Feb 12
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Feeding America focused on protecting nutrition programs in Farm Bill
Mike Keefe, Denver Post, 2008
Maybe the Farm Bill should be renamed the Farm & Food Bill, because it impacts every American in some way.
Last week I attended a Feeding America webinar about the status of the Farm Bill that is due to be reauthorized this year. The Farm Bill is a massive piece of legislation that impacts not just lending to farmers, but also food exports, subsidies, research, energy promotion, disaster assistance, nutrition entitlements, and more. It is this last item on which Feeding America is focused.
Nutrition entitlements mean our national nutrition programs, including SNAP (food stamps) and TEFAP (the Emergency Food Assistance Program). With demands to make cuts of $23 billion from the Farm Bill, Feeding America aims to keep these programs protected. The national organization proposes to create a trigger that ties TEFAP funding to unemployment, since unemployment numbers more accurately relate to food insecurity than poverty numbers. That is, as unemployment increases, so would TEFAP funding.
The Feeding America network also opposes all proposals to cap or reduce funding for SNAP. It is against further restrictions on eligibility. Feeding America encourages the restoration of funding from the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act of 2009, which increased the number of people who could participate in the food stamp program.
To put this in perspective, food from TEFAP made up more than 60% of the poundage received by Food Bank of South Jersey in 2011. Our state has one of the lowest rates of participation in SNAP, although many are eligible. With over 170,000 food insecure people in our area, that number is likely to increase with more cuts and restrictions on these imperative programs.
Those are just the numbers in New Jersey. What about the other 49 states? When you begin to think about all these people, it becomes clear how adjusting the name of a bill to say “Food and Farm Bill” might be beneficial, might get people to listen a little more closely. And it wasn’t my idea; lots of better-informed people in more respected positions than my own have supported the name change.
To learn how you can help protect important nutrition programs in the U.S. Farm Bill, visit Feeding America’s Farm Bill 2012: Time For An Overhaul With Innovative Farming Systems, The Huffington Post
Don’t End Agricultural Subsidies, Fix Them, New York Times
Why are we propping up corn production, again?, Grist
Iowa Farm Bureau: end direct payments
