A statement organized by the Rural Coalition, the Community Food and Justice Coalition, the National Family Farm Coalition and the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition demands that Congress develop and pass a farm bill without further delay. The statement is signed by 262 small farm, religious and other groups from all parts of the country who call for the immediate appointment of conferees to work in an open and urgent fashion toward adopting a full and fair measure this summer. According to the groups – a full and fair farm bill must include farm, food and nutrition, conservation and rural economic development programs and commodity and crop insurance reforms.
In particular – the groups say the farm bill should include all nutrition programs and reject all cuts or changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program; full funding for farm conservation programs – enhanced and streamlined to better meet the pressing and accelerating natural resource and environmental issues of the day; cost-saving crop insurance and commodity subsidy reforms – including payment limit reform, national sodsaver and conservation compliance provisions on crop insurance – plus additional reforms needed to create a strong, targeted and cost-effective safety net; and provisions to ensure a comprehensive farm bill with all titles will be updated on a regular five-year basis.
Source: NAFB News Service