Bridget is a BLAST Member from Wisconsin.

Two summers ago I was learning how to grow 30 vegetables, wrestling with a rototiller, and trying to get rid of an amazing amount of comfrey. Last summer I backpacked through Europe visiting every farm, farmers’ market, and local cheese shop I could. And this summer? This summer I’m behind a computer. And I love it.

I’m working as a policy intern for a sustainable agriculture organization, which means I’ve been getting an inside look at the policy work around organic agriculture and sustainable agriculture. It’s been totally reaffirming: for every idle conversation I’ve had about losing family farmers, there’s a group out there asking what policy could turn that around. For every rant I’ve had about attacks on the organic label, there are people organizing to protect it. For every time I’ve given up that anything can be done about changing our commodity subsidies, there’s someone in the movement thinking creatively about new approaches to changing them.

A couple months ago I got to do some organizing. We were trying to get funding to support real research in agriculture, not just research that was supporting the status quo. We targeted specific members of Congress and had their constituents call them. I was completely taken aback by the number of people we were trying to get to call each member of Congress: eight. Eight people! I realized if eight people can make a difference, then my two-minute phone call to my member of Congress was a whole lot more effective than I thought it was.

And the greatest part is that we don’t have to follow the legislative cycle or keep track of who’s on the Agriculture Committee in Congress. There’s a group that coordinates grassroots efforts with what’s going on in Washington D.C., and they are really effective in what they do. The group is called the National Campaign for Sustainable Agriculture, and it sends out action alerts when an issue important to us is on the table, and tells us who to call and even all the background information we need. I highly recommend getting their action alerts. To sign up go to:

https://www.sustainableagriculture.net/signUpAA.php

I know we all like to get our hands dirty, because it connects us to a movement for change that’s much bigger than ourselves. Sometimes making a phone call can do that, too.