PROVIDENCE, RI – Governor Dan McKee, members of the Rhode Island General Assembly, and the Department of Environmental Management (DEM) today announced the 2024 Local Agriculture and Seafood Act (LASA) grantees at Newport Vineyards. More than 40 local farmers, fishers, specialty food producers obtained LASA grant awards, splitting more than $650,000 in funding on projects that will support the growth, development, and marketing of local farms, seafood harvesters, and food businesses. LASA grants support small businesses and increase Rhode Island’s food security.
“LASA grants continue to be a game-changer for Rhode Island’s farmers, fishers, and aquaculturists,” said Governor Dan McKee. “I congratulate this year’s recipients and look forward to working with them to foster community resilience, promote sustainable practices and increase food security across our state.” Authored by Senator V. Susan Sosnowski in 2012 and run by DEM, the LASA program helps new and existing small food businesses grow and flourish. Since the COVID pandemic, DEM has steered the program to prioritize building capacity for markets connecting local farms and fishers with food-insecure communities and supporting agriculture producers and fishers who are Black, Indigenous, and People of Color – along with developing small food businesses. The LASA program provides grants that directly benefit and strengthen the local food system in Rhode Island by providing funding for projects that help support the growth, development, and marketing of RI Grown produce and RI Seafood. Since its enactment 12 years ago, LASA has provided more than $2 million through individual program grants up to $20,000 with no direct match required.
Last year the Governor and the General Assembly pledged their support to continue funding LASA, which is an important catalyst in strengthening the local food system, at historically high levels in fiscal year 2024. During this grant round, 43 grant awards totaling $662,000 were broadly distributed across many categories including agriculture, aquaculture, seafood or fishery based, and farmers markets that support these sectors. Eligible entities included Rhode Island-based, for-profit small or beginning farmers including aquaculture operators, fishers, producer groups, and non-profit organizations. Given the depth of the application pool, the evaluation of applications is a concerted effort by the LASA committee, which includes DEM staff and the RI Food Policy Council, with the goal of funding recommendations being as equitably and diversely as possible by taking score into consideration among other factors such as Environmental Justice. The final grantees awarded during this grant round reflect the purpose and value of the LASA program by fulfilling its purpose of seeking to broaden the scope and diversity of awardees.
“Since the food shortages and price spikes of the COVID pandemic, Rhode Islanders have been looking for food producers closer to home, so these Local Agriculture and Seafood Act grants are well timed and the awardees well positioned to meet growing consumer demand,” said Representative Terri Cortvriend (Portsmouth, Middletown). “I’m lucky to have an organic farm in my district, Garman Farm, that is receiving LASA funding. Jim and Michelle Garman believe that farming is as much about community as it is about plants. This funding will allow them to continue cultivating local food that is fresh, delicious, and safe. I am very proud to support this program.”
“Agriculture and seafood are extremely important economic sectors in all four of the communities I represent in the State Senate,” said Senator Louis P. DiPalma (Little Compton, Middletown, Newport, Tiverton). “The Local Agriculture and Seafood Act helps incubate new and growing small businesses, some of which will one day become cornerstones of our communities. Supporting the production of local food also means fewer trucks on the road, which means less air pollution and better health for Rhode Islanders and our environment.”
“Food security means that all people, always, have access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food,” said Representative Teresa Tanzi (Narragansett, South Kingstown). “The Commercial Fisheries Center of Rhode Island, which is in Wakefield in my district and obtaining a Local Agriculture and Seafood Act grant today, is addressing food security by supplying local seafood to Rhode Island public schools, especially in low-income districts. Another LASA grantee in my district, Moonstone Flower Company, is trying to solve a much different problem: deer pressure. By installing deer fencing with LASA funding, Taylor Olson soon hopes to put her company on a path toward supplying local restaurants with fresh flowers. I salute the vision and tenacity of all LASA grantees in growing their businesses and making Rhode Island a more beautiful, fair, and food-secure state.”
