Action Alert

Vote NO on the 2018 Farm Bill

The House of Representatives is poised to vote on the 2018 Farm Bill in the coming days, and folks, this bill is bad. Here’s just a sampling:

  • Local food – The House bill abandons local farmers by cutting all funding for several programs that invest in helping farmers connect to local and regional buyers and in improving healthy food access.
  • Food insecure families – The House bill increases food insecurity and hardship for more than 1 million low-income households (over 2 million people). These individuals and families would lose in part or in whole the benefits provided by the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
  • Beginning and socially disadvantaged farmers – The House bill misses the mark by failing to invest more in beginning farmers, military veteran farmers, and farmers of color. With the average age of farmers continuing to rise, the status quo is not enough to ensure the success of these key farmer communities.
  • Crop insurance and commodities – The House bill fails to make even small changes to crop insurance to ensure diversified and beginning farmers can access assistance. It also creates more loopholes in subsidy payments that will continue to distort land prices and create an unfair playing field for farmers.
  • Conservation – The House bill erases support for resource stewardship on 70 million acres (that’s an area the size of Nevada!) of working farm and ranchland by completely eliminating the Conservation Stewardship Program.

In short, this is the worst farm bill ever – if it passes, it could set our shared sustainable food movement back decades!*

The good news? It hasn’t passed yet. There’s still time to get a better farm bill done this year.

Can you help us take one quick action right now to save our food and farm future?

Capitol switchboard: (202) 224-3121

Ask for your Representative and, once they connect you, leave a message like this one:

Hello, my name is [____] and I am a constituent. Please vote NO on H.R. 2 – the 2018 Farm Bill. This bill will harm our farmers and communities and must be defeated so a decent bill, one we can be proud of, can be brought back for consideration later this year. Thank you.

Stay tuned for more action – we may have a chance in the coming days to support amendments that help improve the bill, and the Senate has begun drafting its own, different version of the bill – and we can still ensure it contains the support farmers and communities need! Every call makes a difference.

Thanks for all you do!

*Need more reasons why this bill is bad? Check out these Top 10 Reasons to Reject the House Farm Bill for more.