Responding to the growing need for more planet-friendly, resilient and healthful food sourcing, ASBC has formed a new working group to address concerns and opportunities in this field. Under the provisional title, “Regenerative Agriculture & Sustainable Food Systems,” the group will develop coherent food and agricultural policy recommendations. To date, ASBC has invited more than 50 companies and organizations across a variety of sectors and functions to participate.

“ASBC will continue strong support for Sen. Gillibrand’s Small Farmers Relief Act,” says EVP Thomas Oppel. “With the game-changing national election coming up soon, we plan to produce related policies that address the basic needs of consumers and businesses.” 

Click to Tweet: Tell your rep. that more needs to be done to relieve small-businesses and small-scale farmers impacted by Covid-19 https://bit.ly/2NFI0KC 

Absent a positive, unified federal plan, ASBC has released its recommendations for state and local governments on re-opening the economy. Implementing a majority of the recommended policies would provide both near-term economic stimulus and lasting social, environmental, and public benefit.

“Our state- and local-level governments could use our recommendations to help solve an array of structural problems the federal government has neglected for too long,” says ASBC President and Co-founder David Levine.

Since releasing the report, the Resilient Local Economies Intern Group has been disseminating the report through its channels and continuing to push state and local governments to implement these recommendations.

Click to Tweet: Need a better guide to reopen the economy? Steer your state and local governments to this one. Check out @ASBCouncil's state and local recommendations.

Legislatures in Colorado and New Hampshire both passed paid leave bills this session, but the end results were unfortunately different. For the second straight year, New Hampshire’s Republican Governor Chris Sununu vetoed the paid leave bill. In contrast, Colorado did make its paid sick days bill law this month, despite criticism both from opponents and even some supporters of paid leave. Under the new law, Colorado workers can now earn up to 48 hours of paid sick time plus additional time during a public health emergency.

Only 14 states plus Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico require any amount of paid leave. In order of passage, states are: CT, CA, MA, OR, VT, A, WA, RI, MD, NJ, MI, NV and ME. (The federal government, NY, CO and NC have enacted temporary paid leave measures related to COVID-19.) Globally, only a few countries out of 193 do not require paid leave, and the U.S. is the only developed nation to lack this basic benefit. Support ASBC's Paid Sick Leave Campaign!

Click to Tweet: The U.S. is the ONLY developed country that lacks national paid sick leave, and 36 states have NOT filled this gap. How’s that working? Support the @ASBCouncil's FAMILY Act Campaign: https://www.asbcouncil.org/family-and-medical-leave-act