SHELBURNE FALLS — The three remaining candidates vying to represent the 1st Franklin District outlined their plans to support local farmers while fighting food insecurity on Tuesday night at the Shelburne Falls Theater at Memorial Hall.
After state Rep. Natalie Blais resigned on Jan. 19, Speaker of the House Ronald Mariano opted not to call a special election to replace her, leading Blais’ seat to remain open until the November election. Following the primary on Sept. 1 and general election on Nov. 3, the winner will be sworn in next January.
Lora Wondolowski, Greenfield’s City Council president, and Corinne Coryat, Blais’ former aide, are running as Democrats to represent the 1st Franklin District while Amy Lavallee, the Whately town clerk, is running as an Independent.
Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture (CISA) organized the event with the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, the Franklin Land Trust, Stone Soup Café, the Memorial Hall Association and Two Town News.
“We have benefited from champion representation for decades — representation that has been attentive to landscape protection, farm viability as well as food justice,” said Jennifer Core, executive director of CISA. “Whether you’re a farmer or not, we are, each one of us, eaters, so to have some time talking to our candidates about these issues feels like a pretty critical opportunity for us.”
Christopher “Monte” Belmonte, co-host of The Fabulous 413 at New England Public Media who moderated the forum, asked the candidates about their vision for collaborating with colleagues across western Massachusetts to support farms and promote food security.
As Blais’ aide, Coryat worked on “An Act Fostering Agriculture Resilience in Massachusetts,” or the FARM Bill, which the Senate passed and is currently before the House Committee on Ways and Means. The bill proposes several investments in farming, including codifying the Food Security Infrastructure Grant that funds equipment and infrastructure purchases for farmers, and prohibiting local zoning bylaws from blocking agritourism. Other measures pertain to fighting food insecurity, such as permanently codifying the Healthy Incentives Program that gives Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) enrollees extra funds for local produce, and the Farm to School program that gives farmers a financial incentive to sell their produce to schools.
“That is an omnibus bill that is leading the way for creating stability and resiliency for our farmers in Massachusetts,” Coryat said.
All three candidates said workforce development programs would help sustain local farms by training the next generation of farmers.
“I consider agriculture to be one of the backbones of our area,” Lavallee said.
With her husband, Lavallee tends to a small farm in Whately and often works with local farmers as the town clerk, she said.
“I see what works and what doesn’t work,” Lavallee said. “As an Independent candidate … I’m in the middle of the aisle. I can work with both sides to find the best solution to what our farmers need.”
Given that the House has not yet passed the FARM Bill, Wondolowski said, “I’m ready to work to champion the next FARM Bill. … We’ve got to get it to the governor’s desk, because it doesn’t do any good if it’s just sitting there.”
On Beacon Hill, Wondolowski hopes to secure permanent funding for HIP and the Farm to School program, and funnel more money into Food Security Infrastructure Grants.
When asked how they would use tax dollars to do “double duty to provide nutritious food while also supporting our local farm economy,” Wondolowski again pointed to permanently funding these programs, along with creating more resources like the Western Massachusetts Food Processing Center in Greenfield, which flash-freezes vegetables from local farms to lengthen their shelf lives.
Coryat mentioned her work on free universal school meals. According to a Senate Session Report, the fiscal year 2024 budget set aside $171.5 million to require public schools to provide free meals for every student and made the program permanent.
“Kids being able to eat should not be a radical thing, but we finally have secured that in Massachusetts, and I hope to see that never change,” Coryat said.
Lavallee said she would strengthen the programs supporting local farms and food security efforts that are already in place, and work with farmers “on the ground” to find the best ways to support them.
Several questions focused on the growing issues farmers in the district face. Belmonte asked about the candidates’ plans for building a “stronger safety net” for farmers as they absorb the “environmental and economic shocks” of droughts, extreme weather, new diseases and other offshoots of climate change.
“I see every issue through a climate lens,” Coryat said. “I think we need climate resilience in every kind of policy that we are implementing.”
