Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act
S. 3289
The Food, Conservation, and Energy Act, otherwise known as the Food and Farm Bill, was enacted in June over a presidential veto. Although the bill failed to provide much needed reform to our current system of agricultural subsidies, it did create and expand some exciting programs that support more sustainable forms of agriculture. These programs include increased financial support to help farmers switch to organic production methods and to pay annual organic certification fees, and research funding to study traditional plant and animal breeding and prudent antibiotics use in agriculture. In addition, the bill expands the Conservation Stewardship Program, which rewards farmers who follow conservation practices—like those highlighted in our latest installment of Green Cuisine.
Now, these important conservation programs and improvements are at risk of losing significant levels of promised funding mere months after they were enacted. The Senate agriculture appropriations bill has proposed a total of $336 million in cuts to conservation measures in fiscal year 2009—a whopping 70 percent of the total gains for conservation programs in the 2008 Food and Farm Bill. For example, the senate has proposed cutting $285 million from the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP). EQIP is a conservation program that provides cost-sharing and technical support to farmers and livestock producers for implementing conservation practices. The program was significantly improved in this Food and Farm Bill by adding conversion to organic farming systems as a priority area to support. Now this program is one of many at risk of being severely gutted.
Meanwhile, the vast majority of direct subsidies for farmers (which do not require any conditions that the land be being adequately managed to protect human and environmental health) has been left untouched by Congress. About $5 billion was spent on direct subsides in 2007 alone!
Conservation programs provide essential support to farmers and ranchers who responsibly manage their land. In addition, these government resources help protect the foundations of food production—clean water, fresh air, and healthy soil—so that they are available for future generations. In the face of mounting economic and other pressures to adopt destructive, intensive, industrial-style methods of crop and animal production, these government programs, which look out for long-term interests, are more important than ever. For example, the Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program has created millions of acres of high-quality habitat on private land since the program was launched in 1998, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The Food and Farm Bill authorized $85 million to continue this critical program, yet already senators are recommending a 13 percent funding cut.
