Fairness, Farmers, and Faxes
This coming Thursday the version of the Farm Bill coming out of the
Agricultural Committee will be considered by the full House of
Representatives. This bill contains the same problematic subsidies that
have for decades hampered the ability of small farmers here in America
as well as the developing world to compete with big business farms.
The ONE Campaign supports The Fairness in Farm and Food Policy Amendment
- Fairness Amendment for short – an amendment which aims to right the
wrongs of the Farm Bill in its current form. This amendment has seen a
considerable amount of support from both sides of the aisle, and with
good reason. The amendment reduces damaging subsidies, expands an
overseas school lunch program by $1.1B, implements a fair and modern
safety net to protect farmers from crop price reductions, and reduces
direct payments – a system enacted over a decade ago to wean farmers off
subsidies that has proven ineffective -overall this reform package will
save at least $10 billion.
Take advantage of this historic opportunity to tell your representative
that you support the Fairness Amendment. Right now, unfair
subsidies are distorting trade and hurting small farmers from the
Heartland to Sub-Saharan Africa. If enough ONE members like yourself let
their voices be heard, it won’t be long before we see real reform on
this issue.
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July 24, 2007 at 8:43 pm
The reason most of the government payments in the U.S. go to a subset of farms is the payments are linked to acres and crop production. These farmers are taking bigger risk and need proportional protection.
Farms are not big because of the existing farm program – the problem is the government support is not high enough to allow farmers to survive without taking on large operations in order to derive a full-time income from farm production.
Large farms have the ability to be more efficient. Equipment and operating cost are spread over larger acres. Professional agronomists and entomologists are employed to make expert management decisions on crop needs and inputs.
To me it seems a flawed strategy to make food so expensive that a farmer can make a living from a small number of acres. Expensive food means the non-farm population then goes hungry. Poverty is a difficult issue, but supporting small farmers is likely not the answer.
Rural poverty was greater in the United States 100 years ago when a majority of the population was employed in agriculture. We did not make tremendous strides in raising the standard of living and quality of life in this country by keeping the majority of our population hand harvesting and enduring back breaking weeding.
There are challenges for small farmers around the world, but punishing our established farm industry is not the answer.
July 24, 2007 at 9:34 pm
Thanks Peter (the Intern – smile) for posting this about the Farm Bill.
After the support from the Washington Post editorial today regarding the fact that the present Farm Bill does NOT go far enough in reforming U.S. farm policy for the benefits of family farmers in the U.S. and small farmers around the world due to inflated subsidies paid to agri-business in the USA (all of which ultimately adversely affects the average consumer with increased food prices), I think that we have a VERY STRONG LEG TO STAND ON in demanding that our Congresspeople support The Fairness in Farm and Food Policy Amendment to the Farm Bill.
I will make my phone call to my Congressman’s (McCaul – TX) DC office tomorrow morning before I go to work and I’ll report back here to let y’all know what their response was.
All we can do is to stand up for what is right. ~
Take very good care, my friends. Blessings – not just for those who kneel.
ALWAYS FOREVER, ONE – debbie