You never know who you are going to run into on Main Street during Primary Season in New Hampshire. This is why I always travel with ONE bands in my pocket.

Today, Sen. McCain made a brief appearance in a downtown Nashua restaurant to talk with voters. I made the stop with a few ONE members to show support for the ONE Vote ‘08.

I noticed Mayor Bernie Streeter and Commander Dalianis in the crowd (both are NH ONE Ambassadors), and a few local business owners that were at our ONE launch. ONE member, and staunch conservative, Kevin Keefe came with me and so did ONE member Brandon Laws who will be interning with Gov. Richardson this summer.

While wearing his ONE band, Kevin approached Sen. McCain and told him that he is a conservative that supports the ONE Campaign and noted President Bush’s past efforts to fight global AIDS and extreme poverty. He told Sen. McCain that it was important to reform the Farm Bill, especially the cotton payments, to allow the poorest people on Earth a way to trade out of poverty.

Brandon told Sen. McCain that it was important to save lives in Africa and offered him a ONE band. But Sen. McCain refused it. Instead he pulled up his sleeve and showed us the ONE band he was already wearing! He even told Brandon “Did you think I would let you catch me without wearing this”?

We were all stunned and thanked the senator for wearing the ONE band and urged him to fight global disease and global extreme poverty.

Afterward Brandon told me, “It makes you feel good to know that no matter where you fall in the political spectrum, there are candidates on both sides of the fence that are willing to fight to make the world better by supporting the work of ONE and by helping us put an end to extreme poverty and AIDS in Africa.

We ONE bloggers have been writing a lot about the Farm Bill these days,
and with good reason. The House of Representatives votes on changes to
the Farm Bill tomorrow. If substantial changes aren’t made to the bill,
small farmers will be out of luck until the next time it appears before
Congress in 2012.

With your help we can push Congress to make the right decision tomorrow,
and in the process help protect small farmers here and abroad from
subsidies that leave them unable to compete fairly. Please take a moment
to call your member of Congress and tell them to vote YES on the Fairness
Amendment. The ONE Campaign has set up a 1-800 number (1-800-786-2663)
to direct you to your congressional office.

“But Peter,” you may ask, “what if I’m not sure exactly what to say?” No
problem, loyal ONE member! We have a set of talking points to help you
with your call, as well as a form to register your call when you
finish. With just a few minutes of your time, you can lend
small farmers everywhere a much needed helping hand.

An army of ONE volunteers hit the candidate debate viewing parties on Monday night in Charleston, SC, banding and speaking to the presidential hopefuls before and after the debate.

I spoke to Senators Clinton and Biden, and they thanked us for fighting for international AIDS and poverty relief. We also signed up new ONE members at the viewing parties, including people working for the various campaigns.

All of the ONE staff and volunteers worked hard for the Charleston debate. It was well worth it and we won’t be resting anytime soon, since the national College Democrats of America convention will be at the University of South Carolina from July 26-29. Several of the candidates will be rolling through Columbia for the convention and they will be seeing some familiar faces in ONE bands and shirts.

ONE is joining 10,000 bike riders in Cedar Falls, IA, today for RAGBRAI, the popular bike-across-Iowa annual event. With all the people that will show up for the stop over and concert, the ONE team worked all yesterday morning to make sure we are ready when the crowds show today.

We signed up 9 new cities on the RAGBRAI route as “Cities of ONE,” and a team from Des Moines University will be wearing ONE bike jerseys as they arrive in Cedar Falls. Every ONE band, ONE shirt, and clipboard is ready, as well as special ONE water bottles that we will be giving to riders.

Hopefully, it will be impossible to pass through the town without seeing a ONE logo.

Listen today at 10 am (EST) to the Diane Rehm show on NPR. Please call into her show and express support in the Fairness in Farm and Food Policy Amendment. When you call in please mention BFW’s website, www.bread.org or www.bread.org/farmbill for listeners to find out how they can make a difference. Thanks everyone!

(You can listen to the live feed if you don’t have access to your local NPR station.)

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.

UPDATE: Read the Fairness Amendment factsheet

With a bitter debate over farm subsidies expected on the House floor this week, the Department of Agriculture is under siege for its slapdash distribution of payments.

According to findings released yesterday by the Government Accountability Office, the USDA “sent $1.1 billion in farm payments to more than 170,000 dead people over a seven-year period” from 1999 to 2005.

