Farm Bill Reform? Yes, Please.
November 13th, 2007 at 11:06 am | posted by Weldon Kennedy
Today (and maybe tomorrow) the Senate will be voting on amendments to the Farm Bill, which includes subsidies to American farmers both large and small.
The problem with these subsidies is that when big-business farmers receive millions of dollars in subsidies they end up driving down prices of these crops around the world. As a result, small farmers around the world can’t compete. For small farmers in the developing world, this means they stay trapped in poverty, unable to compete because their government can’t afford to underwrite their production.
The Farm Bill only comes up for renewal every 5 years, so if we don’t change it now, we won’t get another shot until 2012. The status quo is a promise of 4 more years of extreme poverty to millions of people, so we are asking our Senators to vote YES on two amendments that put a limit on the cash handouts given to big-agribusiness.
You can reach your Senators by calling the capitol switchboard at:
(202) 224-3121
When you get through, let them know you are a constituent and ask them to support:
1. The Lugar-Lautenberg Farm Ranch Equity Stewardship and Health (FRESH) Amendment.
The FRESH Amendment will provide a more effective safety net for all farmers regardless of what they grow or where they farm. The amendment reinvests $16 billion in savings over five years into several programs: $1.5 billion will go to new support for specialty crop farmers; $2.0 billion will go to improve diet and health; $6.2 billion will go to invest in popular conservation programs; $4.3 billion will go to help more hungry Americans; $3.0 billion will go to reduce the federal deficit; and $1.6 billion will go to support investments in renewable energy. The amendment will also bring our farm policy into compliance with international trade rules-removing the threat of real threat of retaliation.
2. The Grassley-Dorgan Payment Limits Amendment.
The Grassley-Dorgan Payment Limits Amendment will place a real limit on the amount of money any one entity can receive, and it will close loopholes that allow some producers to evade limits altogether. This amendment will level the playing field for family farms and rural communities by producing budget savings that can be reinvested into programs such as nutrition, conservation, and rural development-that deliver enhanced social benefits.
November 13th, 2007 at 11:46 am
I do not believe in any kind of farm support. These are mostly big businesses that are taking advantage of this program. a farm is either succesfull or not. By not allocating any governement moneys we might do away with the giant companies and go back to more family farms.
Since half of the population is overweight we should be paying fair prices for meat, dairy and veggies. It might create a national weight loss program. Groceries will cost more, so maybe less will be wasted. It would also be good for farmer’s markets. we should all buy locally grown items, that would save lots of money on gas and packaging. It is absolutely ridicilous to have little stamps on each apple, orange etc. A total waste of time and recourses.
So, once again, no to every subsidy for farmers. In our area the small farms seem to be doing fine and they are proud of their healthy products, since our farmer’s market is for organically grown produce and meat.
November 13th, 2007 at 11:50 am
We have to stop eating more than we farm and harvest.
No one in our planet should ever go hungry if we farm and harvest more & share it well.
IT IS TIME TO CARE, BE HUMAN BE FARE !
November 13th, 2007 at 12:21 pm
Just because you are an incumbent doesn’t mean that we can’t vote you OUT of office. Stop playing Washington pollitics and start paying more attention to the people you represent.
November 13th, 2007 at 12:21 pm
I have family who run family farms in Iowa. They are not getting wealthy by the subsidies from the gov’t. They are however having problems competing with the huge business farms. I strongly support the subsidies going to the small farmers or family farms but not the corporations. Let’s get the money to those who need it. We need the farmers and the small towns rely on the family farms to support the businesses in town.
November 13th, 2007 at 1:53 pm
Left message for Sen. Spector
November 13th, 2007 at 3:30 pm
How very clever of the government to provide supposed “subsidies” to farms to veil their attempts of helping the powerful. It is part of the elitist concept of the rich getting richer!! We absolutely emphatically need to stand up for those who cannot help themselves. It is so much a part of our essence as human beings to pick up the slack for those who are without. I am so tired of the apathy I hear from so many people concerning the “little people.”
