Farm Bill - America's Food Bill - wrangling pushes deadline?
Posted by Sylvia Burgos at 4/25/2008 3:16 PM and is filed under Cheese,Wine,artisan bread,Farm Bill,local food movement,Congress 
April 26. It looks as if the deadline for the Farm Bill would come and go yesterday(04/25/08), giving us yet another week to send legislators a strong message: We need a totally reformed Food Bill for America! Just use the quick links on this page to send a couple of brief notes. Here's the lowdown on the bill. But now it appears that a tentative agreement has been reached in the nearly $300 billion, 5-year legislation - a massive network of law and policy that governs everything we eat:
- How it's grown and who can afford to grow it
- How subsidized foods are shipped overseas in the name of foreign aid (and often hurt local growers in foreign nations by flooding their markets with cheap, subsidized US commodities)
- How much is available for food stamps
- How commodities are channeled into our nation's school lunch program
- How much is allocated to organic food research
- How little is spent to help small- and mid-sized growers
- Who makes the most money every year (guess what - its not small- and medium-sized growers or processors)
- This bill perpetuates a food production system that channels $$$ to those who ultimately control the flow and sale of five commodities: wheat, rice, corn, soybeans, and cotton.
Lots of news media have followed the money, and told the story.
So do we pack up our bags and sigh for another 5 years? No, this is a tentative agreement. It hasn't been signed off by the President. You can still write your legislators and let them know we need:
- A totally reformed Farm bill that exists to deliver healthful, whole foods to all residents, instead of functioning to benefit a few companies that control (and financially benefit) from the commodity subsidies, and from the sale of pesticides and fertilizers
- The Farm Bill to be renamed the Food Bill, so that the public can have a chance to know what's going on
- Policies that actively encourage diversified, small-scale agriculture and processing. This type of production would be sustainable and meet this country's food needs. It would also employ more people!
- A Farm Bill that works to protect our ground water, air and soil
Write today. Just use this link to find an e-mail address for your legislator. It'll take all of 5 minutes. Your food, your health are at stake. Want to know more? Visit Oxfam America, or the Environmental Defense Fund.
Visit the Organic Farming Research Foundation for information about what's at stake for organic production methods and pushes to increase pesticide us. You can also go to the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy website for detail on how this Farm Bill has wide-ranging impacts on both domestic and foreign agriculture, health and economies. Thanks.
Sylvia@artisanbreadcheeseandwine.com
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