The auditors concluded that of the payments collected by the estates of deceased farmers, 40 percent went to those whose owners had been dead for over three years, and 19 percent to those whose owners had died more than seven years earlier.

“Given extremely tight budget restraints, it is no longer tolerable to permit billions of dollars in farm bill payments to go to individuals who in stances don’t even farm or are no longer alive,” said Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Tom Harkin.

In light of the report, the Iowa Democrat is calling for lower ceilings and stricter limits on farm subsidies, giving hope to those calling for a substantive overhaul of the Farm Bill that would benefit small business farmers in the U.S. as well as millions of farmers in less developed countries around the world.

This morning’s Washington Post had a great editorial about how important it is for Congress to make a complete overhaul of agricultural subsidies.

These subsidies have helped push rural land prices up and small family farmers out of the market. Other farm payments have been even more misdirected: A Post investigation found that the government gave $1.3 billion between 2000 and 2006 to landowners who did not farm at all. The billions spent on subsidies could be used for any number of other priorities, agricultural or otherwise — food stamps, conservation programs or debt reduction, for example.

This is the big week for the Farm Bill, and our last chance to reform its trade distorting subsidies until 2012. You can take action now by sending a fax to your member of Congress and let them know that you are in favor of the Fairness Amendment for comprehensive Farm Bill reform.

UN AMOR: CINTAS BLANCAS Y ANILLOS DE BODA

You may recall a blog post from last December about ONEorlando volunteers Melodie and Edgard who got engaged at ONE’s World AIDS Day event. That blog posted received over a hundred well wishes from all over the world.

This weekend I attended their beautiful wedding, which took place in Lake Buena Vista, Florida.

Edgard arrived on a boat accompanied by his groomsmen, and met Melodie and her bridesmaids at the sandy beach of Paradise Cove. The ceremony was recited in both English and Spanish, with a guitar serenade of Ava Maria.

When the newlyweds were introduced at the reception, they came in dancing to music of U2’s “Beautiful Day.” The music then varied from rock to spanish love songs and speeches from many family members talking about bringing together two cultures as ONE.

The DJ then announced that the grandfather of Edgard has a special gift. No one would have imagined the gift was for the over 100 attendees at the wedding. The Grandfather had ordered maracas from Nicaragua for everyone to play. These were special ordered, made from the Jicaro Plant, and painted sybolically with the colors used in the ONE Campaign and Product (RED). These ONE maracas were used the ENTIRE evening while dancing…and let me tell you… those folks can dance!

Then it was time to cut the cake(s). Some people may be familiar with the more southern tradition of a groomscake, which typically accompanies the wedding cake, in some whimsical form. I was touched to see that these two volunteers, who have dedicated many hours of their time to focus on the world’s poor, attending events, meetings and helping train others in advocating ONE’s issues for the past two years, focused on ONE on their wedding day. These are two people who truly care about the issues, and take every opportunity to talk about it.

I was honored to be a part of their wedding day and wish them the best. I thank them for their outreach efforts and look forward to working with them soon… (after the honeymoon of course!).

Melodie y Edgard, Felicitaciones y felicidades de UNA Campaña

As I’ve written recently here on the ONE blog, the Farm Bill working its way through Congress contains subsidies directed to big business farms that stifle competition from smaller farms. Some members of Congress would like the public to believe that these subsidies are designed to help American farmers. In reality, the vast majority of farmers are hurt by these subsidies. These subsidies allow the biggest 8% of farms to lower prices on their goods, leaving small American farmers – not to mention impoverished farmers in the developing world – struggling to compete. Take some time to read about the Farm Bill and why it needs to be reformed.

We know that many of our ONE members have already helped spread awareness of the need for Farm Bill reform by writing thousands of letters to their local papers all across the country. This effort has not gone unnoticed. Not only have numerous letters appeared in newspapers across the country – including sizable publications like the Chicago Tribune – but a proposed Fairness in Farm and Food Policy Amendment to the Farm Bill would provide many of those desperately needed changes, like putting a cap on the subsidies large farms receive. This provides us with a great opportunity to take desperately needed action.

Right now the bill is leaving the Agricultural Committee, and soon it will be presented to the full House of Representatives. Before they make their decision, let’s pull together as ONE to show them what voters really think about legislation that prevents small farmers the world over from competing fairly.

Take this opportunity to send a letter to your member of Congress to let them know you support the Fairness in Farm and Food Policy Amendment!