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Faith leaders call for new covenant with American, world farmers
'House leadership must now begin to address' farm bill, Chane says
"Current U.S. foreign policy is a broken promise to American farmers -- especially small rural farmers -- and also is a threat to the world's poor," said Chane, speaking of the Episcopal Church's commitment to farm-bill reform to national reporters gathered one room away from where the House Agriculture Committee was slated to begin its final consideration of the U.S. farm bill later in the day.
Noting that the Committee thus far has rejected calls for reform of the U.S. commodity-crop payment program, Chane said that "the House leadership must now begin to address this bill from a moral perspective and center that transcends the typical as-you-go-politics that have sustained U.S. agricultural policy" in recent years.
Chane was joined at the press conference by Father Andrew Small of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops; the Rev. David Beckman, president of Bread for the World; Sister Simone Campbell, executive director of NETWORK, a national Catholic social justice lobby; the Rev. Earl Trent, director of missions for the Progressive National Baptist Convention; and Bishop Theodore Schneider of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's Metro Washington, D.C. synod.
The press conference also marked the public release of a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi from the heads of 13 Christian denominations and faith-based advocacy organizations, including Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori. Stressing that "the vision behind the first U.S. farm bill in the 1930s -- an economic safety net for farmers during difficult times -- is barely recognizable in today's farm bill," the leaders called for Congress to enact a "new covenant with rural America" and people living in poverty around the world. Full text of the letter is online here.
The farm bill is a piece of comprehensive legislation governing U.S. farm, food, and conservation policies. Originally dating to the Great Depression of the 1930s, the farm bill must be renewed, or reauthorized, by Congress every five years. The current farm bill expires later this year and must be reauthorized by Congress by the end of 2007.
Throughout the year, the Episcopal Church has been working with a broad alliance of faith groups in Washington that includes Roman Catholics, Protestants, Evangelicals, and leading advocacy organizations. The group has been calling for fundamental reforms to the farm bill, particularly the system that directs commodity subsidies (cash payments from the U.S. government) to American farmers.
Currently, more than three-quarters of U.S. commodity payments go to the largest ten percent of farms, with small and medium-sized family farms frequently left out of the system. Additionally, the U.S. commodity payment system has been judged by outside observers -- including the World Trade Organization -- to be unfairly distorting of world-market prices and supply in ways that violate U.S. commitments and make it harder for farmers in poor countries to feed their families.
As an example, Chane stressed the importance of cotton production to Africa, and the harm done by U.S. commodity payments.
"Cotton production is vital to the livelihood of Sub-Saharan Africa, where 20 million people rely on production of the crop for their basic living," Chane said. "If the U.S. were to eliminate its subsidy of domestic-cotton production -- which currently consumes more money each year than all aid to Africa combined -- poor countries in west and central Africa could increase their cotton production by 3 to 12 percent, with an annual increase in earnings of between $94 and $360 million."
According to many international-development experts, reform of commodity-payment programs in rich countries like the United States is essential if Africa is to end extreme poverty and achieve the Millennium Development Goals.
Schneider of the ELCA stressed that a reformed commodity-payment system also would be good for rural America.
"Unfortunately, the Agriculture Committee's draft farm bill leaves in place a farm support structure that is inherently unjust, rewarding the largest farmers and enabling their growth, while failing to provide meaningful help for the farmers who need it most: small and mid-sized farmers who are struggling to keep their operations afloat, beginning farmers, and socially disadvantaged farmers," Schneider said.
The House Agriculture Committee has been considering the bill in its various subcommittees for several months, with today's mark-up session by the full committee signaling the end of the process and the moment at which the bill moves to the full House floor for consideration. While the committee's final bill is not yet available at press time, most observers -- including the Episcopal Church's Office of Government Relations -- predict a final bill that closely mirrors the draft released last week by Committee Chairman Colin Peterson (D-MN), a bill that largely would preserve the status quo of the current system.
Noting that the committee has not taken the cause of reform seriously, Chane said that it was now up to the House leadership to intervene and stand with reform proponents when the bill comes to the floor in late July or early September. Congress takes a recess during August to allow lawmakers to spend time in their home districts.
The leadership "must be stewards of key American values" during the floor debate, Chane said.
Chane noted that a bipartisan group of lawmakers led by Reps. Ron Kind (D-WI) and Jeff Flake (R-AZ) is expected this week to release a substitute farm bill they intend to offer as an amendment on the House floor. The bill, which has been under development for months, is expected to make key reforms to the commodity program, reducing its harm to farmers in poor countries, striving for equity among farmers in the United States, and reinvesting savings from the commodity program into key initiatives that help rural Americans and those in need.
Predicting that the package would be "consistent with our value of lifting people out of poverty around the world," Chane said the Kind-Flake alternative will offer a key opportunity for House leadership to stand for "fairness and opportunity for all people."
A similar proposal by Kind and then-Rep. Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY) came close to garnering a House majority during the chamber's last debate on the farm bill in 2002.