November 13th, 2007 at 3:43 pm
Farm subsidies make it harder for the farmers I met in Uganda back in 2004 to make a living.
Farm subsidies and tariffs for giant agribusinesses also force us to make ethanol out of corn instead of sugar - which is much less efficient and does not save us much in terms of green-house gas emissions - and are driving up the price of food and milk in our supermarkets (over 4 times more corn is needed to make ethanol than sugar…ethanol production is driving up the price of corn…milk cows are mainly fed with corn…price of milk goes up).
So, subsidies to agribusiness oppress the poor and make milk more expensive at home. Why do we still have them? Good question.
November 13th, 2007 at 3:47 pm
Having grown up in South Dakota, I have seen how the current farm bill has destroyed the small rural farm towns and has hurt the small farmer. I also think that the current food stamp allowance is ridiculous. I would like to see the see the representatives and senators who vote for status quo on this farm bill feed their families on the current food stamp allowance.
November 13th, 2007 at 4:32 pm
my best friends were dairy farmers and were forced to sell because they refused to add hormones to their milk. Now folks don’t want the hormones in their milk. corporate farming started with Reagan, and now we can’t afford to feed our country. just let the little guy grow his crops and eek out a living, we all gotta eat! also the FDA sucks
November 13th, 2007 at 4:59 pm
I would like to respond to the first comment on the page, Clara van Meeuwen’s. I think a lot of things are being oversimplified here. First of all, American’s are overweight for many reasons, but one of the major ones being that we eat more food because there are less nutrients in processed food. The cheapest things in the grocery store are packaged, full of preservatives, and have very low nutritional value. Americans who have little choice in what to buy because of cost, are forced to buy these kinds of foods. By making produce, dairy products, and meat more expensive, you are just widening the gap of who can afford to eat healty and who can’t.
November 13th, 2007 at 6:09 pm
I would like to call the senate for voting to the amendment that put a limit on the cash handouts given to big-agribusiness. but I cant it as I dont know well enough speaking as the native language of American to the English language. but instead of that, I decided to do a some bit explantion, so that they are voted by senator to be had a amendment on small farner’ favouring amounts which are wanted to appear for farmer, for small farmer as well as big farmer.
dear senator
please give your vote as (yes) to be had a amendment for small farmer to the amounts of money who are explained by the goverment of U.S so that it is the great butget of aid for farmer.
November 13th, 2007 at 6:30 pm
Please pay attention to the little guy, Vanessa Keitges, Portland OR 97209
November 13th, 2007 at 8:47 pm
Jackie makes a valid point above. The situation of this is far more complex than we can know at first glance. That being said, complexity certainly does not justify inaction. Action in any extreme is not wise either. The goal we should hold collectively is to expose US policies and their effects on the global community. Most Americans have no idea what all of this means. The beauty of ONE.org is that they have a team that understands the issues, effectively summarize them and then provides a simple call to action. It is up to us to learn it and spread it - not just write our own letters and make calls. If we think the US farm subsidies are unjust - start digging into US energy policy for a real eye-opener. It’s not all doom and gloom though - we can actually make a difference - and we are! It’s not going to be a quick win, but a long struggle. We must remain united in this struggle and build our numbers as advocates of justice - not capitalism.
November 13th, 2007 at 10:42 pm
Maybe I’m just clueless, but what is being amended here?
November 14th, 2007 at 12:13 pm
If you want to learn more about the farm bill and the effect it has on our food supply (why junk food is so cheap and fruits and vegetables are so expensive), read this article by Michael Pollan, author of “The Omnivore’s Dilemma”: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/22/magazine/22wwlnlede.t.html?_r=6&adxnnl=0&oref=login&ref=magazine&adxnnlx=1177352632-APzwkCypnE3t7RELZTBSYw&&oref=login
November 19th, 2007 at 2:17 pm
So what’s the staus on the FRESH and the Grassley-Dorgan Payment Limits Amendments? I thought they were going to vote on the 14th.
