The past two days House has been busy debating on what to do with $286 billion of our tax dollars over the next five years. Several Kossacks (myself included) have tried to call attention to the matter, with absolutely zero success. I'm at a loss for what more to do, short of posting topless pics of myself - which would undoubtedly bring in the recs, although it might distract readers from the key points I'm trying to make.
Perhaps this pic of some hot, sexy, naked chicks will bring in a few recs so we can start paying attention to the big thing happening in Washington OTHER THAN Gonzogate right now:
What am I talking about? The farm bill of course. Now don't go close your browser or click over to another diary about Bill O'Reilly. I promise I'll make this one interesting, if you will do me the favor of reading it.
OK, get over your anger with me for posting chickens (come on, it's a farm bill diary) instead of naked women. Here's the deal on the farm bill:
By The Numbers
Over the next five years, here's where the money is going:
Subsidies and other help for farmers: $42 billion.
Conservation programs designed to help protect the land: $25 billion.
Food stamps and other nutrition programs: $190 billion.
Other, including rural development, research and energy programs: $29 billion.
Source
One great way to think about this spending (sadly) is that the $42 billion in subsidies mainly goes to subsidize commodity crops that humans don't directly eat - corn, wheat, rice, soy, cotton, etc. Those commodities are the raw materials for the mountain of processed foods we make - and the $190 billion in food stamps, etc, goes to help Americans buy them.
A worthy goal for us progressives is to break that cycle in what ways we can, without committing political suicide by using tactics that are cruel to struggling farmers.
Successful, Progressive Programs We Should Support
What do I mean when I say we should break that cycle? Well, when we allow people to spend food stamps at farmers' markets we break that cycle. We still manage to feed those who need it and support farmers, but we do it in a way that doesn't involve the middlemen of Archer Daniels Midland, Coca-Cola, and McDonalds.
Community Food Projects: CFP is a competitive grant program that has funded community projects all over America since 1996. The winning programs use the one-time grant money to get going and remain financially independent after the fact. In other words - the more years we fund this program, the more awesome community projects we'll have all over America.
The projects range from teaching at-risk youth (such as those in a juvenile delinquent facility) to grow their own food and deliver fresh fruits and veggies to the elderly and disabled to helping poverty-stricken Native Americans re-learn traditional methods of food cultivation, thus helping the environment while simultaneously lowering the participants' risks of diabetes.
For us taxpayers, this is a bargain. We pay a relatively low price tag once and get benefits that multiply in our communities for years to come. Awesome? Yes. Funded by the House version of the Farm Bill? No.
Conservation Security Projects: I'll give you Natasha's words here.
CSP rewards farmers for genuine sustainability practices and already has low individual payment limits. It provides help for farmers to create a comprehensive nutrient management plan and encourages conservation tillage and contour planting. Also important in a time like this where the temptation is to grow an endless succession of corn crops, it promotes crop rotation and sensible cover cropping.
Another progressive sounding winner. Promotes conservation, helps farmers... I love it.
These programs alone won't mean the end for high fructose corn syrup and the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico. They'll just help in small ways, chipping away at industrialized agriculture and the chemical nastiness we put into our soil, water, air, and own own bodies. But just because they aren't THE solution that will make things perfect doesn't mean we shouldn't fight tooth and nail for them. Solving all our problems might not require one big sweeping reform, but rather the tactic we've heard of as the GOP's way of stealing elections: death by a thousand papercuts.
Yesterday's News
Unfortunately, for the kickass Democratic House we managed to elect, we've got a dud as an Ag Committee chair - Collin Peterson. When the Farm Bill left the Ag Committee, it contained ZERO funding for the CFP program mentioned above - and that was hardly the only problem with it. Over one hundred amendments were proposed, but the House debated less than one-third of them... for about ten minutes each.
Amendments that got ignored included one by Blumenauer to fund CFP, a few by Kucinich to research the risks posed by biotech and the economic losses suffered by farmers as a result, and another amendment that would allow farmers to voluntarily test for mad cow disease.
Obviously Monsanto wants no one to find out what, if any, risks or adverse effects may arise from genetically engineering our food, nor do the Cattlemen want anyone to test to much for mad cow (god forbid, they might find some!). But we're in power now - shouldn't we be able to win a few of these battles finally?
You can find a list of amendments debated here. FYI, the Ron Kind "Farm 21" amendment, which has been hotly debated here on dKos (at least a few who pay attention) failed (woohoo!!!).
Today's News
The debate finishes today, along with a vote. Naturally, the Bush administration is already talking about a veto. The House version of the bill isn't perfect - in fact, in many ways it's not even "the best we can do" in terms of working within current political realities. If Bush is using the V-word, then we must be doing something right, but at the very least, we could fund CFP - even the Republicans have done that since the programs' start in 1996.
The next step will be getting the bill through the Senate. The good news for us is that we can pick ourselves up from our defeats in the House, dust ourselves off, and start fresh by calling our Senators when the time comes.
Naturally, it's been a busy time for us as we've been prepping for YearlyKos, fighting with Bill O'Reilly, and munching popcorn as we sit back and watch the Gonzo story heat up more every day. Now that our chance to affect change in the House has basically passed, let's plan to get active when it gets to the Senate.
Those who profit big off of America's ag policy RELY on everyone else thinking this stuff is boring and irrelevant. We've talked about getting involved in the farm bill debate for a year now, so now let's put our money where our mouths are. If we want to turn around half a century of pro-Big Ag, anti-American people farm policy, we've gotta pay attention.
UPDATE: A Siegel asked a great question: What do you want me to do? The time to call your rep has basically passed, so now it's time for LTEs and calls to your Senator (which will no doubt become more timely and urgent as the Senate starts debating this stuff in the coming weeks). I've got a few past diaries with info on specific issues. They are this one about a livestock practice that denies the powerless access to court (and certainly doesn't help the environment, the economy, or the quality of our meat any either) and the Conservation Security Program. There's also this one about the Community Food Projects competitive grants program, left unfunded by the House version of the farm bill. If you're looking for LTE material, start there.