Farm Bill in the House 
The Farm Bill enters the House Agriculture Committee tomorrow

  

The Farm Bill is a critical opportunity to create policies that can help deliver affordable, regionally grown food to schools. The House Agriculture Committee will begin their discussion of the bill tomorrow, July 11. Advocates did a great job improving the Senate Farm Bill by speaking up.

 

Now we must do the same for the House Bill so the final version supports supply chains for fresh foods from local farms, and protects food access for our most vulnerable citizens -- especially school children. Every call makes a difference!

 
Take Action!

 

Use this chart to see if your Representative serves on the House Agriculture Committee (you can find out their name by typing your zip code into Congress.org).

 

If so, contact their office directly. If not, contact Chairman Frank Lucas* and ranking member Collin Peterson** and tell them that you want Congress to:

  • Keep the "fresh" in the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program
  • Fully fund SNAP (food stamps)
  • Fully fund Rural Development programs and keep the definition of "local" in the hands of local decision makers, including school districts

*Contact info for Chelsea Barnett, aide to Representative Lucas:

(202) 225-5565 and chelsea.barnett@mail.house.gov 

 

**Contact info for Rebekah Solem, aide to Representative Peterson:

(202) 225-2165 and rebekah.solem@mail.house.gov  

 

THANK YOU FOR TAKING ACTION!

 

Please feel free to forward this alert to your networks.

 

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Farm Bill background


Funding for Rural Development Programs

Consumers, small and mid-sized farms, local economies, and the environment and -- with school districts ramping up regional food purchases for meal programs, our nation's children -- all stand to benefit from increased support for regionally produced foods. Yet, the ability to meet this demand is limited by outdated or nonexistent infrastructure along the supply chain. Several Rural Development programs such as Community Food Projects, Value Added Producer Grants, Rural Development Business and Industry Loan Programs, Rural Business Opportunity Grants and Rural Business Enterprise Grants, can help to fill these gaps. The draft bill cuts funding for rural economic development by 88 percent when compared to the average funding levels of the past three Farm Bills.

 

Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program (FFVP)   

It's important that FFVP remain a fresh fruit and vegetable program because it is the only child nutrition program that provides adequate funding for schools to serve a wide variety of fresh fruits and vegetables. Children already have access to canned, frozen, and dried fruits and vegetables through the school lunch, breakfast, and after-school programs. Including other fruit and vegetable forms would complicate implementation of the program and risk compromising the integrity of its nutritional contribution. Many schools aspire to serve more fresh fruits and vegetables, and the FFVP has expanded that opportunity.

 

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)

The Agriculture Committee proposal would cut the Supplemental Assistance Nutrition Program (SNAP, formerly known as the Food Stamp Program) by $16.5 billion over the next decade, eliminating food assistance to 2 to 3 million low-income people, mostly low-income working families with school-aged children and seniors. The entire difference between the overall sizes of the two farm bill packages is due to the much larger Lucas-Peterson cuts to SNAP. Read a full analysis from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities [PDF].

 

Read the House Agriculture Committee full farm bill draft [PDF] or summary [PDF].  

 

Check the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition's blog for detailed analysis and updates on the House proposal.