Tell Congress to Fix It — And No Secret Farm Bills!
What's wrong with the U.S. House of Representative's version of the Farm Bill?
- $16.1 billion in cuts to food assistance
- eliminates the Organic Certification Cost Share Program
- tens of billions in corporate welfare for the largest commodity crop growers, insurance companies, and agribusinesses
- $6 billion in cuts to programs to protect natural resources, invest in beginning and disadvantaged farmers, revitalize local food economies, and promote health and food security
- unlimited subsidies to mega-farms that continue to drive small family farmers out of business
- incentives for growers to drop conservation practices, plow up marginal areas and intensify fencerow-to-fencerow cultivation of environmentally sensitive land
- nearly eight times more support for corn, soy, cotton, rice and wheat than for healthy fruits, nuts and vegetables
- guts common-sense rules that protect water quality and wildlife from agricultural pesticides
- undermines progress made at the state level for animal rights
- ends fair competition and contract protections for livestock producers
No Secret Farm Bills!The House's Republican leaders say they won't schedule the Farm Bill for a votebefore the old bill expires September 30, leaving it vulnerable to being used as a bargaining chip in the ongoing battles to cut the budget and extend Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy.Last Fall, the Farm Bill was caught up in the secretive super-committee process that ultimately failed, but there are Members of Congress who still insist on implementing the cuts considered by the super-committee and some who would use these cuts to offset extending tax cuts. As the Hill reports, this would mean putting off the Farm Bill until after the elections and then it would be “wrapped into a giant lame-duck bill that also deals with expiring tax cuts and automatic, across-the-board spending cuts.”
In addition to protesting the bill's substance, we must also demand that the House stick to the normal democratic process, with recorded votes on the issues that matter most, rather than letting Congressional leaders decide things behind closed doors — no secret farm bills!
Want to learn more about why the Farm Bill is so important? Watch this video:
Phi Beta Iota: Any company that creates suicidal seeds and sues farmers is the embodiment of a crime against humanity.
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