Peggy Greb, USDA
Passed every five years, the Farm Bill has traditionally delivered comprehensive food and farm policy designed to empower farmers, put food on every family’s table,, and promote land and water conservation. With the current Farm Bill expiring at the end of September, the pressure is on for the House and Senate to pass a new bill before the upcoming August recess begins.
Historically, the Farm Bill has enjoyed widespread bipartisan support. However, must-pass pieces of legislation have increasingly been targeted as vehicles for poison pill, anti-environmental riders that put our lands, water, and wildlife at risk.Unfortunately this year’s Farm Bill is no exception.
The Misbegotten House Farm Bill
Replete with partisan, anti-environmental provisions, the House Farm Bill has been a non-starter from the outset. If passed, the bill would advance the interests of corporate agriculture and chemical industries at the expense of our food supply, environment, public health and small farmers.
Here are some of the legislation’s most egregious pitfalls:
Guts the Clean Water Act: In yet another giveaway to the pesticide industry, the bill would roll back Clean Water Act protections to allow farmers to spray pesticides on or near water resources -- including public drinking water supplies -- without obtaining a permit, as currently required by law.
Tramples on states’ rights: The Farm Bill would also prevent state and local governments from regulating the production or sale of agricultural products by nullifying any state laws that are more protective than federal rules or the laws from the states in which products originated from. In short, if one state or the federal government tolerates the production and sale of a product, no matter how hazardous, environmentally destructive, or unethical, the remaining 49 states have to follow suit. Whether it's banning toxic pesticides like chloripyrifos, preventing shark finning, or even keeping BPAs out of baby food,this provision keeps communities from ensuring public health, promoting animal welfare, and exercising their right to clean, safe food and drinking water.
Logs away our forests: Packed with major attacks on the National Environmental Policy Act and Endangered Species Act, the bill seeks to exempt large scale land management projects from environmental review and public comment under NEPA and would waive requirements for the Forest Service to consult with the US Fish and Wildlife Service when determining if proposed projects would harm threatened and endangered species. The bill also takes aim at the celebrated Roadless Rule, which protects nearly 50 million acres of some our most wild, ecologically significant forests and grasslands from damaging road building and logging. Together these provisions would open the door for industrial logging on hundreds of millions of acres of critical wildlife habitat and otherwise pristine landscapes.
Undermines the Endangered Species Act: Readily disregarding sound science and bedrock environmental safeguards, the House Farm Bill would gut requirements under the Endangered Species Act that require the Environmental Protection Agency to consult with federal fish and wildlife agencies when assessing the effects of toxic pesticides on endangered and threatened species. The provision goes one step further by exempting the EPA, pesticide manufacturers, and applicators from any liability for harming or killing endangered wildlife. Circumventing this important process would essentially allow the EPA to conduct insufficient, irresponsible self-consultations and discount any conservation or accountability measures necessary to reduce the harmful impacts of pesticide use on listed species.
Despite the best efforts of Republican leadership, the contentious House Farm Bill ultimately failed to pass.
Unfortunately, proponents of the House Farm Bill refuse to let sleeping dogs lie. Under a motion to reconsider, the House is expected to call up the bill for another vote this week.
In short, the fight against the House Farm Bill isn’t over yet.
Hope in the Senate
In response to the turmoil across the Hill, U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Chairman Pat Roberts,(R-KS) and Ranking Member Debbie Stabenow, (D-MI) pledged to put forward a bipartisan Farm Bill and thankfully they delivered.
Unlike its counterpart in the House, the Senate Farm Bill trades toxic, anti-environmental provisions for common sense measures focused on food and farm policy. While the legislation is not without its faults, containing at least one bad provision that undermines the National Environmental Policy Act, it’s representative of a good-faith effort on the part of the Committee members and their staff to produce a workable, bipartisan bill.
The Sierra Club unequivocally opposed the House bill and although we may or may not be able to support a final Farm Bill this year, this first draft from the Senate Agriculture Committee lays a solid foundation for America’s farmers and conservation writ large. Here are just a few of the bill’s highlights.
Adds 25,000 acres of land in Virginia and Tennessee to the National Wilderness Preservation System- protecting some of the southeast’s most treasured landscapes in perpetuity.
Aids rural, low-income, and communities of color in tackling longstanding wastewater management issues, the bill would strengthen an existing grant program designed to help low- and moderate-income households install or upgrade their own sewage systems.
Advances local and urban agriculture by investing $60 million per year into a new Local Agriculture Market Program, instructing USDA to give farmers markets the tools to accept SNAP benefits, and directs USDA’s Farm Service Agency to record the total number of urban agriculture sites such as rooftop and indoor farms.
Creates a new pilot program within the Environmental Quality Incentives Program that would compensate farmers for improving soil health and track how much carbon is trapped by farmland soils.
Expands the USDA’s authority to offer discounts on crop insurance to farmers who practice good stewardship of their agricultural lands, such as cover crops and crop rotations. This not only reduces farm risk but provides concrete incentives for soil health in an effort to improve water quality and curtail climate change.
These are the types of provisions that truly belong in the Farm Bill, those that advance conservation, promote local agriculture, and support communities, not trade them away for the benefit of the corporate agriculture and pesticide industries.
The Senate Farm Bill advanced through committee by a near unanimous vote and is expected on the chamber floor during the week leading up to the Fourth of July recess.While the bill has remained largely free of anti-environmental riders, we anticipate Senate republicans will put forward numerous amendments that take aim at our national forests, clean water, and common sense safeguards against harmful pesticides.
The public deserves a farm bill that provides safe food, clean water, and a healthy environment. The House Farm Bill failed to deliver, but with your help we can ensure that the Senate Farm Bill does not follow suit and strengthen negotiations as the two contrasting bills head into conference this summer.