 Call Sens. Lugar and Coats to stop a bad Farm Bill. Dear Melissa, Despite hearing from more than 120,000 activists from CREDO Action and the Environmental Working Group, the five-year Farm Bill moving through the senate remains a disappointment. The Senate Agriculture Committee has proposed major cuts to vital nutrition programs, and Big Ag has succeeded in retaining billions of dollars in wasteful giveaways, while slashing important conservation programs needed to protect our soil, land and water. But the fight is not over. The senate this week is voting on crucial amendments that could undo some of the most damaging components of this legislation. But building enough support to pass these measures will be hard. Your Senators need to hear from you. Call Sens. Lugar and Coats: Stop the Big Ag giveaways and environmental rollbacks. Support healthy food in the Farm Bill! Click here for a simple script and number to call. The Farm Bill only comes around once every five years. And as Americans are increasingly calling for greater access to healthy food, it is disappointing that Big Ag has successfully been able to largely keep the $100-billion-per year Farm Bill as an extension of our overly industrialized food system — rewarding mega-farms producing commodity crops and not doing enough to encourage healthy, local and organic food. While the legislation does make a major change from our current system of direct subsidy payments to a more sensible system of crop insurance, major loopholes leave taxpayers on the hook for billions in dollars of payments to mega-farms, and allow farmers to ignore basic soil and wetlands protection measures. Three amendments address some of the biggest problems with the Farm Bill:2 To limit wasteful subsidy giveaways, Senators Coburn (R-OK) and Durbin (D-IL) have introduced an amendment that limits insurance subsidy payments to the largest farmers. To protect soil and wetlands, Senator Cardin (D-MD) has introduced an amendment that restores a requirement that farmers receiving subsidy payments follow basic environmental protections. To protect healthy food and nutrition, Senator Gilibrand (D-NY) has proposed an amendment that restores billions of dollars in cuts to the federal food stamp nutrition program, and provides more funding to put fruits and vegetables in schools. No legislation does more than the Farm Bill to determine the food that ends up on our plates. These amendments are our best chance to make improvements to the Farm Bill, and insure that access to healthy foods isn't drastically reduced. That's why so many food and nutrition leaders are calling on the senate to implement these reforms.3 Please support healthy food, environmental protection and fewer giveaways now by calling Sens. Lugar and Coats. Click here for a simple script and number to call:
http://act.credoaction.com/call?tg=FSIN_1.FSIN_2&cp_id=235&id=41572-4888946-MAnV3fx&t=7 Thanks for working for a healthier food system. Elijah Zarlin, Campaign Manager
CREDO Action from Working Assets
1. "N.Y. senator proposes to trim $4.5 billion from crop insurance," Minneapolis Star Tribune, June 4, 2012
2. "Join the Senate Floor Fight for a Healthy, Sustainable Food and Farm Billl," Food Democracy Now, June 7, 2012
3. "Nation's top food and nutrition experts call on Congress to invest in healthy food," Environmental Working Group, June 4, 2012 | 
