The sustainable food system we are trying to build relies on an abundance of small, diverse, sustainable family farmers and ranchers scattered all across the United States. For these kinds of farms to exist, sustainable must mean more than environmental sustainability — it must also include economic viability. Farming is a dangerous and risky business, and it becomes a whole lot less attractive when a farmer knows that he or she is one fall from the hay loft away from losing their land.

We hear frequently about the need for new and younger farmers, but there are many barriers to attracting young people to farm in a way that will foster sustainable food systems. One of them, however, looms bigger than the rest:

Access to affordable, dependable health care.

In order to attract more farmers to grow food for a sustainable food system, we need meaningful health care reform that addresses the needs of farmers, rural communities, and small business owners. The stark reality of health care costs for farmers, who often must purchase insurance as individuals and pay more for it as a result, is enough to make anyone waiver in their desire to start a farm.

The Access Project at the Schneider Institute for Health Policy at Brandeis University recently published the "2007 Health Insurance Survey of Farm and Ranch Operators." Their results starkly revealed the financial difficulty farmers face regarding health care. While 9 in 10 farm and ranch operators have health insurance, nearly one quarter (23%) report that insurance premiums and other out-of-pocket health care costs are causing financial difficulties for themselves and their families. Those respondents who reported financial difficulties spent on average 42% of their incomes on health care costs.

During the presidential campaign, President Obama promised to reform the broken health care system.

The Center for Rural Affairs is organizing farm and rural people, and all who care where their food comes from to push for reforms that take care of people's health needs regardless of income, place of residence, or employment status. We need you join our effort and urge your elected officials to ignore the deep pockets of corporate insurance lobbyists and build a health care system that works for everyone.

You can join us in the fight for health care reform. Visit the Center for Rural Affairs website (www.cfra.org) to sign a petition calling for Secretary of Health and Human Services designee Kathleen Sebelius to make reforms that work for all of America. You can also join, support, or volunteer for a group in your area doing health care reform work such as these members of Health Care for America Now. And of course, call your legislators and urge them to reform the health care system.

If local and sustainable food is the goal, health care reform must be included to get there. It's not only the farmer at the market you buy your eggs from that needs you. It's also the office assistant or factory worker who would love nothing better than to grow the food that feeds our movement.

With health care reform, the tallest barrier between new farmers and their land crumbles.