November 23rd, 2007 at 12:15 am
I hope some of you out there know of somthing called non tariff barriers…a slick way to inhibit foodstuffs ( and other imports as well) getting past our system.
Also do your part and do not serve a 3000 mile salid and watch the carbon $$$$ on the imported bottled waters.. you might as well be washing your 3000 mile greens with this wasteful h20
December 11th, 2007 at 3:14 pm
I am not very politically intelligent, but to hear that subsidies drive down world food costs is to my mind a good thing. Don’t we want cheaper food to go to more people? I thought this ONE program was to reduce poverty and starvation. Perhaps because I am distant from the farming concepts I may sound cold hearted, but farmers won’t starve, the people who can’t afford the increased costs due to lack of subsidies will. To assume everyone has a local farmers market is ill conceived as well as forcing people to diet by increasing costs. If there are issues with food quality and hormones, change legislation there?
December 11th, 2007 at 3:21 pm
This is what we need to do as Americans and as a world as ONE, we need to help everyone as one, and stand together, as a whole, not just for ourselves.
December 12th, 2007 at 11:48 am
Joh W-Actually, these commodity payments have a devastating effect on farmers in the developing world who depend upon a fair price for their crops. THEY don’t benefit from suppressed prices brought on by subsidy incentives. Instead they are denied the chance to compete in a fair market, as surplus dumping of these OVER-subsidized crops drives down the value of THEIR crops. Add to that the fact that the majority of these subsidies go to wealthy farmers and agribusiness, not the small family farms that it was originally intended to help.
December 28th, 2007 at 11:25 pm
I’m from Kansas, with farmers all around me. I don’t feel a bit sorry for these so called poor farmers because I have never seen one. Back in the “old” days when my fathers, grandfather was a farmer…thats when there were acuall poor farmers. I’m sick to death of tax payers like myself and my husband paying extra money in taxes so that these farmers can live in brand new homes, and drive brand new vehicles(including their kids). They write off so much nonsense on their taxes its not fuuny. The government helps them all the time, BUT when my husband and I are off from our jobs (seasonal) I don’t see us getting any tax breaks or help from OUR own tax dollars, DO YOU? As a matter of fact, as far as I’m concerned, they don’t even put in the hours that a regular working stiff does. They go into the local coffee shop in the morning and sit on their fat butts IN THE WAY, while I or my husband or the other working stiffs try to get around them to get coffee, so that we may go and put in 13 hours at a job and come home and work. All the while they go home and after feeding the cows go sat on their butts again. Which alot of times, they have farm hands that do that, and they write that off to. And as far as crop farmers its about the same…they plant the crops in their NEW combines( they write off), they spray them(with a automatic sprayer that does the wrok) and they get the crops out and sold in the fall (with help, another write off). I know lots of them BIG farms and SMALL, and let me tell you the government needs to wake up, these people are making really good livings. As a matter of fact I don’t know one that hasn’t got a NEW home and cars and money to boot. BUT I know lots of working, used to be middle class stiffs that don’t have anything new. Iam tired and have seriously looked into moving to a new country because of our government. I love America, but things are getting worse, and I have to give MY children a future too, how about you? And one more thing that bits my butt is these bumper stickers that say “Farmers feed the world”, OH HELL NO…I can grow a garden, and can food including fruit and meat (AND DO), and even raise a animal to feed my family, but a farmer can’t build a combine that they need, like the factory worker can…SO WHO FEEDS WHO
December 28th, 2007 at 11:32 pm
check your local paper or the internet for state rep. addresses, and write to them and ask where our help is? Please look more into this, you wouldn’t believe it! After all the majority should rule… and thats the poor to middle income, and I don’t consider a farmer middle income.
December 28th, 2007 at 11:37 pm
one more thing an example…a farmer can write off $6000, in wages that he says he pays to a spouse if he makes $100,000. A SPOUSE, WHO PROFITS TOO!!!!! And its all legal. Its called “the domestic deduction”, how would I like to get a deduction like that for doing housework!!!
May 29th, 2008 at 10:38 pm
Take, it is here…