Today, the House of Representatives voted 318-106 to pass a $300 billion, 5 year Farm Bill. While the bill funds some domestic conservation and nutrition programs and food aid, it also includes agricultural subsidies that have a tangible impact on global poverty. Agricultural subsidies, which Japan and other rich countries in Europe use as well, have historically been used to help farmers earn a living when world prices for commodity crops such as wheat, corn, and rice are low and farmers lose revenue. However, these payments can also cause subsidized crops to flood overseas global markets, making it difficult for farmers in poor countries to sell agricultural products in their own markets.
Farm incomes are higher than ever, the US Department of Agriculture reports that net farm income will top $92 billion in 2008, far exceeding the 10-year average of $61 billion. These agricultural subsidies often go to the wealthiest farmers in the country. Even under the new legislation only individual farmers who make $750,000 or more in farm income would be ineligible for direct subsidy payments. The legislation that the House approved today essentially continues subsidy programs that disadvantage the poor. During this time of high food prices, when U.S. farmers are earning at record levels and poor people in developing countries are struggling to feed their families, it makes little sense for the US Congress to pass a program that can have such a damaging impact on farmers in poor countries.
Next the legislation moves to the Senate, where it is likely to pass easily as well. The White House has threatened to veto the legislation when it comes to the President, but House and Senate leaders are saying that they will vote to override a veto, which requires a 2/3 vote in both houses.
To read more on the Farm Bill see the articles below AP article
May 13th, 2008 at 12:08 pm | posted by Margaret McDonnell
It’s gearing up to be an exciting summer for poverty-fighting activists here in the nation’s capital! ONE works closely with several organizations that are hosting national conferences, trainings and advocacy workshops in Washington, DC in May, June and July. Please check them out and spread the word!
May 12th, 2008 at 4:21 pm | posted by ONE.Partners
You signed ONE’s petition to President Bush about the global hunger crisis—137,000 of you did, in fact. Our nation’s leaders are hearing our voices. But this crisis is still in the news. People are still going hungry.
You can keep the pressure on by taking another next step.
Join ONE partner Bread for the World’s emergency online campaign, Recipe for Hope. For six weeks, from Mother’s Day through Father’s Day, you’ll receive an email with an Ingredient for Despair—more information on the causes of this crisis—and an Ingredient for Hope—specific actions you can take to help end it. Bread will tell you something you can do and something you can say to our nation’s leaders. Then we’re all doing our part to help hungry people around the world at this perilous time.
April 9th, 2008 at 5:15 pm | posted by ONE.Partners
Sorry Jim Lehrer, Bill Moyers has you beat this week. Moyers has produced two great shows on hunger and poverty recently. Both feature ONE partner Bread for the World’s president, Rev. David Beckmann.
The April 4 edition of Bill Moyers Journal highlighted the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the problem of global hunger. And this Friday, April 11, Moyers will spend time looking at the farm bill and the effect U.S. commodity payments have on farmers, women, and children. The current farm bill extension is set to expire on April 18, so the show couldn’t be more timely.
February 21st, 2008 at 2:27 pm | posted by ONE.Partners
I’ve been watching the news coverage of President Bush’s trip to Africa with some interest, as I hope many others have too. A presidential trip always garners much press coverage but this time it has been slightly different and for good reason. There is a lot of good news to report from the countries that the president has visited!
Some of it reflects the progress made partly because of things the president has done during his two terms. President Bush focused more attention on Africa than most expected when he took office and more than any other president in recent memory. His initiatives on HIV/AIDS, malaria and the creation of the Millennium Challenge Account will have a lasting impact on the continent, on the lives of individual Africans. One particular story focused on the progress made against malaria and what an amazing difference bed nets were making in reducing the incidence of the debilitating and sometimes deadly disease. Essentially the story showed that additional resources, targeted properly can transform lives.
The president’s trip has, in my mind, served at least two purposes - it has refocused the country’s attention on these important issues and it has demonstrated that with effort, determination and a relatively small amount of money (the total budget for poverty-focused development assistance in 2008 is $15.4 billion—which is less than one half of one percent of the federal budget, of this just over $4 billion goes to Africa), the lives and futures of millions of poor people can be dramatically improved.
There is still so much to be done to reduce hunger, poverty and disease in Africa and around the world. Nearly a billion people around the world live on less than $1 a day and 854 million are hungry. I hope that the stories coming out of Africa in the last few days help motivate us all and provide the presidential candidates with a sense of what is possible. We can meet the Millennium Development Goals. Leadership matters.
-Asma Lateef
(Asma Lateef is the director of the Bread for the World Institute. She blogs regularly at Bread for the World Institute Notes.)
