CHESTER COUNTY, PA – Whenever the members of the two corporate parties get together and agree overwhelmingly on a piece of legislation you can be almost certain that working-class Americans are going to lose out to the corporate criminals.  That is precisely what has happened with the 2008 Farm Bill passed on May 21.  Over two thirds of the Congress (316-108 in the House and 82-13 in the Senate), conspired to weaken family farms while strengthening huge agribusinesses like Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) and Conagra (both ADM  and Conagra were ranked 7th and 50th respectively in the top 100 corporate criminals of the 1990s).

Yes, the new Farm Bill does have a few good provisions like additional funding for nutrition programs especially in light of the growing global hunger crisis that is hindering the efforts of struggling parents to feed their children.  It does increase funding for the Food Stamp Program and for food banks.  It does authorize the Hunger Free Communities grant program which will enable community-based organizations to work together to plan and implement local strategies to end hunger.  It contains a pilot program that allows for the local purchase of food aid from sources closer to the counties in need.

The bill, however, lacks substantial reform of the commodity programs. It does little to target subsidies to where they are most needed, but continues payments to the largest and wealthiest landowners.  This will have a destructive effect on global agriculture and trade.  Current policies have helped stymie agricultural development in poor countries, leaving millions of people mired in poverty and helping to create the current hunger crisis worldwide.  Rather than respond to the new reality of global agriculture, the 2008 Farm Bill locks the United States into another five-year protectionist system that hampers the desperate efforts of small farmers to feed their families.

Our Farm Policy over the last 20 years, as exemplified by the 2008 Farm Bill, redistributes our taxes to millionaire "farmers" like David Letterman, David Rockefeller and the owners of the Utah Jazz.  It contributes to our obesity, epidemics and to our water and energy shortages and increases the number of economic refugees from Mexico (called “illegal-immigrants” by the politicians who created the problem in the first place). It helps degrade rivers, deplete aquifers, eliminate grasslands, concentrate food-processing conglomerates and inundate our fast-food nation with high-fructose corn syrup.

Our farm policy is supposed to save small farmers and small towns. Instead it fuels the expansion of factory farms and the depopulation of rural America.  Under the 2008 Farm Bill, supported by the two corporate owned parties, the richest 5% of US farm owners would win more than half of the bill's federal subsidies!  We must have a Farm Bill that strengthens small, locally owned farms and gives them protection against takeover by giant agricultural corporate criminals.  We must build strong local economies with farms that provide nutritious food and numerous financial benefits for the surrounding community. 

The congressional Democrats and Republicans would be wise to reform the Farm Bill in such a way that it reflects the message of St. James: “For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace” (James 3:11-18).

"The Corporate-Free Candidate"