Farm Bill Craziness

By Madaline Goldstein

This week, I spoke to the group about our nation's farm bill- a $300 billion piece of legislation that is up for renewal next year. The Bill does a lot of good- it does the food stamps program, school lunches, and land conservation. But all of these beneficial programs are negated by the effects of a piece of the legislation- farm subsidies.

Why does giving out $25 billion per year to farmers hurt our country and the world? Because all they are growing with that money is corn, soybean, wheat, rice, and cotton. No vegetables. No fruit. And it's not even small, family farms receiving the aid- it's the huge agriprocessors who spend millions of dollars lobbying Congress to get these billions.

As a result, junk food is cheaper than produce. As a result, corn is in 25% of grocery products. As a result, Americans are not getting the nutrients they need. As a result, our environment is being destroyed with these vast lands of monocultures, killing biodiversity and demanding huge amounts of chemical, toxic inputs. As a result, farmers in developing countries cannot compete with America's cheap corn and are forced off their land.

This needs to change. You can watch this video to really see the pervasiveness of commodity crops and why we need to let Congress know how we want our tax money spent- not on huge corporations destroying our environment and our health, but on our local veggie farmer.

http://vimeo.com/21318179