Religious Leaders to Congress: Vote for Real Farm Bill Reform
Roll Call Ad Bolsters Values Message to Congress on Eve of House Floor Vote
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
(Washington, D.C.) – As the 2007 Farm Bill heads to the House floor tomorrow, Christian leaders are calling upon Members of Congress to reform the bill passed by the House Agriculture Committee to redirect resources to those who need them most. In last-minute lobby efforts and an ad that will run in Roll Call tomorrow, they are urging members to support reform amendments like the Fairness in Farm and Food Policy Amendment, sponsored by Congressmen Kind (D-WI) and Flake (R- AZ).
“The Fairness Amendment is the only farm bill proposal that approaches justice,” said Rev. David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World. “It will make our nation's farm policy work for farmers in the 21st century and help people who struggle to feed their families.”
“The Farm Bill passed by the House Agriculture Committee fails to reflect our most deeply held biblical and moral values of fairness, equity, and justice,” said Rev. Jim Wallis, Editor and Executive Director of Sojourners/Call to Renewal, “Congress is faced with a real test of moral leadership in changing currently unjust policy that props up the wealthiest farmers and landowners at the expense of struggling family farms and people living in poverty at home and abroad. The Fairness Amendment provides desperately needed reform to improve conservation, nutrition, rural development.”
Leaders agree that the Farm Bill passed by the House Agriculture Committee harms poor farmers around the world.
“It undermines the livelihoods of American farmers and violates the global consensus on fair trade and fighting the extreme poverty that kills 30,000 of God's people each day,” said The Right Reverend John Bryson Chane, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington.
"If we fail to provide real reform to trade distorting commodity programs, then our subsidized export is not food, but poverty for the developing world," Rev. Dr. Earl Trent, Jr., of the Progressive National Baptist Convention said.
"We can and must do more to address the plight of struggling family farmers,” said the Most Rev. Ronald Gilmore, Bishop of Dodge City, Kansas and president of National Catholic Rural Life Conference. “Have we honestly done enough to target farm supports to those who need it most?"
Specifically, the House Agriculture Committee-passed bill:
* cuts $1.8 billion from the nutrition title improvements approved by the Nutrition subcommittee
* increases payments to the largest farms
* fails to meet the needs of struggling farms and rural families in the US
* fails to reform trade distorting commodity programs that paralyze the efforts of farmers in poor countries to feed their families and earn their way out of poverty
* restores a controversial cotton subsidy ruled in violation of our existing international treaty obligations
* fails to provide increased funding and access to programs that protect God's creation.
“The House Agriculture Committee's bill is unjust: it maintains the status quo on a commodity system that does not support the majority of farmers in the US, while harming farmers in poor countries,” said Rev. Philip Hougen, bishop of the Southeast Iowa Synod Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. “Members of Congress are now faced with a moral choice, and we urge them to support real reform of US agriculture policy, as encompassed in the Fairness in Farm and Food Policy Amendment."
Intensive lobbying efforts of organizations participating in the Religious Working Group on the Farm Bill have included nearly 1,000 lobby visits, and more than 85,000 letters and 8,000 phone calls to Members of Congress.
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CONTACT: Katie Barge, Faith in Public Life, kbarge@faithinpubliclife.org 202-481-8147 / 202-243-8289; Shawnda Hines, Bread for the World, shines@bread.org 301-960-4913; Mary Minette, ELCA, Mary.minette@elca.org 703-477-7995; John Johnson, Episcopal Church, jjohnson@episcopalchurch.org 202-547-7300
