Get Involved: Learn about the Farm (and Food) Bill
By Danielle Lee
In the U.S., the farm bill is the primary agricultural and food policy tool of the federal government. Every 5 or so years, Congress votes on whether to amend and/or suspend certain provisions. These can be highly controversial and can impact international trade, environmental preservation, food safety, and the well-being of rural communities. In 2002, the bill was criticized by advocates, such as Michael Pollan, for making it economic to keep beef cattle in enclosed areas, feeding them cheap subsidized corn and antibiotics. In 2010, the farm bill programs spent $96.3 billion! With that much money out there, learn about how its being spent and how it can be better.
Below are the top ten things you should know about this bill.
1) The farm bill doles out billions of taxpayer dollars in subsidies to the largest five commodity crops: corn, cotton, rice, wheat and soybeans. Those payments go out, regardless of need, and they mostly fail to help the nation’s real working farm and ranch families. In fact, since 1995, just 10 percent of subsidized farms – the largest and wealthiest operations – have raked in 74 percent of all subsidy payments.
2) The Obama Administration says fruits and vegetables should fill about half of our plates during meal times. Yet, only a tiny fraction of the farm bill funding goes to programs that support healthy fruits and vegetables, and many of these programs have no budget going into the next farm bill, which is up for renewal in 2012. Maybe the administration needs some reminding….
3) Some 90,000 checks went out to wealthy investors and absentee land owners in more than 350 American cities in 2010, despite the so-called “actively engaged” rule adopted in the 2008 farm bill. This rule was designed to ensure that federal payments go only to those who are truly working the land. It hasn’t worked. Any ideas on how to enforce it?
4) A handful of other commodities also qualify for government support, including peanuts, sorghum and mohair. Dairy and sugar producers have separate price and market controls that are highly regulated and can be costly to the government.
5) The flawed subsidy system creates perverse incentives for farmers to grow as much industrial-scale, fertilizer- and pesticide-intensive crops as possible, with harmful effects on our environment and drinking water – and the availability of organic food in your grocery store.
6) The farm bill provides money for good things too. More than two-thirds of the authorized spending goes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly known as the food stamp program), which helps low-income Americans purchase food.
7) Other farm bill dollars pay for the Senior Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program, which gives vouchers to seniors to buy food at farmer’s markets, and the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program, which provides nutritious produce to schools. These nutrition programs are likely to be first on the chopping block as Congress tries to reduce the federal debt, while the subsidy programs will surely be protected.
8) The government makes a lot of promises about supporting conservation programs to protect water, soil and wildlife habitat, but those promises largely go underfunded and unfulfilled. Still, the farm bill provided more than $4 billion this year to help farmers conserve soil, clean up the water and protect habitat for wildlife.
9) The farm bill should do a lot more to provide healthy food, protect the environment and help working farm and ranch families, but there are a host of well-funded and well-connected interests that benefit greatly from the status quo. The list includes politicians looking to fill campaign coffers, corporate agri-chemical giants like Monsanto and Syngenta seeking to expand their markets, and big Ag’s public relations and lobby organizations, which cash in year after year.
10) Since only 2 percent of Americans directly engage in farming, the farm bill is largely crafted and debated out of the spotlight. Historically, the process of writing it embodies the worst kind of bipartisan logrolling and horse-trading.
There is a Facebook fan page dedicated to helping all interested citizens understand what the bill entails. The next vote will be up in 2012, which is plenty of time to get the public informed and help our representatives understand what is important to us. Here is the link to the page Understanding the Farm Bill: A Citizen’s Guide to a Better Food System.
For more information or if you want to take action, visit the links below.
Environmental Working Group
http://www.ewg.org/agmag/2011/06/top-10-things-you-should-know-about-the-farm-bill/
Environmental Defense Action Fund
https://secure2.edf.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=1791
Union of Concerned Scientists
http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_agriculture/solutions/big_picture_solutions/the-2012-farm-bill.html
http://www.landtrustalliance.org/policy/public-funding/farm-bill
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/11/04-4
“A wise and frugal government … shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government.” – Thomas Jefferson
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