A pro-food farm bill - By Hugh Joseph (Boston Globe)

[YankeyMCC]

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One problem with the farm bill has been its historical lack of balance. While 39 percent of all US farmers and ranchers received crop subsidies in 2005, very few were fruit and vegetable farmers, particularly from the Northeast states. Meanwhile, between 1985 and 2000 the real price of fruits and vegetables increased by 40 percent while the price of soft drinks and other sugary and high-fat foods declined by as much as 20 percent, thanks to massive federal subsidies for corn and soybean producers.

Due in part to this imbalance, we are paying more than $100 billion a year in obesity-related medical costs. If our farm bills had also been healthy food bills, we would have distributed government support more equitably to make nutritious foods more accessible and more consistent with US Department of Agriculture dietary guidance, which encourages us to eat more fruits and vegetables.
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How do we strengthen the "food" components of the farm bill? We could support supplementing school meal programs with hundreds of millions of dollars of additional fresh fruits and vegetables. This would encourage children to eat better, and open up large new markets for local and regional farmers. A stumbling block is the Department of Agriculture, which has told local school districts that they cannot give a preference for food purchases to local farmers.
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Massachusetts also started the Farmers' Market Nutrition Program two decades ago, a program providing $20 million this year to WIC families nationwide to obtain fresh produce at local farmers' markets. A similar program for seniors is currently funded nationally at $15 million. A three- or four fold increase would help address the enormous unmet demand in Massachusetts and other states for these benefits at a tiny fraction of what is now spent to support large commodity producers.
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The 2007 farm bill should encourage farm stands and other direct marketing links with consumers, and foster urban food growing, school gardens, and local food procurement efforts by institutions. It should also strengthen the Emergency Food Assistance Program and other food and nutrition assistance programs such as the Food Stamp Program, WIC, the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program, and the Commodity Supplemental Food Program. These are front line defenses to prevent hunger and food insecurity while promoting nutritional health, particularly among children, older adults, and families at highest risk.

We know that if there are no farms, there is no food. Agriculture is struggling here not just through a loss of farms, but also from fewer food processors, slaughter facilities, and farm equipment suppliers. Federal funds can help us sustain the infrastructure necessary to produce, process and transport locally produced food. The less distance food must travel, the less negative impact our food system will have on climate change and the stronger our local food economies will be. With reduced food self-reliance, we will have no alternatives to food imports whose prices are now being driven up by increasing energy costs.
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[razzleberry]

1. with corn prices up ...

how many farmers today, get subsidies?