Right top and bottom: Senior Organizer John Aspray and volunteer Jan Corderman gather petition signatures for a fair Farm Bill at the Veg Life's Market in Des Moines, Iowa.
Above: Organizer Lilli DiPaola invites people to learn why we need a moratorium on factory farms at the Lents International Farmers Market in Portland, Oregon.
policies smoothed out boom and bust seasons and helped family farmers compete in the marketplace, be good stew- ards of their land, and earn a living wage. Agribusinesses Made
competitive and fair markets for the little guys. They also removed policies that rewarded sustainable farming practices. The current Farm Bill forces smaller farms to “get big or get out*.” It prevents farmers from getting fair prices and limits
and funneled back to corporate headquarters. You Can Take Back the Farm Bill Despite agribusinesses' outsized influence, the Farm Bill remains an important battle- ground for a fair food system. This bill establishes policies and government support for nutri- tion assistance programs like SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly the Food Stamp Program), rural economic development
the Farm Bill Worse Over the past several decades, a wave of agribusiness mergers has left our food to be controlled by only a few giant corpora- tions, such as Cargill and Archer Daniels
The current Farm Bill forces small and medium-sized farms to “get big or get out."
Midland. These corporations have gobbled up the compe- tition and wielded their power to strip the Farm Bill of all New Deal policies that created
Your Fight for a Fair Farm Bill - continue on Page 3 >
the choices consumers have at the grocery store. And it’s led to the tragic hollowing out of rural communities as profits get sucked out of small towns
* The mantra of Earl Butz, Secretary of Agriculture (1971 - 1976) under President Nixon, who promoted policies that favored large-scale agriculture.
FOOD & WATER WATCH / ACTION — LIVABLE FUTURE NOW | 2
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