For the majority of us living in metropolitan areas, it’s easy to think farming has little to do with our own well-being, and we consequently favor ignorance in an area so substantial to our health and our government. In fact, we have become so removed from the process of food production that many of us see farming as an archaic system, one still regarded in idyllic, pastoral imaginations. However, the farm industry no longer supports this rural American portrait and is instead dominated by megacorporations and commercial farms that have dwindled family farms down to the few and have maximized crop production at the expense of conservation. Agribusiness lobbyists are responsible for writing the government laws and policies regulating farms as put forth in the Farm Bill passed by Congress every five years, and this year the bill is up for reauthorization.
GOOD reports on the renewal of the Farm Bill (due by September 30) and argues that this should be the year that Americans bring reform to the country’s food system and reshape the bill in a way that provides Americans with healthy options and scales back the influence of the big businesses and corporations to level the playing field for farmers. However, GOOD recognizes America’s detachment from farming concerns and sees the need to convince voters of its relevance:
A bad Farm Bill will mean continued giveaways to the nation’s largest industrial farms and animal factories, while slashing the programs that fight hunger, promote health, and protect natural resources. A good Farm Bill, on the other hand, can help to rebuild our food and farming systems from the ground up by investing in stewardship, local and organic food production, the next generation of farmers and ranchers, and sound nutrition.
Citing an urgency for reform in our food system, GOOD is education Americans on the Farm Bill and providing a platform for action. You can learn more about the Farm Bill through this infographic and/or sign this letter demanding Congress pass a better Farm Bill.
“This is our Food and Farm Bill,” GOOD reminds readers, “and it is arguably the single most important legislation your representatives will consider this summer.”