WASHINGTON, DC, May 08, 2007 - The National Family Farm Coalition urges our elected representatives at tomorrow's House Agriculture Committee Hearing on recent food safety emergencies to address the state of our food supply as a critical national security issue through the lens of Food Sovereignty, the right of every society to regulate it's food supply and not become dependent on food sources from unknown points on the globe.

"Our food system is broken. Free markets encouraging cheap imports like what sparked this food safety debacle - melamine, a chemical made from coal used as a cheap filler in livestock feed - will not respect the needs of the land, rural culture, or our health. With the discovery of melamine in pet, hog, and chicken feed, combined with the disclosure of Canada's 10th case of mad cow, we can no longer hide the deep cracks in our food and farm policy. Congress is responsible for writing legislation that will ensure a stable food supply and we have a unique opportunity in the current drafting of the 2007 Farm Bill to stop outsourcing our national food security,¡± stated George Naylor, president of the National Family Farm Coalition and Iowa grain farmer.

In 2006, according to numbers from the USDA Foreign Agriculture Service, the United States exported $62.2 billion in food items, while importing $75.1 billion, a jump of 60 percent in only a decade. Much of this food is coming from developing countries, like China, that have less stringent rules on pesticides, labor, environmental issues, and additives. In particular, the U.S. imports approximately 80 percent of its wheat gluten from China, Australia, and the European Union. Besides livestock feed, wheat gluten is often incorporated in human food from store-brought bread to baby food.

"To reverse the destructive trends in agriculture and our food supply, from industrialized livestock production to unhealthy, unsafe junk food, our public policy must respect the right of every society to Food Sovereignty and aim to have our food produced on family farms. Tomorrow's hearing is a important next step in forging real solutions to our food security crisis." stated Naylor
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"The National Family Farm Coalition has many family farmers from all around the country who grow the feed for their animals on their own farms and can guarantee the wholesomeness of what they produce. Let's hope our representatives tomorrow listen to them and concerned consumers," he added.

For more information on Food Sovereignty and NFFC's proposed farm bill, The Food from Family Farms Act, visit www.nffc.net.