Take
Action While Your Senators are Home for the
Memorial Day Recess and Urge Them to Support a
Fair Farm Bill!
Tell your Senators that our
nation needs to feed the hungry, preserve God's
creation, support small family
farmers, and help rural America
thrive.
Take Action
Now!
During the Memorial Day
recess take the opportunity to visit,
call, or write your Senators and
urge them to support a Farm Bill that will help
feed hungry people here at home and abroad,
support growth in U.S. rural communities and
promote stewardship of God's creation. The Senate
will vote soon on its version of 2012 Farm Bill
and their decisions will impact the lives of
hungry people at home and abroad and the lives of
our brothers and sisters around the
world.
The United States
Conference of Catholic Bishops, in partnership
with Catholic Relief Services, Catholic
Charities USA, and the National Catholic
Rural Life Conference, have identified some
positive provisions in the bill that we support as
well as some provisions that need improving. We
ask you to set up a district meeting with your
Senators and urge them to support policies in the
Farm Bill that:
- Oppose cuts or harmful
changes in domestic hunger and nutrition
programs such as SNAP (formerly food stamps)
that will harm hungry and vulnerable people;
- Maintain funding for
the Food for Peace Food Aid program to combat
chronic hunger and provide nutritious foods to
poor and malnourished families overseas;
- Preserve funding for
overseas anti-hunger programs that provide
resiliency in the face of emergencies and are
funded through the Food for Peace development
"safe box";
- Fully fund important
conservation programs such as the Conservation
Stewardship Program (CSP), the Environmental
Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) and other
programs that promote stewardship of God's
creation;
- Preserve funding for
rural development programs such as Value-Added
Producer Grants, the Rural Micro-Entrepreneur
Assistance Program (RMAP) and other programs
that helps rural communities thrive and;
- Redirect subsidies to
small and medium-sized farms, especially
minority owned farms and ranches that truly need
assistance. Savings from reductions should be
used to fund domestic nutrition and
international assistance programs.
CURRENT SITUATION:
Senators will be home in
their districts for the Memorial Day recess
starting on May 25. We anticipate that when they
return to Washington they will finalize and vote
on the Senate version of the Farm Bill.
The Senate is considering
Farm Bill legislation that will reduce agriculture
funding over 10 years by $23 billion. This
includes over $4 billion in proposed cuts to the
food stamp (SNAP) program and over $6 billion in
cuts to conservation programs. At this time of
continued unemployment and high levels of poverty,
the Senate should oppose cuts to effective and
efficient anti-hunger programs that help people
live in dignity.
The
Senate's proposal calls for ending some subsidies
(direct payments) and this is a step in the right
direction. Further reductions and re-directing
subsidies that disproportionately go to larger
growers and agribusiness are still needed. Savings
from cuts to subsidies should be used to support
hunger and nutrition programs that feed hungry,
poor and vulnerable people at home and abroad.
The bishops acknowledge that
reducing future unsustainable deficits is
important but remind Congress that their decisions
are not just economic in nature but are "political
and moral
choices with human consequences." As
pastors and teachers they offer several moral
criteria to help guide difficult budgetary
decisions. Read their recent letter on potential
SNAP cuts here.
USCCB POSITION/CHURCH
TEACHING: Last October in his Address on
the Occasion of World Food Day 2011, Pope Benedict
stated that "liberation from the yoke of hunger is
the first concrete expression of the right to
life." The U.S. bishops join the Holy Father in
asserting that food is a fundamental human right.
In, For I Was Hungry and You Gave Me Food,"
the bishops wrote, "the primary goals of
agriculture policies should be providing food for
all people and reducing poverty among farmers and
farm workers in this country and abroad." The U.S.
bishops urge Congress to join them and other
Christian leaders by forming a "circle of
protection" around programs that serve hungry,
poor and vulnerable people.
Take Action
Now!
Your voice is needed now to
make sure that the Farm Bill feeds the hungry,
preserves God's creation, and supports small
family farmers and rural America. To set up an
appointment and meet with Senators, visit
this website where you will find their
websites with district office address and
telephone information. To send an e-mail to your
Senators, click here.
