CBS Austin: Congressman Casar visits local farms in 'Farm to Congress' tour
ELGIN, Texas — Just a few minutes outside major cities, farming is big business across Texas.
It’s also a huge topic in Washington D.C.
U.S. Representative Greg Casar, D-Texas, visited Central Texas farms to get insight into how they help local communities.
Casar visited New Leaf Agriculture – a unique community farm in Elgin.
“Just realizing that there is someone out there who really recognizes the way that our food system impacts communities, all the way from the kind of grassroots organizations all the way up through the federal government,” said New Leaf Agriculture director Matt Simon. “He really seems passionate about finding those people on the ground, doing the work.”
Casar wanted to tour the farm, meet the farmers, and discuss the Farm Bill.
The farm bill is a package of federal legislation passed roughly once every five years.
It addresses items including nutrition assistance, underserved producers, and farm credit.
It also has a huge impact on farming livelihoods, how food is grown, and what kinds of foods are planted.
“At this farm, we can see how the refugee community not only can create a great livelihood for themselves out of being small farmers, but they can actually bring their talents and skills from their native countries back here to provide healthy food, not just for the refugee community but actually for all of us and create a good strong living out of farming,” Casar said.
The program at New Leaf Agriculture brings in refugees, like Doli Wikongo, who is from the Democratic Republic of Congo.
They each get five plots to plant whatever vegetables they believe are most needed by their people.
The refugees are paid for the work they do and then get to harvest what they’ve grown to take to their communities, creating livelihood opportunities for them here in Austin.
“It’s difficult to find the food in which you know here in the supermarket,” said Wikongo. “But, in this community farm, I choose myself the food online, and then my manager buys the seed for me, which I plant for my community.”
Casar says he will use his visit to help other lawmakers understand the value of local farming.
“What I’m now able to do is go back to Washington D.C. and really advocate and stand up for folks in eastern Travis County and Hays County,” he said. “I can tell the stories about how we don’t have to just give in to the major corporations that control so much of the farming industry; that we can actually support people that do farming at the local level.”