She highlighted her work channeling disaster relief funds to farmers after the flooding in 2023, and outlined an approach at the State House that would both react to and prevent climate disasters.
Lavallee echoed Coryat’s dual strategy, claiming the state must invest in climate resilience while “[looking] at ways of dealing with what we have on the ground.”
Wondolowski brought up her approximately two decades of experience working with environmental organizations like the National Audubon Society, the League of Conservation Voters and the Massachusetts League of Environmental Voters, saying she has experience “getting important climate legislation passed.”
“This is something I care really deeply about,” Wondolowski said. “It’s a challenge of our time. We’ve got to get this right. It is so critical.”
To address climate change, Wondolowski said she would invest in floodplain restoration and culvert replacements, expand the state Department of Agricultural Resources’ climate resilience work and fight to invest more in the Massachusetts Healthy Soils Initiative, a program dedicated to improving the management of soil and, as a result, soil health.
In another question, Belmonte mentioned the low pay, limited workplace protections, worsening heat and the federal government’s “growing hostility” toward immigrants as a few of the challenges many farmworkers face. He asked the candidates about their strategies to address these concerns while accounting for farm owners struggling to balance narrow profit margins and the needs of their workers.
“I am horrified by ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement), by the federal government’s action on immigration,” Coryat said to preface her response. “It is disgusting, and we should be doing everything we can to protect our friends who are immigrants in this region, many of [whom] are farmworkers.”
Coryat pointed to relationships and “building bridges” as the solution.
“This is really about relationships, and I think that’s why I have excelled in this work,” Coryat continued. “I want people to get out and talk to their neighbors. I want a lot of us to find more commonality than difference.”
Lavallee plans to strengthen worker visas and educate people on the merits of farm work.
“Farm work is hard but it is doable,” Lavallee said. “I started picking apples and tobacco and cucumbers when I was 8 years old — I’m not saying we should bring back child labor, but it’s rewarding work.”
Wondolowski said she has seen and heard of local farmers losing workers as the federal government targets immigrants’ visas.
“It is a real threat, and it is happening to our neighbors and it is impacting our farms and their ability to do the work,” she said. “We have to fight everywhere we can to stop this.”
Wondolowski also mentioned a FARM Bill amendment that would have raised farmworkers’ wages, and said she wants to “find a pathway that’s going to work for both farmers and their farmworkers.”
A few questions zeroed in on issues related specifically to food insecurity.
Lavallee said she would support local programs already addressing the issue, while Wondolowski painted a picture of hunger in Franklin and Hampshire counties, where 48% face food insecurity, according to a statewide report published by The Greater Boston Food Bank and Mass General Brigham.
“This is heartbreaking,” Wondolowski said. “It’s people that I represent as a city councilor in Greenfield, it is people in Shelburne, it is everybody across this district.”
She traced the percentage to the cost of living in the area exceeding wages and said the state must dedicate more money to organizations like the Mary Lyon Foundation, Stone Soup Café and the Franklin County Community Meals Program.
Coryat said the state must continue fighting federal cuts to resources that address food insecurity. With her legal background, she described herself as the best candidate to face what she described as a “constitutional crisis.”
Belmonte also asked the candidates their plans to soften the blow of SNAP cuts included in H.R. 1, a federal law enacted last July.
Wondolowski again called for permanent funding for HIP to protect the program against similar federal cuts and increased transportation access, passage of Medicare For All and workforce development for “in demand” jobs like trades to help “lift people out of poverty” so they can afford food.
Lavallee traced the prevalence of SNAP enrollees in the district to the rise in inflation and increased cost of living, and stressed the importance of meal programs for students.
Coryat gave a shoutout to Attorney General Andrea Campbell for being a “fighter for Massachusetts” and pushing back against these federal cuts, and highlighted her own role in codifying HIP in the FARM Bill. If elected, Coryat said she wants to allocate more state dollars toward HIP.
“Not only are we supporting people who need funds for food, but we’re also supporting farmers,” Coryat said. “[HIP] is reliable income that they know is coming their way.”