In order to ensure that reform succeeds this time, the Episcopal Church is working with its partner denominations and advocacy organizations to organize grassroots support throughout the country. "Faith farm teams" are working in 38 key states, and Episcopalians and others have flooded congressional offices with calls, emails, and postcards.
Interested Episcopalians can sign up at faithfarmteams.com, and learn more about the farm bill at episcopalchurch.org/EPPN.
Referring to these grassroots efforts, Chane said "we are not going to go away. We are going to hold Congress accountable for passing a farm bill in 2007 that reflects our fundamental values."
Alex Baumgarten in International Policy Analyst in the Episcopal Church's Office of Government Relations in Washington DC.
The following is the text of the letter from faith leaders to Congress.
17 July 2007
The Honorable Nancy Pelosi
Speaker of the House
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Madam Speaker:
We write as leaders of Christian denominations and faith-based advocacy organizations working for a U.S. farm bill that strengthens rural communities at home and around the world. As the House nears floor consideration of the bill and it becomes apparent that calls for reform have not been taken seriously by members of the Agriculture Committee, we urge the House leadership to take a bold stand in favor of a new covenant with rural America.
Current U.S. farm policy represents a broken promise to America's farmers and rural communities, and a severe distortion of our nation's fundamental values of fairness and opportunity for all people. The vision behind the first U.S. farm bill in the 1930s -- an economic safety net for farmers during difficult times -- is barely recognizable in today's farm bill. Commodity subsidies flow to a small number of primarily large-scale farms while the majority of farm families and rural communities are left behind. In addition, U.S. commodity payments exert downward pressure on existing low crop prices, harming not only small and moderate size farmers at home, but paralyzing poor farmers in developing countries who simply cannot gain a foothold in agricultural markets distorted by the current U.S. commodity payment system.
The status quo must not be allowed to prevail in the 2007 farm-bill debate. The work of the Agriculture Committee thus far has failed to yield any meaningful hope for reform. In a time of fiscal constraints, we feel that existing farm bill resources offer an initial source of funds that should be more prudently distributed to farmers, rural communities and people who are hungry and living in poverty. We commit ourselves to supporting a new set of priorities for U.S. farm policy. The time has come for Congress to reclaim the values and the vision behind the original farm bill.
Specifically, the 2007 farm bill should:
Reform the commodity program to significantly reduce payments that distort prices and supply in ways that violate U.S. commitments and make it harder for farmers in poor countries to feed their families.
Reform U.S. farm policy to be more equitable, reducing payments to those who need them least and strengthening help to those who need them most, particularly socially disadvantaged farmers;
Strengthen the food stamp program by increasing the level of benefits to reflect current costs of living; removing administrative barriers that keep poor and hungry people from accessing food stamps; and investing in programs that reach out to seniors, the sick, disabled and vulnerable families;
Increase investment in rural development targeting communities with the greatest need, create new programs that assist rural entrepreneurs and promote small business development;
Expand funding and access to conservation programs, in particular the Conservation Security Program for working farms which has effectively been eliminated in the Committee's current legislative draft; and
Strengthen and increase international food aid in ways that encourage local food security and ensure that the first Millennium Development Goal of reducing hunger by one half is achieved by 2015.
The prophet Jeremiah tells us of God's description of a wise ruler: "He gave the poor a fair trial, and all went well with him." (Jeremiah 22:16) Our nation's current farm policy is a fair trial for no one, least of all people living in poverty and those in need. To a greater or lesser degree, our farm bill touches all Americans. It also reaches beyond our borders to some of the least among our brothers and sisters. We urge Members of Congress to seek broad reform in the next farm bill and we urge you, Madam Speaker, to be a leader of such reform.
With prayerful good wishes for your work on behalf of the American people and for the common good of all, we remain,
Sincerely yours in Christ,
The Rev. David Beckman
President
Bread for the World
The Rev. John L. McCullough
Executive Director and CEO
Church World Service
The Rev. Daniel Vestal
Executive Coordinator
Cooperative Baptist Fellowship
The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori
Presiding Bishop and Primate
The Episcopal Church
The Rev. Mark S. Hanson
Presiding Bishop
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
Timothy J. Kautza
Executive Director (Interim)
National Catholic Rural Life Conference
The Rev. Dr. Robert W. Edgar
General Secretary
National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA
Simone Campbell, SSS
Executive Director
NETWORK, A National Catholic Social Justice Lobby
The Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick
Stated Clerk of the General Assembly
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
The Rev. Earl D. Trent, Jr.
Director of Missions
Progressive National Baptist Convention
Jim Wallis
Editor-in-Chief/Chief Executive Officer
Sojourners/Call to Renewal
The Rev. John H. Thomas
General Minister and President
United Church of Christ
Most Rev. Nicholas DiMarzio, Ph.D. D.D.
Chairman
Committee on Domestic Social Development
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
2007
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