On Eve of World Food and Poverty 'Days' CWS Pushes US to Reform Farm Bill
WASHINGTON--Oct13-- Leading up to next week's World Food Day (Oct 16) and the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty (Oct 17), humanitarian agency Church World Service (CWS) is urging that the U.S. adopt a new Farm Bill that protects farm families both in the U.S. and in developing nations.
The current U.S. Farm Bill is scheduled to expire in 2007. Church World Service Executive Director Rev. John L. McCullough says, "Trade and farm policies are intertwined. Everyone needs food for survival and 40 percent of the world's population make a living from the production of food or fiber, so it is crucial to get food and agriculture policy right.
"The pending Farm Bill renewal is also a vital opportunity to protect those needs. The next evolution of the Farm Bill must reflect the importance of family farms and the impact to those families in the U.S. and in the global south."
At the heart of the issue is the current Farm Bill's commodity subsidy program. Opponents say the subsidies, paid for with U.S. tax dollars, benefit huge corporate farms, while seldom reaching the smaller family farms that most need government help to survive. The subsidies also strain the environment by encouraging overproduction of certain crops. The excess that U.S. farmers produce is then shipped overseas and dumped at prices that undercut the prices farmers there can charge for their own locally grown produce.
Farm Bill legislation, up for renewal every five years, originally was designed to stimulate agricultural growth and raise farmers out of poverty. But, McCullough points out, "The Farm Bill has become a catch-all with lots of parts that need attention.
"World Food Day and the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty are stark reminders that, while there is progress, we're far from reaching Millennium Goals. Thirty-seven million people live in poverty in the U.S. Half the people of the world live on less than two dollars a day. More than 10 million children die of hunger, lack of access to clean water, and preventable diseases every year. One-third of the world is malnourished.
"And if we think that free trade deals are the wholesale answer, we need to listen a lot harder to what the poor and the small farmers in other countries are telling us, indeed, what our own U.S. rural farmers are telling us," says McCullough.
Johanna Balzer, a Church World Service Regional Director in Michigan, comes from a family of farmers: "As I travel rural Michigan each year I see more barns sagging and farm equipment rusting outside. Huge corporate farms have taken over in many areas.
"My grandchildren are the seventh generation of my family born on the farm," says Balzer. "My father worked in a factory to save the family farm from unpaid taxes from the depression. He worked his whole life off the farm to save it. It's now come down to me."
Through the upcoming education and advocacy campaign, Church World Service is working with other partners and particularly through faith groups to ensure a reform of U.S. subsidies. The work - entitled "Sowing Justice for Family Farmers Everywhere" - includes a booklet and postcard that allows CWS constituents to add their voices to the call for reform.
"It's our intent to improve the Farm Bill," McCullough says, "so that it provides better support for rural communities in the U.S. and helps small-scale farmers abroad."
"Reform," says CWS Director of Education and Advocacy Rajyashri Waghray, "is necessary to restore right relationships, preserve responsible communities, shrink economic inequalities, allow all of creation to flourish in its diversity, and restore God's gracious economy."
"We are encouraging all people of faith to think strongly now about the impact of current U.S. farm policy on thousands of family farms across the country," said McCullough, "and on the ultimate rise from poverty of producers in developing countries. We urge you to press your legislators to support reform that enables an equitable and sustainable future."
Church World Service works in partnership in some 80 countries, supporting emergency relief, food and water security, sustainable development programs, and building local capacities.
Media Contacts: Lesley Crosson, CWS/New York, 212-870-2676; lcrosson@churchworldservice.org Jan Dragin (24/7), 781-925-1526; jdragin@gis.net