Farm Bill - Today is the Day to Make Your Voice Heard
Thanks so much to The Jew and the Carrot blogger Tzimmes-Maker for her in depth and ongoing coverage of the Farm Bill throughout the summer. I recently wrote a post for Lilith Magazine’s blog that talks about the most recent high profile case of industrial food poisoning (from a can of chili sauce), (read the full thing here). The post also talks about a disturbing provision in the Farm Bill which, if it passed, would wipe out state and local authority to protect food safety. Since I wrote the post, the provision has been removed from the Farm Bill (things change fast around here!), but there are still many aspects of the bill that support agribusiness and leave the majority of small family farms behind.
Today is the Day to Take Action
The House of Reps is voting on the Farm Bill this week. Meanwhile, The Fairness in Farm and Food Policy Amendment offerred by Reps. Ron Kind and Jeff Flake is being offered in the House. The amendment offers reform that will benefit small farmers, struggling rural communities, hungry people in America, and farmers in developing countries.
Please call your representative by NOON, Thursday (tomorrow) to ensure your voice is counted in this critical vote.
For an easy-to-read summary of the amendment, and steps on how to call your representative go to Seeds of Change.
2 Responses to “Farm Bill - Today is the Day to Make Your Voice Heard”
-
Anthony Says:
July 25th, 2007 at 11:38 amLeah, So glad you are focusing on this. The bill should really be called “The Farm and Food Bill.” City folks should care about this as much as those of us who live in rural America. With the epidemic in our country of diabetes, heart disease, obesity and cancer; the economic cost is a staggering 100 billion dollars a year in food-related disease. The Health Community (doctors, epidemiologists, health professionals, etc.) has really weighed in on this, as have Mayors Bloomberg of New York, Newsom of San Francisco, etc.
Eat local/eat fresh/eat healthy.
And keep up the great work with the blog!
Anthony -
Tzimmes-Maker Says:
July 25th, 2007 at 12:26 pmLeah,
Thanks for posting on the Pre-emption Provision…fortunately, it hasn’t gotten added back in via the Manager’s Amendment (www.rules.house.gov/110/specia.....rson73.pdf), as far as I know.
While the Kind amendment has been very helpful in broadening the discussoin, and here would not be nearly as many positive elements included in the Committee bill if not for the “reformers,” there are some risks and downsides to the Kind bill as well, especialyl for small and socially disadvantaged farmers. If the Kind bill doesn’t have the political strength to pass, it could cause an extension of the 2002 Farm Bill, which would be worse than the commitee bill….there are many good provisions for nutrition, socially disadvantaged and small farmers, healthy foods, etc. in the Committee bill and others may be added as the Bill moves to the floor…watch what happens. One item that still has not received any REAL mandatory funding in the Committee bill is the Community Food Projects competitive grant program- there may be an amendment offered by Rep. Blumeanuer to add mandatory funding for this important program.
