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OCT.
2, 2007
UPDATED
OCT. 29, 2007
GOVERNMENT POLICY
Religious reformers target farm bill
Religious groups
bolted into the debate over U.S. farm policy this year, linking it with poverty,
nutrition and environmentalism. They are pushing for reforms as Congress hammers
out a hotly debated farm bill, as it does every five years or so. The House
passed a farm bill in July, and the Senate version has just been approved in
committee.
The far-reaching
farm bill is politically sensitive and sets national policy on food stamps,
nutrition programs, farm subsidies and conservation. Religious groups have frequently
weighed in on food stamp and nutrition programs, but this time a wider range
of religious voices are active in the debate on a wider range of issues. They
are working in diverse alliances – often with secular groups – to link farm
policy to the issues of hunger, obesity, food integrity, poverty, justice and
environmentalism in the United States and around the world.
A key discussion
is whether the current farm subsidies program is working, or whether it unfairly
benefits the wealthy while slighting small farmers and rural communities. Groups
such as Bread for the World that advocate reforming commodities distribution
were disappointed with the House bill – though pleased with its nutrition and
conservation programs – and are working hard to lobby the Senate.
The attention to
the farm bill is also part of the growing movement toward sustainable agriculture,
which addresses a range of farm issues, including: environmental concerns, the
decline of family farms, farm laborers' working conditions, increasing production
costs, and economic and social problems in rural communities. It promotes practices
that address these issues and encourages the participation of farmers, laborers,
policy-makers and consumers.
Why it matters
U.S. farm policy
includes issues important to religious communities concerned with poverty, justice
and the environment. While it’s set nationally, the policy plays out at the
grass-roots level, in communities and rural areas around the country.
Jump to:
National sources
Government
Major agricultural groups
Religious
Other players
Sustainable agriculture
Writers
Background
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Click
the map for interview sources
in your state and region
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National
sources
GOVERNMENT
• Charles
Conner is acting U.S. secretary of agriculture. See the Agriculture Department’s
farm bill Web
site and media
kit. Contact through Terri Teuber, director of communications, 202-720-4623,
terri.teuber@usda.gov.
In
the U.S. Senate:
• Sen. Tom Harkin,
D-Iowa, is chairman of the Senate
Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee. Read his statement
on the House passage of the farm bill. He is a member of Bread for the World’s
board.
• See the Web
site of the Senate committee, which includes press releases and information
about the farm bill.
• See a list
of committee members.
• Contact the committee staff, 202-224-2035.
In
the U.S. House:
• Collin C.
Peterson, D-Minn., is chairman of the House Agriculture Committee. Read
his statement
about the farm bill.
• See the committee’s farm
bill page.
• See a list
of committee members.
• Contact the committee staff, 202-225-2171, agriculture@mail.house.gov.
MAJOR
AGRICULTURAL GROUPS
• Bob
Stallman is president of the American
Farm Bureau Federation. The national organization links to state
farm bureaus. Read a July
27, 2007, news release praising the House bill. Contact bstallman@fb.org.
• Stephen
L. Censky is chief executive officer of the American
Soybean Association, which supports the farm bill as passed by the House.
See a news
release. The association lists executive
committee members from around the country. Contact 800-688-7692 or 314-576-1770,
scensky@asaim.soy.org.
• Larry Mitchell is chief executive officer of the American
Corn Growers Association. Read an Aug.
3, 2007, news release praising the House version of the bill. See the association’s
farm bill page.
Contact 202-835-0330, acga@acga.org.
RELIGIOUS
• The
Religious
Working Group on the Farm Bill includes several Christian denominations
and groups, with Bread for the
World taking a leading role. Other member organizations are the United States
Conference of Catholic Bishops, the National Council of Churches, the Presbyterian
Church (U.S.A.), the Episcopal Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America,
United Church of Christ Justice and Witness Ministries, Church World Service,
the United Methodist Church General Board of Church and Society, and Oxfam America.
Read the group’s legislative
principles. Contacts include:
• The
Rev. David
Beckmann is president of Bread
for the World, which advocates changes
in the farm bill that would help fight hunger in the U.S. and abroad. Read
his April
25, 2007, testimony before the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition
and Forestry Read a news
release about the House farm bill vote. The group lists regional
organizers. Contact 202-639-9400, dbeckmann@bread.org.
