Breaking: Secret Farm Bill Deal About to be Made

Breaking: Secret Farm Bill Deal About to be Made
Posted by Dave on November 17, 2011

24 hours to stop Corporate Greed from writing a "Secret Farm Bill" behind closed doors! Make a stand with farmers and eaters everywhere!

Take action today or the next opportunity we could get at serious food policy reform is not until 2017!

Help kill the "Secret Farm Bill" - Deal could be finalized within hours - Contact Congress today!

For the past month rumors about the Secret Farm Bill have been slowly leaking out and it’s not pretty. While signs of breakdown in the process have been widely reported, late last night House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas (R-OK) told Politico that an agreement over the controversial commodity title that has subsidized cheap grain and corporate farms could reach an agreement as early as tonight!

Not only have only 4 members of Congress locked themselves behind closed doors with the self-imposed mission of shutting down the normally open and transparent Farm Bill process, but news of their budget “priorities” in this process are continuing to alarm farmers and eaters everywhere.

Already 24,532 Food Democracy Now! members have made over 50,000 phone calls to the House and Senate leadership responsible for the corrupt process now known as the Secret Farm Bill. Today we need your help more than ever.

Click here to let Congress know that you oppose the corrupt Secret Farm Bill process. If you want to have healthy, sustainable and organic food in the years to come, please make a call today. Please remind them that an open and transparent Farm Bill process is important to you.

http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/sign/killsecret_farmbillnow/

As you know, the House and Senate ag committee leadership have taken it upon themselves to carve out some $23 billion in cuts to U.S. food and agricultural programs over the next 10 years in an effort to meet the artificial target of $1.2 trillion in budget cuts set by the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, otherwise known as the Super Committee.

As has been widely reported, the House and Senate Ag leadership has agreed to cut some $13 billion from the subsidy programs, $6 billion from conservation and an estimated $4 billion from nutrition such as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programs (SNAP), also known as food stamps.

While reports of the end of direct payments in subsidies to farmers have been received as welcome progress, the new “safety net” program being put forward to replace them is a new revenue-based “shallow loss” insurance program could be even more of a boondoggle for taxpayers and the environment.

At the same time, gutting vital nutrition programs in an era of record unemployed and increasing economic uncertainty seems corrupt and shortsighted. Earlier this month, the USDA released new data that showed that Americans are struggling now more than ever, with a record 45.8 million Americans in August receiving nutritional assistance funds (food stamps) as unemployment remained at 9.1 percent nationwide.

Farmers and the American people deserve an open and transparent process on these vital issues, not another set of behind closed-door deals with giant corporate lobbyists! It’s time put an end to corruption in Washington. Don’t let agribusiness write the next Farm Bill under cover of darkness.

It’s time to put America’s farmers and citizens over agribusiness profits. Please take 30 seconds to call the House and Senate Ag leadership and tell them that you oppose any backdoor deals on the Secret Farm Bill.