The Farm Bill is one of the biggest and most influential pieces of legislation in our government today. It covers our entire agriculture and food system. The bill includes 15 major sections covering everything from government support of crops, livestock, nutrition, trade, agriculture research to food assistance programs such as SNAP and the school lunch program. The Farm Bill is reassessed and reauthorized every five years. It is always politically charged. This year the debate is especially important because it is an election year.
Why is this important to us? Well, 80% of the farm bill budget goes to SNAP (supplemental nutrition assistance program) formally known as food stamps. In the most recent weeks it has been proposed to cut the farm bill budget by 23 billion, most of which comes from SNAP. 1 in 7 Americans are on SNAP. Cutting SNAP would not only hurt those on it would also be detrimental to our economy. These cuts could reduce the numbers by over 1.5 million, which would also increase the poverty numbers in America. In fact cutting SNAP would make our poverty numbers also rise.
If you are not on SNAP why should you care about this? It’s simple – if the government cuts any amount from SNAP those individuals will lose their money to buy food, therefore any extra income they could use to add to our economy is lost.
In a way the farm bill should be called the food bill. We must help our legislators see what is obvious – We NEED A FAIR FARM BILL, because it affects all of us. As a community we must help in any way we can.
For more information please visit these websites.
http://frac.org/leg-act-center/farm-bill-2012/