• H.
Eric Schockman is president of MAZON:
A Jewish Response to Hunger. The national nonprofit agency works against
hunger in the United States and abroad. Contact Heather Wolfson, director of
communications and development, 310-442-0020, mazonmail@mazon.org.
• Mark
E. Graham is an assistant professor of moral theology at Villanova University,
Villanova, Pa., and the author of Sustainable Agriculture: A Christian Ethic
of Gratitude. Contact 610-519-4703, mark.graham@villanova.edu.
• The
Rev. L.
Shannon Jung is professor of town and country ministries at St. Paul School
of Theology in Kansas City, Mo. He has written about rural ministry. His books
include, as author, Sharing Food: Christian Practices for Enjoyment
and, due out in 2008, World Hunger and the Complicity of the Affluent.
Contact 816-245-4862, shannon.jung@spst.edu.
OTHER
PLAYERS
• The Alliance for Sensible Agriculture Policies, which is working to reform
U.S. farm policy with the farm bill, is a coalition of diverse groups that includes
Citizens Against Government Waste,
the National Taxpayers Union,
the Cato Institute, Environmental
Defense, Oxfam America
and Bread for the World. Alliance contacts include:
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•
Rick
Swartz, president of Strategic Solutions Washington, coordinates the alliance;
contact 202-328-1313, rs@sswdc.com.
• Leslie
Paige is media director of Citizens Against Government Waste, 202-467-5334,
lpaige@cagw.org.
• Laura
Rusu is press officer with Oxfam America, 202-496-1169, lrusu@oxfamamerica.org.
• Donald
Carr is press secretary of the Environmental Working Group, 202-939-9141,
don@ewg.org;
• Demian
Moore is senior policy analyst, Taxpayers for Common Sense, 202-546-8500
ext. 118, demian@taxpayer.net. |
• Ferd
Hoefner is policy director of the Sustainable
Agriculture Coalition, an alliance
of several organizations. The coalition’s Farm
Bill Action Center lists its 10
top priorities with the bill. Contact Hoefner, 202-547-5754, fhoefner@sustainableagriculturecoalition.org,
or Aimee Witteman, communications and grass-roots outreach director, awitteman@sustainableagriculturecoalition.org
(same phone number).
• Allen
Hance is project coordinator of the Farm
and Food Policy Project, which includes the Northeast Midwest Institute,
World Hunger Year, the Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, American Farmland
Trust, Environmental Defense and the Community Food Security Coalition. The
project is endorsed by state
groups. Read the report “Seeking
Balance in U.S. Farm and Food Policy.” Contact 202-464-4015, news@farmandfoodproject.org.
• Bill
Ayres is executive director of World
Hunger Year, which works to battle poverty and hunger in the U.S. and abroad.
It posts resources
on the farm bill. Contact 212-629-8850, media@worldhungeryear.org.
• Tom
Buis is president of the National
Farmers Union. The NFU advocates changes
in the farm bill. Read a July
20, 2007, news release praising the House-approved farm legislation. To
link to state farmers unions, click “In the States” on the NFU Web site. Contact
202-554-1600, tbuis@nfudc.org.
SUSTAINABLE
AGRICULTURE
• Jill Auburn is director of the Sustainable
Agriculture Research and Education program, which is part of the U.S. Department
of Agriculture's Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service.
It promotes farming systems that are "profitable, environmentally sound
and good for communities through a nationwide research and education grants
program." Contact her in Washington, D.C., 202-720-5384, jauburn@csrees.usda.gov.
• Deborah
Burd is executive director of the National
Campaign for Sustainable Agriculture. Contact 845-361-5201, deb@sustainableagriculture.net.
• Melina Shannon-DiPietro is director of the Yale
Sustainable Food Project at Yale University in New Haven, Conn. It supervises
a sustainable dining program at Yale, manages an organic farm and sponsors programs
on food and agriculture. It is a co-sponsor of the first Real
Food Summit, scheduled for Nov. 3-4 at Yale, which expects to draw college
students from the Northeast to discuss sustainable agriculture and social responsibility.
