The Farm Bill Gets FRESH
by Jasmin Malik Chua, Jersey City, USA on 11. 5.07
Photo credit: feaverish
A glimmer of hope in the Farm Bill saga: Sens. Frank R. Lautenberg (D-N.J.) and Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.) have proposed a Farm Bill reform called the Farm, Ranch, Equity, Stewardship and Health (FRESH) Act, which would end billions of depression-era federal crop subsidies, while expanding free crop insurance to farmers earning less than $250,000 a year.
Unlike the current system—which benefits mostly Midwestern corporate agribusiness, produces surplus commodity exports that distort domestic and foreign agricultural markets, and makes us all fat—the proposed bill would be a boon to all farmers, regardless of the crops they grow or where they farm.
Under the Lugar-Lautenberg bill, more cash would go to land conservation, hunger relief efforts, and support a wider range of healthier foods. Plus over five years, these reforms would create more than $16 billion in additional savings that would be available for reinvesting in our food system.
The Senate will be debating the Farm Bill throughout the week starting this afternoon. It's still not to late to e-mail your senators to ask them to do the right thing by all of us. ::FRESH Act
I am very interested in this topic sense a little after becoming an Environmental Management major.
I think this is many things that need reform, like the executive branch.
In fact, I'm trying to think of questions to ask the candidates that would show these things.
This would be truly historic. The entire food supply chain would shift - for the better.
Let's hope. Seems every time a good idea comes up in Congress (a rarity unto itself) the lobbyists and the bought-and-paid for incumbents of affected states promptly destroy it.
Will the good of the country finally trump the good of a few constituents (corn, soy producers, meat factories a la Cargill?).