“As the chairwoman of the Senate Environment and Agriculture Committee, I am always on the lookout for legislation and programs that benefit both the environment and agriculture,” said Senator Alana M. DiMario (North Kingstown, Narragansett, New Shoreham). “The Local Agriculture and Seafood Act program is one of a very few that does. I have seen the power of LASA grants at work in my district where farmers, food businesses, shellfishers, and aquaculturists have gotten just the boost they needed from a LASA award. I look forward to today’s awardees using their grants to gain traction and flourish in their marketplaces.”
“DEM is always working to get more RI Grown food and RI Seafood on the table by supporting local farmers and fishers in growing their businesses, and the support of Governor McKee and the General Assembly for a well-funded LASA program helps achieve this,” said DEM Director Terry Gray. “Today’s LASA awards will help build Rhode Island’s food security while bolstering the traction of a diverse range of local food businesses in the marketplace by harvesting and marketing fresh home-grown food to meet consumer demand.”
LASA 2024 grantees: NAME |CITY/TOWN | GRANT AWARD
401 Oyster Company | Charlestown | $20,000
Allen Harbor Oyster Co. | Saunderstown | $10,600
Aquidneck Community Table | Newport | $20,000
Ashawaug Farm | Ashaway | $18,572
Bee Happy Homestead | Charlestown | $5,337
Block Island Shellfish Farm | New Shoreham | $14,955
Breakwater Oyster Company | Bristol | $20,000
Center for Mediation and Collaboration RI – Land & Sea Together | Warwick | $20,000
Commercial Fisheries Center of Rhode Island | Wakefield | $20,000
East Coast Oysters LLC | Saunderstown | $7,500
Eastern Rhode Island Conservation District (ERICD) | Tiverton | $12,000
Foggy Notion Farm | Johnston | $4,202
Frontier Farm | Westerly | $9,008
Fue Khang | Cranston | $20,000
Garman Farm | Newport | $17,903
Gather Farm | Johnston | $10,752
Hard-Pressed Cider Company, LLC | West Greenwich | $14,165
High Tide Mushroom Farm | Coventry | $19,532
Hmong Rhode Island Association, Inc. | Providence | $20,000
Josephine’s Farm | Providence | $20,000
Long Lane Farm | Warren | $16,077
Luckyfoot Ranch Partnership | Saunderstown | $20,000
Marie’s Farm | Coventry | $20,000
Moonstone Flower Company | Wakefield | $12,695.3
Moorefield Oyster Farm | Narragansett | $20,000
Mount Hope Farm | Bristol | $19,080
Narragansett Indian Tribe | Charlestown | $15,426.2
Night Garden | Portsmouth | $19,963
Open fArms Retreat | Cumberland | $8,486Pea Shoot Farm LLC | Foster | $14,900
Quononchontaug Fish Company | Westerly | $20,000
Rocky Rhode Oyster Co. LLC | Narragansett | $3,380
Saunderstown Garlic Farm | Saunderstown | $12,650
Seraphina’s Farm | Providence | $20,000
Silk Tree Farm | Exeter | $19,280
Southern Rhode Island Conservation District | Westerly | $12,534.5
Sowams Cider Works | Warren | $9,600
Stephen Duyen | Providence | $20,000
SunRise Forever, Inc. | Providence | $20,000
Tiverton Farmers Market | Tiverton | $17,651
Transfarmative Project | Foster | $20,000
Westbay Community Action | Warwick | $10,000
WinterHawk Vineyards | West Kingston | $5,751
The 2024 grant funding priorities included:
- Supporting the entry, growth, and/or sustainability of socially disadvantaged, beginning, small, women, and veteran agriculture and aquaculture producers and fishers.
- Supporting climate-smart agriculture mitigation activities and climate change related adaptations throughout the local food system.
- Supporting the development of new marketing, promotion, sales, and/or distribution channels, including connecting local farms and fishers with Rhode Island’s food insecure communities.
- Supporting the development of new products, including value added processing capacity.
- Fostering new cooperatives, partnerships, and/or collaborations among Rhode Island agriculture and aquaculture producers, and fishers and supporting organizations.
- Protecting the future availability of agricultural land for producers, including farm transition planning and implementation.
- Assisting with on farm food safety improvements including Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) and Hazard Analysis Critical Control (HACCP) Compliance.