Grapevine
7-21-2007 WXPN - WFUV - FARM BILL and MORE!
Greetings all, thanks for checking in to the goings ons here - we hope to see you out at the WXPN Exponential Music Fest this weekend - lots of incredible bands for the exponentially reasonable price of $8...here is an article in the Phiy Inquirer about the fest - see you there!
WFUV is a station that has kept NYC in alight with fresh sounds and relevant information for over sixty years.
AYLS were fortunate enough to be invited down to Fordham University to play and the live show is airing soon!
If it strikes your fancy, please feel free to check it out here www.wfuv.org/music/listings/index.html
Thanks to John Platt for having us down - always a pleasure!
We want to give a tremendous shout out to the folks at E-Town - we returned from Boulder a few nights ago with our spirits lifted and renewed from the most pleasant interactions with Nick and Forester, the E-tones, the whole E-Town family, as well as KT Tunstall and her band, what tremendous musicians! WICKED GOOD, MAN!
We are wanted to give an update on some new developments in the ongoing effort to create a Farm Bill which will truly serve the people and create space for the progress, which is actually regressive when you get down to it, which the resurgence in local food systems clearly indicates in our society.
Read on, Friend.
Special Farm Bill Update-
Farm Bill Passes Out of House Ag Committee: Immediate Action Needed
July 20, 2007
Action Needed to Save Community Food Projects
Many of you know about and have benefited from the Community Food Projects (CFP), a program that was started 10 years ago and has been incredibly successful at empowering low-income communities to identify problems related to food security and take action to permanently solve them with an investment from the federal government. In the past, the program has received $5 million annually in mandatory funding, meaning that groups like CFSC didn’t have to fight every year in order to receive money.
Community Food Projects is ZEROED OUT! While the House Agriculture Committee increased funds for CFP to $30 million, the money is discretionary, meaning that it’s possible this vital program gets nothing at all when it comes time to dole out the money each year. There is no money in the appropriations bill for FY ’08, so if the change to discretionary stands, there will be no money for CFP in 2008.
Please help us save this popular and vital program. Call House Leadership and your Representative RIGHT NOW!
Speaker Pelosi and Charles Rangel (D-NY), Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, are at the helm of brokering any deals for new nutrition money for the Farm Bill. Therefore, it is important that they realize the importance of CFP and the need for it to retain its mandatory funding, and receive increased funding. Please call your Representative and ask them to continue pushing Rangel’s and Pelosi’s offices for MANDATORY funding for Community Food Projects in the Farm Bill. If you don’t know who your Representative is or need to find their number, call the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121.
These quick phone calls will take less than 10 minutes of your time, but could make a huge impact on whether this program continues.
Outcomes of the House Agriculture Committee
The Farm Bill that emerged out of the House Agriculture Committee late Thursday night included significant new money for specialty crops (fruits and vegetables) and made some of the necessary changes to the food stamp program. It did not contain meaningful reform in the commodity title. In fact, the total savings from the minor payment limitations only amounts to $50 million a year, a drop in the bucket compared with the $226 billion total spending in the House Committee bill.
CFSC Priorities:
- Community Food Projects: CFP was included in the mark at $30 million in annual discretionary funds (need to be fought for every year) and no amendment was offered to change the funding to mandatory (funds that are included in the Farm Bill and don’t need to be appropriated each year) because of lack of new mandatory funds in the Committee. We are working with Members on and off committee to continue pushing for mandatory funds to be included in future drafts of the Farm Bill.
Geographic Preference/Local Procurement: An amendment, offered by Reps. Steve Kagen (D-WI) and Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE), to allow schools to use a geographic preference to request local foods. The amendment can be viewed at: * http://www.nfu.org/wp-content/titleiv-036kagengeographicpreference.pdf
Other Relevant Provisions:
- Farmers Market Promotion Program: An amendment was adopted to change the name of the program to the Farmer-to-Consumer Marketing Assistance Program and to outline the specific activities under the program. The funding remains the same as in the original draft- at $5 million for each of the first 3 yrs and $10 million for each of the last 2 yrs in mandatory funds.
- There were no amendments for the Senior (or other) Farmers Market Nutrition Program, Farm to Cafeteria or Urban Agriculture.
- In the Manager’s amendment, the mandatory funding for the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable (Snack) Program was increased to $70 million per year and to include 35 schools in each of 50 states.
- The committee voted to use $4 billion in funds from the Ways and Means Committee to finance some of the necessary changes to the Food Stamp program, such as increasing the standard and child care deductions, raising the minimum monthly benefit, disregarding military combat pay, exempting retirement and education savings accounts from affecting food stamp eligibility and indexing for inflation the $2000 and $3000 asset limits, and mandatory funding increases for the TEFAP program. These changes were in the En Bloc Amendment:agriculture.house.gov/inside/Legislation/110/FB/en_bloc_SBS.pdf.
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- Amendments to remove the indexing of the standard deduction and the ban on privatizing food stamp enrollment were rejected. Measures to remove the 5-year waiting period for legal immigrants to receive food stamps were not included.
- In the Managers Amendment, organic research was extended at $25 million in mandatory funding per year.
- Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) for meat was included in the Farm Bill with a compromise 3-tier system to account for products of mixed origin. The committee went into a closed session late on Thursday, just before passing the bill, leading to an announcement by Chairman Peterson that he and Ranking Member Goodlatte would work out the details of the COOL provision themselves.
- An amendment was adopted to remove a provision added by Leonard Boswell (D-IA) in subcommittee, that would have banned livestock contracts from including mandatory arbitration provisions, as many of them do now. This has the effect of leaving many small livestock farmers without the option of legal recourse against large corporate buyers that favor large operations.
- An amendment was adopted to put into law a requirement for USDA to create a uniform evaluation standard for the Food Stamp Nutrition Education program (referred to in the House draft as the Secure Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Nutrition Education program) across states, with no additional funding needed.