Contact 203-432-2084.
• The Sustainable
Agriculture Education Association is involved in post-secondary agriculture
education. Its second national
conference took place in July 2007 at Cornell University. Contact kscp@turbonet.com.
• Tom Tomich is director of the University
of California Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program at
the University of California-Davis. The program provides research and education
about agriculture and food systems. Contact 530-752-2379, tptomich@ucdavis.edu.
• Mary Hendrickson is associate director of the Community
Food Systems and Sustainable Agriculture Program at the University of Missouri.
Contact 573-882-5127, hendricksonm@missouri.edu.
• Jerry DeWitt is director of the Leopold
Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University. Contact 515-294-7836,
jdewitt@iastate.edu.
• Helene Murray is executive director of the Minnesota
Institute for Sustainable Agriculture. It is a partnership among the University
of Minnesota's College of Food, Agriculture and Natural Resource Sciences, the
University of Minnesota Extension and the Sustainers' Coalition. Contact 612-625-0220,
hmurray@umn.edu.
WRITERS
• Dan
Imhoff is an author, publisher and farmer in California whose writings on
farm and environmental issues include the 2007 book Food Fight: A Citizen’s
Guide to the Farm Bill. Read an essay
he wrote about the farm bill, posted by the Center for Ecoliteracy. Contact
707-431-2936, info@watershedmedia.org.
• Michael Pollan
is Knight Professor of Journalism at University of California, Berkeley, where
he directs the Knight Program in Science and Environmental Journalism. His books
include The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. Read
his April
22, 2007, New York Times column about the farm bill. Contact inquiries@michaelpollan.com.
• Jennifer Maiser edits the group blog EatLocalChallenge.com.
Contact jen@lifebeginsat30.com.
STATE
BY STATE
• The American Farm Bureau
Federation links to state
farm bureaus.
• The American Soybean
Association lists state
association presidents and state
associate affiliate offices.
• The Farm
and Food Policy Project includes state
groups.
• To link to state farmers unions, click “In the States” on the National
Farmers Union Web site.
Background
RESOURCES
• The University of California Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education
Program posts a page
explaining what sustainable agriculture is and what issues are involved.
ARTICLES
• Read a Nov.
24, 2007, Religion News Service story that says hunger advocates are pushing
for action on the Senate’s stalled farm bill. It’s posted by Beliefnet.
• Read a Nov.
5, 2007, op-ed in the Des Moines Register by Robert Gronski, policy
coordinator for the National Catholic Rural Life Conference.
• See an Oct.
25, 2007, Associate Press story about the Senate committee's farm bill.
It's posted by Yahoo News.
• Eight states filed lawsuits against the Bush administration on Oct. 1
challenging new federal SCHIP rules. See an Oct.
2, 2007, Associated Press story posted by Newsday.
• Read a Sept.
28, 2007, Reuters article on religious and other leaders urging the Senate
to take action promptly on the bill.
• Read a July
26, 2007, New York Times story about the House version of the farm
bill.
• Read a July
26, 2007, Associated Baptist Press story.
• Read a July
28, 2007, Washington Post story about U.S. House passage of the farm
bill.
• Read “Of
Church and Steak: Farming for the Soul,” published Aug. 22, 2007, by the
International Herald Tribune.
• Read an Aug.
12, 2007, La Crosse (Wis.) Tribune story, posted by Bread
for the World.
• Read an Aug.
7, 2007, analysis by The
Nation.
• Read an Aug.
6, 2007, analysis by National Journal’s CongressDaily, posted by
the Institute for Agriculture
and Trade Policy.
• Read “Religious
Groups Push Farm Policy Reforms to Combat Poverty,” an analysis published
July 17, 2007, by The Roundtable on Religion & Social Welfare Policy.
• Read the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ June
2007 resolution on agricultural reform.
• Read a June
20, 2007, Washington Post article about farm subsidies.
• Read a column
by Morton Kondracke, executive editor of Roll Call, published April 27,
2007, by the Ocala (Fla.) Star-Banner. It describes the groups
on opposing sides of the farm bill debate.
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