Demand a Healthier, More Equitable Farm Bill Today!

Farmers and eaters across the U.S. (that includes every person in this country, btw, since we all eat) benefit from a fair and healthy Farm Bill. Right now the House Agricultural Committee is accepting public comments on this critical piece of legislation.

As usual, there are a lot of bad ideas that Congress is considering, including cutting funding to vital programs such as nutrition, conservation and support for organic and sustainable agriculture.

Click here to tell the House Ag Committee that it's time for real reform. Comments are due by May 20th to be considered part of the official Committee's Farm Bill field hearing record.

http://www.agriculture.house.gov/farmbill_feedback.html

Here are some talking points suggestions:


Tell Congress you want

1) The full endorsement of all provisions of the Local Foods, Farms and Jobs Act (H.R. 3286).

2) Fully funded conservation programs, such as the Conservation Stewardship Program, and making sure that enrollment in any new insurance subsidies are tied directly to compliance with conservation programs.

3) The implementation of all provisions of the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Opportunity Act (H.R. 3236).

4) Maintaining the EQIP Organic Initiative.

Reports from Washington DC about the Farm Bill negotiations have not been pretty. According to an editorial in the San Francisco Chronicle by Environmental Working Group’s Ken Cook and Kari Hamerschlag, Republicans in the House Agricultural Committee have already “voted to slash $33 billion from the food stamp program while leaving farm subsidies unscathed.”

The editorial goes on to report on the latest agribusiness boondoggle that steals food from the mouths of the hungry to create a “$33 billion new entitlement program that guarantees the income of profitable farm businesses. That's on top of $90 billion in subsidies for crop and revenue insurance policies.”

If this weren’t bad enough, the Senate Agricultural Committee has already voted to cut $4 million from organic research funding and cut funding to support Beginning Farmers in half

At the same time, the Senate Ag Committee has voted to get rid of wasteful subsidy payments, which sounds like a good thing. Unfortunately the Committee has proposed to replace it with a new subsidized insurance program that leading sustainable agriculture advocates are calling rife with opportunities for fraud and abuse.

While Congress is looking to get rid of direct payments to commodity farmers, the subsidized insurance program it proposes to replace it with will allow giant commodity farmers and insurance companies to walk away with billions in taxpayer dollars while putting the land, soil and environment at greater risk.

According to the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition’s Ferd Hoefner, "By failing to place limitations on crop insurance subsidies and to re-attach soil erosion and wetland conservation requirements to crop insurance programs, the Committee has failed to do the full reform that is needed.”

Tell Congress how you feel by May 20:
http://www.agriculture.house.gov/farmbill_feedback.html

Occupy the Food Movement

Anna Lappé

Check out this  interesting and thought-provoking post from Eric Holt-Giménez of Food First about how the Occupy Movement and the Food Movement could combine in a significant intersection that could really make concrete differences in the control of our food system:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-holt-gimenez/occupy-the-food-supply-co_b_1299421.html

Also this post from Anna Lappé and Willie Nelson (yes, that Willie Nelson) about occupying the food system:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/willie-nelson/occupy-food_b_1299401.html

and lastly a link to the Rainforest Action Network, which is promoting Global Occupy the Food System Day (which happens to be today):

http://www.ran.org/occupy-our-food-supply

Mark Bittman on the Occupy movement

Great column from Mark Bittman, the NYT's self-appointed "opinionator," about the Occupy movements and how they relate to food activism.

Tell President Obama No GMO beets and alfalfa

Please join me in telling the Obama administration it's time to halt the sale and planting of Monsanto's Roundup Ready GMO alfalfa and sugar beets until proper independent peer reviewed science can be conducted.


On January 17, 2011, Dr. Don Huber, an internationally-recognized plant pathologist sent a letter to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack attempting to warn him of a serious problem facing U.S. agriculture. This letter, marked “CONFIDENTIAL and URGENT”, warned Secretary Vilsack of a previously unknown pathogen, “new to science” that “should be treated as an emergency”.

Huber’s letter discussed the new pathogen in the most dire terms, saying that the findings of this top team of scientists had already discovered a link between the new pathogen and the steady rise of plant diseases in Roundup Ready corn and soybean crops and in association with high rates of infertility and spontaneous abortions of animal livestock.
Huber warned Secretary Vilsack that the discovery of the new pathogen was “highly sensitive information that could result in a collapse of U.S. soy and corn export markets and significant disruption of domestic food and feed supplies.”

Unfortunately, less than 3 weeks later, the Obama administration approved 2 new Roundup Ready GMO crops, which are set to be planted this spring.

Please join me in this urgent action telling President Obama and Secretary Vilsack to halt the sale and planting of Monsanto's Roundup Ready GMO alfalfa and sugar beet seeds until more independent scientific testing can be conducted to ensure the safety of our food supply.

Watch the interview with Dr. Huber and learn about the science at Food Democracy Now! -
http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/sign/dr_hubers_warning/

Thanks!

Tell the EPA to ban cancer-causing strawberry pesticides

A message from the good folks at Earthjustice:


Earlier this year, officials in California approved a cancer-causing pesticide that's chiefly used in strawberry fields. They did this over the objections of scientists who warned that use of the chemical would make farmworkers and people in nearby communities sick. The chemical—methyl iodide—is so toxic that scientists in labs use it in very tiny amounts to create cancer cells.

It's already being used in Florida; if California growers start applying it to strawberry fields later this year, millions of pounds of this toxic gas could end up being released straight into our air and water.

But we have a chance to make this right. Officials with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency are signaling they want to take a closer look at whether or not to ban this pesticide.They've given the public until April 25 to weigh in with their comments. We need to let them know that methyl iodide is much too dangerous to be used in our fields and farms.

Here's a link to post your comments to the EPA:

https://secure.earthjustice.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=1123>

10 Things You Can Do About GMOs in the Food System

This is a great site I recently discovered, with lots of useful info on a wide spectrum of food issues. Gail Nickel-Kailing, Editor/Co-Publisher of GoodFoodWorld, recently sent out this info in GFW's weekly newsletter:


10 Things You Can Do About GMOs in the Food System


(BTW, #8 on her list should read, "To date, the best way to ensure that you are not consuming GMOs is to buy organic food. The National Organic Program does not allows any GMOs in fresh or processed foods.")