ACTION ALERT:
REJECT USE OF HOUSE BILL 2646

Please let the National Campaign For Sustainable Agriculture (see email below) know if you can sign on to the letter below, urging Senator Daschle to reject use of the House bill (H.R. 2646) as a starting point for Senate Farm Bill consideration, by 5:00 p.m. Eastern Wednesday, October 10th. We need as many organizations as possible to sign on to this letter. This letter will not go out under our letterhead, but rather as a product of all of those organizations who have signed on.

As we noted earlier, there is tremendous pressure on the Senate to pass a version of the Farm Bill that is very similar to H.R. 2646 in relatively short order. This could undo a lot of progress that many of our organizations have made in the Senate. Like other  organizations, the National Campaign for Sustainable Agriculture has been making significant headway in trying to get good provisions into the Senate Agriculture Committee's version of the Farm Bill. We need to demonstrate substantial opposition to H.R. 2646 as a starting point for deliberation on the Senate Farm Bill.

We urge you to help secure a new, comprehensive farm bill that works for family farmers and ranchers, the environment, rural communities, food and nutrition program participants and all consumers. We the undersigned family farm and ranch, rural, environmental, religious, consumer and social justice organizations are united in our support for new approaches to farm and food policy, and in our belief that deliberation in the Senate can and should create needed innovations. We therefore urge you to reject the House-passed bill (H.R. 2646) as a starting point for Senate consideration.

* a new, comprehensive stewardship incentive program for working land available to all types of farmers and ranchers as a foundation for the next generation of farm programs;

* new and improved research, marketing, and rural development programs that increase the farm and ranch share of food system profit to strengthen farm income and rural communities;

* a new comprehensive competition title to strengthen the Packers and Stockyards Act, reform contract agriculture, and take related steps to improve enforcement and ensure fair and equitable access to the marketplace;

* support for community food security programs and initiatives that link the production of small and family farms to greater access to affordable and nutritious foods for all consumers, particularly in rural and urban low income communities;

* an expanded set of tools to address the needs of minority farmers and to redress the inequities of USDA program administration;

* a comprehensive conservation title that preserves and strengthens the best existing programs and significantly increases funding for them;

* a commodity title that retains and increases flexibility, targets benefits to family farms, enables family farmers to earn a fair price and eliminates the need for emergency payments.

Federal food and farm policy for the next five years is much too important to be rushed through in a matter of a few weeks, if in that rush the new approaches that are so desperately needed fall by the wayside. We urge you to use your very able leadership to create a new direction for food and farm policy in the 21st century that is economically viable, environmentally sound, socially just and humane.