Guest guest Posted July 27, 2007 Report Share Posted July 27, 2007 URGENT: House to Vote Today on 2007 Farm Bill - Act Now to Support Family Farms! * URGENT: Take Action on the Farm Bill Organic Consumers Association, July 25, 2007 Straight to the Source On July 26, 2007, the US House of Representatives is expected to vote on a new Farm Bill, legislation that will determine agriculture policy for the next five years. The current version of bill is mostly more corporate welfare for polluting industrial agriculture with few incentives to make healthy food more widely available or protect labor rights or the environment. Please write your Member of Congress today to urge them to vote for important amendments for sustainable agriculture. http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizationsORG/oca... Here's the full text of the Farm Bill, H.R. 2419, as reported by the House Agriculture Committee on July 19: http://agriculture.house.gov/inside/Legislation/110/FB/h2... The following documents provide a detailed summary of provisions for organic and sustainable agriculture (or the lack thereof) in the current version of the Farm Bill: From the Sustainable Agriculture Coalition: http://www.msawg.org/ActionCenter/Weekly_Update_Special_E... From the National Organic Coalition: http://www.agmatters.net/attachments/FARMBILLSUMMARYlette... The House will consider several amendments to the Farm Bill before its final vote. Amendments that the Organic Consumers Association supports include: • The " Fairness in Farm & Food Policy Amendment " (Kind/Flake) to make farm spending more equitable and fiscally responsible, and reinvest the savings in rural America through conservation, nutrition, and rural development. • The " Mad Cow Disease Voluntary Testing Amendment " (Kucinich) to allow conscientious slaughterhouses like Creekstone Farms to conduct universal testing for BSE, a practice that has been blocked by the USDA. • The " GMO Economic Loss Amendment " (Kucinich/Holt) to require the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to assess the economic losses suffered by farmers as a result of contamination from genetically engineered organisms. This study would assess the economic losses experienced by farmers and food processors due to the effects of genetically engineered organisms on conventional and organic crops. • The " GMO Risk Research Amendment " (Kucinich/Kaptur) to boost funding for the USDA Biotechnology Risk Assessment Grants program. The USDA Biotechnology Risk Assessment Grants program receives 2% of all appropriated funds for biotechnology research in the USDA. This amendment would boost that funding to 10%. For more information, please go to the Organic Consumers Association's Farm Issues page: http://www.organicconsumers.org/farm.cfm http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_6270.cfm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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