February 13th, 2008 at 2:23 pm | posted by ONE.Partners
Are you interested in honing your skills to become a better organizer? Want the opportunity to interact with other like-minded folks from across the country? ONE partner Bread for the World is looking for the best and brightest 18-35 year old advocates to become our “Hunger Justice Leaders.” If this sounds like you, apply today here.
This summer (June 14-17), we’ll kick the program off with a four-day interactive training in Washington, DC. We’ll pay for the trip and the training for those chosen. Bread for the World’s Hunger Justice Leaders will then commit to leading advocacy efforts to overcome hunger and poverty on their own campuses and in their communities.
Watch the promo video here, and then please forward it on to other people you know who might be interested.
December 10th, 2007 at 3:23 pm | posted by ONE.Partners
About a month ago, we asked you to take action on the farm bill. Thousands of you made phone calls to your senators urging broad reform of the farm bill. Yet, the senate was delayed in taking action. After many false starts, the senate is likely to begin voting on amendments to the farm bill on Tuesday, December 11.
Even if you’ve called before, please take the time to call again. This may be our last chance to impact our senators.
I had the extreme personal honor this month of being invited to a morning with Dr. David Beckmann, the President of Bread for the World. It was unexpected and I was delighted: I wouldn’t have missed it for anything. The big issue up for discussion was the Farm Bill. It’s time to raise awareness and mobilize for real change.
Before we got started, I asked Dr. Beckman’s assistant if I could pass around the ONE petition, and thank the good Lord, before I left I stuffed a fistful of ONE bands in my bag, too. After we circled the room with introductions, I was asked by Dr. Beckmann to please pass ONE bands around the room, and the a sign-up form for ONE. I’m so glad I didn’t have the embarrassment of not having any on me! Well, this is interesting: all but one person in the room was already signed up and getting the action items and emails. That is so cool!
Bread for the World is an original ONE partner. The early ONE volunteers in our regions are indebted to their offices for taking our calls during 2004 and 2005 prior to an interactive yahoo site with groups and regional leadership, training, and toolkits.
I was anticipating a large sanctuary-full of people. Instead, I found myself in a comfortable setting with about one dozen other active members of the anti-poverty movement. The interaction with Dr. Beckmann and among the local activists proved invaluable. The partnership with ONE was commended often for our participation in hunger and extreme poverty and campaigns, such as ONE Vote ’08.
The Farm Bill is anticipated to hit the floor of the Senate later this week or the beginning of next week. We have been encouraged to contact our senators and ask them to support the “FRESH” amendments to the Grassley/Dorgan amendment, that would cap commodity payments to $250,000 per household, and the Lugar/Lautenberg Amendment that broaden the agricultural safety net by making a free revenue insurance program available to all farmers, saving billions of dollars to be used for nutrition, conservation, the McGovern-Dole international school meals program and more.
As noted in a previous blog, we either need to act now or we will have to wait five more years until the Farm Bill is revisited again. This Bill also addresses non-domestic agricultural trade issues, and as we enter the holiday season, we indeed can use our voice on behalf of the extreme hunger, to truly “feed the world, let them know its Christmastime.”
August 6th, 2007 at 11:18 am | posted by Virginia Simmons
We’re back.
Susan McCue, John Ryan, Weldon Kennedy, Aaron Banks, Annisa Wanat and I are back from YearlyKos, the progressive netroot’s yearly conference.
Our mission: to make ONE a presence.
The fact: People kept telling me, “it seems like ONE is everywhere.”
Throughout the weekend
*We hosted a global poverty panel;
*Distributed ONE bands and shirts to each of the 2,000 attendees;
*Held a demonstration outside (expect a post from annisa on it);
*Attended five democratic presidential candidate caucuses (Obama, Edwards, Clinton, Richardson and Dodd); and
*In the process of building a crowd for our panel and talking about global poverty issues at other panels, and in the hallways in between, we did our best to get the word out to every one we saw.
Our panelists
*Susan McCue (ONE’s President);
*Christina Siun (blogger at FireDogLake);
*David Beckmann (Bread for the Word’s President);
*Natalie Sugira (native Rwandan and ONE ambassador); and
*Gene Sperling (Center for Universal Education Director and Global Campaign for Education U.S. Chair)
were remarkable. If you get a chance to see them speak, do.
You can view the first 12 minutes of the panel on this ustream video, and you can check out Matthew Yglesias’ live blog post, from the event.
(Important comment to conservative bloggers: build a conference and ONE will be there!)
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3. Uplifting worship service, preceded by free wine at the reception! 
You signed ONE’s petition to President Bush about the global hunger crisis—137,000 of you did, in fact. Our nation’s leaders are hearing our voices. But this crisis is still in the news. People are still going hungry. 
We’re back.
Our panelists
