist in the food system.
Thirty-five million people in the U.S. confronted hunger in 2019 while 30-40% of food produced was wasted, accounting for millions of tons of unnecessary pollution and trillions of gallons of irrigation water used to no effect.
While Heschel left us guidance on combating indifference and taking responsibility, he also taught us to wake up in the morning and feel the radical amazement of being alive, to seek happiness through wonder.
Join us in eschewing the practice of doom scrolling through all that is wrong in favor of the very Jewish twin practices of action and awe.