APRIL 2024 | 45 THE OKLAHOMA BAR JOURNAL Statements or opinions expressed in the Oklahoma Bar Journal are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Oklahoma Bar Association, its officers, Board of Governors, Board of Editors or staff. traditional and Native-produced foods. Additionally, for the first time, two opportunities for tribal self-governance were included in the farm bill: one in the Nutrition title and one in the Forestry title. In the Nutrition title, the 2018 Farm Bill authorized a pilot project permitting the USDA to contract with tribes to perform purchasing functions under its Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations (FDPIR).23 Typically, the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) oversees procurement for the FDPIR and sources food products on a nationwide basis to supply the program. Nationwide sourcing creates significant difficulty in providing culturally and traditionally relevant and metabolically appropriate foods on a regional or even tribally specific basis for tribal program service recipients and in the ability of smaller-scale producers, like the majority of tribal farmers, to meet the volume demands of AMS procurement solicitations. The pilot, as introduced, begins to address these challenges. Participating tribes and intertribal organizations (ITOs) can choose to supplant items in the food package and procure alternatives themselves rather than relying on the AMS. Participating ITOs report resounding success. Tribes are incorporating traditional and cultural foods relevant to their tribe, seeing higher take rates of tribally procured foods among their participants and experiencing more engagement with the program. While not required by statute, tribes are by and large choosing to source from Indigenous and local producers, supporting economic development in their communities.24 After two rounds of funding appropriations, 16 tribes and ITOs are participating in the pilot.25 Congress also conferred self- determination authority as a demonstration project under the Tribal Forest Protection Act (TFPA) for the first time in the 2018 Farm Bill.26 The TFPA authorizes the secretaries of Agriculture and the Interior to give special consideration to tribally proposed projects on agency-managed land to protect Indian trust lands and resources from threats, such as fire, insects and disease.27 Tribes may propose a TFPA project on agency- managed land that borders or is adjacent to trust land under certain enumerated circumstances.28 Through the demonstration project, tribes can also contract to perform administrative, management and other functions of programs of the TFPA.29 Participation in the forestry self- governance opportunity has been limited as, unlike the FDPIR pilot, there is no additional funding support available for tribes self-contracting to administer TFPA program functions.30 Under a typical five-year farm bill schedule, a new farm bill would be approved by Congress and signed into law before the expiration of the current farm bill.31 However, the 2018 Farm Bill expired in September 2023.32 While congressional agriculture committees have started the public hearing process,33 issued solicitation from constituents and agriculture groups34 and submitted marker bills for committee consideration, the process to draft and pass a new farm bill has stagnated.35 While farm
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTk3MQ==