Tag Archives: farm subsidies

CFJC Response to Fiscal Cliff Deal and Farm Bill


Posted by HFHP Coalition
Cross-posted from the Community Food and Justice Coalition

While on vacation in Hawaii, President Obama signed the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 on Thursday. Almost unnoticed, a one-year Farm Bill extension was attached to the fiscal cliff legislation, which is far from the comprehensive extension of the 2008 Farm Bill that CFJC and partners had been tracking hourly throughout the holidays. The Farm Bill extension deal reached in the 11th hour negotiations on January 1 is a disaster for famers, eaters, and the environment. Along with many across the country, at CFJC we are extremely disappointed in Congress and the White House for the unusual process that excluded the voices of many farmers, workers and communities who will be impacted by the Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012.

Our D.C. partners, and other groups fighting for an equitable and sustainable Farm Bill, were in conversations with Congressional staff to ensure critical programs to farmers and communities would be included in any Farm Bill extension. And it did look as though, while not perfect, a fair Farm Bill extension was in the works until just hours before the legislation was finally passed, when Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell went into backroom negotiations with Vice President Joe Biden and stripped away all that had been negotiated. This demonstration of lack of transparency in the 2012 Farm Bill extension and backroom deals eschews the needs of everyday people. CFJC views policy as a critical intervention for communities to take back their food system. Mitch McConnell’s version of the Farm Bill puts profit before people and sacrifices farmers and communities for the sake of industrial agriculture.

The Farm Bill extension that passed does not make sense. For example, it continues direct subsidies despite both the Senate and the House Agriculture Committees’ earlier agreement to permanently eliminate these payments for commodity production. At the same time, it cuts disaster aid for livestock and fruit producers, who have suffered for three years from extreme heat and drought. Additionally, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program- Education (SNAP-Ed) was cut by almost a third for the 2013 fiscal year; this was never part of either version of the Senate or House Agriculture Committee bills. Furthermore, the 37 critical programs, which range from Outreach and Assistance for Socially Disadvantaged Farmers and Ranchers to Beginning Farmer Development, Rural Development, Specialty Crop, Organic and Urban Agriculture, and others, that CFJC and our partner groups fought for were also left out of the Farm Bill extension deal.

Click here for the full post.


From Food Safety News: Why Fruits,Vegetables are Excluded from Farm Subsidies


Posted by HFHP Coalition
Article Synopsis:

Subsidizing American fruit and vegetable production is one of the ideas that public health advocates often propose to improve farm policy.  This article explains why specialty crops (as fruits, vegetables and tree nuts are called in the world of agriculture) are not subsidized and the historic opposition from the fruit and vegetable industry to farm proposals that would have encouraged commodity crop farmers to diversify production.

Although large fruits and vegetables farmers do not receive direct or counter-cyclical payments as corn farmers do, for example, the industry does receive significant government support through purchases for the school feeding programs and food banks. The article is helpful for understanding the complex relationships among growers of different types of foods and how  large and small farmers growing the same crops may have very different policy perspectives.  Just as with public health, “agriculture” is a complex and heterogeneous sector.