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.
“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.
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.
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.
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.
ONE is campaigning to ensure that the Congressional budget does not cut foreign assistance programs like Feed the Future that help people break the cycle of poverty and hunger.
The Horn of Africa is experiencing its worst drought in 60 years. More than 11 million people, mostly nomadic pastoralists and farmers in south-central Somalia, north-eastern Kenya, and south-eastern Ethiopia, are severely lacking access to food.
2011 marks 30 years since the first cases of AIDS were documented. Take a closer look at the specific, achievable goals we must hit by 2015 to make this year the beginning of the end of AIDS.
As aid agencies warn more than 9 million people could be affected by a food crisis in East Africa, world leaders are failing to keep their 2009 promises to tackle the causes of chronic hunger and support farmers in the world's poorest countries.
