This week, both the Senate and the House of Representatives are making crucial steps to advance food and farm policy. Your voice is needed now: tell your members of Congress to enact a multi-year farm bill that alleviates hunger and malnutrition, supports vibrant farms and rural communities, and protects God’s creation.
Click here to send a message to your Members of Congress by email.
For a toll-free option, you can dial 1-800-826-3688 to reach your Senators’ and Representatives’ offices. (Even if your Senators or Representative do not serve on Agriculture Committees, their support and encouragement are strongly needed for a positive Farm Bill outcome coming out of Committee!)
Our nation’s food and farm policies, as embodied in the farm bill, affect people from rural America to inner cities, from our local communities to less industrialized regions around the world. The farm bill is the single largest piece of federal policy impacting our food system. A good farm bill can strengthen nutrition programs like SNAP (formerly Food Stamps), help our struggling rural communities, support new and socially disadvantaged farmers, enhance global food aid to the world’s most impoverished, and encourage farming and ranching practices that protect God’s creation.
Now is the time to act. Join hundreds of other Christians today by urging Congress to pass a multi-year reauthorization of the farm bill that fights hunger, supports vibrant communities, and protects God’s creation. Write to your Members of Congress now!
Background:
Both the House and Senate Agriculture Committees will be marking up versions of the farm bill this week. Congress failed to pass a farm bill in 2012, and a number of important programs that promote a just and healthy food system are currently without funding. Other programs are continuing, but need the certainty provided by a multi-year farm bill.
The Senate farm bill will likely look very similar to last year’s stalled bill with roughly $23 billion in proposed cuts. About $4 billion will come from nutrition programs and roughly another $6 billion from conservation programs. The rest of the major savings will come from changes to commodity and crop insurance programs.
The House bill is expected to cut deeper than last year, aiming for $38 billion in total cuts over ten years. $20 billion of those cuts will come from the nutrition title but it is unclear how the remaining $18 billion will be divided amongst the rest of the titles.
For further reading:
Principles for a Faithful Farm Bill
Ecumenical Advocacy Days “ask” material
Ecumenical Advocacy Days “ask” Talking Points
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