Family farmers, local food businesses, and community partners from across Missouri will join together Tuesday, February, 24, 2026, at the state capitol in Jefferson City.
Missouri Local Farm and Food Advocacy Day is an opportunity for family farms and local food producers and supporters to rally together and visit with state lawmakers.
Join Us!
Who: Missouri Local Farm and Food Advocacy Day is free and open to all interested in keeping family farmers on the land and putting good food on Missouri tables.
When: 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Tuesday, February 24, 2026
Where: Missouri State Capitol, Jefferson City, Missouri.
How: Please register for the free event, Missouri Local Farm and Food Advocacy Day: REGISTER
Registration provides next step information and resources, including the opportunity for travel support. Registration also helps organizers coordinate logistics and ensure participants’ priorities are represented at Missouri Local Farm and Food Advocacy Day.
Organizers of Missouri Local Farm and Food Advocacy Day are Columbia Center for Urban Agriculture, Cultivate KC, Empower Missouri, Farm Action Fund, The Food Circle, Heartland Food Business Coalition, Ivanhoe Neighborhood Council, KC Farm School at Gibbs Road, Missouri Farmers Union, Missouri Rural Crisis Center, and New Growth.
Why: Need and Opportunity
Participation matters for Missouri Local Farm and Food Advocacy Day. Every person attending helps raise the collective message that Missouri’s family farms are essential for keeping communities in business and ensuring Missourians eat and live well.
Supportive state policy is needed to address challenges family farmers face, from skyrocketing costs to consolidating markets. State policy is also needed to help build on emerging and significant opportunities for Missouri farms to supply Missouri residents with fresh and healthy foods, from farm to school to food as medicine.
Missouri Local Farm and Food Advocacy Day participants will bring these points home for state lawmakers; many with examples from their own work. Individuals and organizations across the state are busy doing this work; building food and farm businesses and the supply chains and markets needed to increase access to fresh and local foods.
Issues for the day include:
- Small and urban farm business support
- Market opportunities (e.g. food as medicine, farm to school and more)
- Healthy food access
- Competitive markets
- Land access and costs
- Soil and water health
- Pesticide, herbicide regulation
- Regenerative agriculture
Join us February 24, 2026, in Jefferson City! Please register for next steps and resources.
More Information
For more information about Missouri Local Farm and Food Advocacy Day, please contact Katie Nixon, Food Systems Program Director at rural Missouri nonprofit New Growth: knixon@wcmcaa.org.