Passing a Farm Bill, Hope Is Still in the Senate

This week the United States Congress will hold a public conference meeting on America’s most comprehensive food policy vehicle -- the Farm Bill. This bill fleshes out nutritional, farm, and agricultural policy, as well as forestry, horticulture, and conservation policy -- all wrapped up in a neat package and tied with a bow. America deserves a Farm Bill that helps feed American families, aids ranchers and farmers, and protects our wildlife, land, and water. As these issues are interconnected, a strong Farm Bill will have benefits to the health of our land water and wildlife. The Sierra Club wholeheartedly supports the Senate version of the Farm Bill and rejects the House version, which contains damaging provisions that put families at risk and threaten the health and safety of wildlife, water, forests, and air.

As the Congress meets to form a compromise bill, here are five reasons why it should pass the Senate version of the Farm Bill.

1. Strengthens and protects the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) by allowing for states to coordinate with low-income home energy assistance programs. It allows states to certify SNAP eligibility for certain elderly and disabled adults without earned income for 36 months. Supports work provisions and employment and training demonstrations by adding funding for states to participate in this already-existing program.

2. 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.

3. Aids rural, low-income, and communities of color in tackling long-standing 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.

4. Advances local and urban agriculture by investing $60 million per year into a new Local Agriculture Market Program, instructing the U.S. Department of Agriculture to give farmers markets the tools to accept SNAP food-assistance benefits. Directs USDA’s Farm Service Agency to record the total number of urban agriculture sites such as rooftop and indoor farms.  

5. Creates a new pilot program within the Environmental Quality Incentives Program that would compensate farmers for improving soil health and would track how much carbon is trapped by farmland soils.

Bonus: Expands the USDA’s authority to offer discounts on crop insurance to farmers who practice good stewardship of their agricultural lands, such as planting cover crops and crop rotation. This not only reduces farm risk but also provides concrete incentives for soil health to improve water quality and curtail climate change.

Five Reasons to Oppose the House Bill:

1. Threatens food security by requiring recipients to work or train for 20 hours a week, which would impact homes of the elderly or disabled. Of the 39 million individuals who receive SNAP benefits, 84 percent of them include households with children and a older adult or an person with a disability. We know from recent studies that most SNAP participants who can work do work. SNAP promotes food security, enhances, health outcomes, and improves child development and learning while lifting families out of poverty. According to the Congressional Budget Office, around 265,000 children in SNAP households would lose access to free school meals.

2. Harms endangered species by gutting the requirements under the Endangered Species Act that require the EPA to consult the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service in order to approve the use of chemicals that may harm endangered species.  The provision exempts the EPA, pesticide registrants, and end users from any liability for the harm or death of threatened or endangered wildlife, as long as the pesticide has been approved as outlined in the legislation.

3. Undermines the Clean Water Act by allowing pesticides to be applied to waterways without applying for a necessary permit. This puts both people and wildlife at risk from the unfettered application of potentially harmful chemicals.

4. Limits states; abilities to regulate pesticides and other chemicals. The House bill would keep state and local government from monitoring and regulating the production and manufacturing of agricultural products. It would take away the states’ ability to protect animals and children's health, including monitoring BPA, firewood imports, and other environmental protections.

5. Promotes logging of our national forests by issuing numerous 6,000-acre “categorical exclusions” that exempt large-scale land-management projects, including logging, from environmental review and public comment under the National Environmental Policy Act.  It would also waive requirements for the Forest Service to consult with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service when determining whether proposed forest-management activities would harm threatened or endangered species. It attacks the Roadless Rule — consequently opening up millions of acres of otherwise-protected roadless areas to harmful logging and road building.

Based on a comparison of the two bills, the Sierra Club strongly urges  Congress to take up the Senate version of the U.S. Farm Bill to help feed America's families, protect our natural spaces and public health, and keep intact public participation in democratic processes.