Farm & Food Policy Update	May 2007
Dear Friends, Capitol Hill is in the midst of drafting the 2007 Farm Bill with insight from congressional hearings in DC, meetings in the field, and some quality press articles and radio shows that are elevating our issues into the public debate. This special e-news links to the family farmer voices at the Agriculture Committee Hearings to fields in Iowa. But there are many other voices being heard on Capitol Hill that further shift farm policy in the wrong direction so we must pull together now. House and Senate leadership are saying that the 2007 Farm Bill will be on the floor of the House and Senate by July. The time is now for a commodity title that more closely meets our goals of a fair price through a non-recourse loan or support price set at cost of production, reserves (energy, humanitarian, and farmer-owned), and support for conservation programs such as Conservation Security Program and CRP.   Thanks for your hard work on behalf of family farmers. We welcome your active participation with us these months ahead. Check out our farm bill proposal, the Food from Family Farms Act: the model farm bill to create a democratic food system. Best Regards, Kathy Ozer P.S. To learn more or to sign up for e-mail updates, please click here.
What’s on the Table: 2007 Farm Bill: What’s Needed in the Commodity Title Growing Momentum for Food from Family Farms Act Heard on the Hill Welcome Irene! Chewable Policy Pieces Upcoming Call Take Action Working in Partnership Resources Upcoming Farm Bill Events May 7 Farm & Food Policy Conference Call Monday at 3:00 pm (EST) May 14-15 Washington, DC U.S. Farm Bill and the EU Common Agriculture Policy at Crossroads - A Global Dialogue on U.S., Canadian and EU Agriculture policies hosted by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy June 27-July 1 Atlanta, Georgia United States Social Forum More details coming soon on Food Sovereignty workshops, but until then visit the USSF website! Share your farm bill events! E-mail Deb 3 Basic Principles of a Fair Farm Bill Price Support that covers cost of production, NOT Subsidies Food & Energy Security Reserves Conservation & Supply Management For More Information on the Farm Bill: National Family Farm Coalition Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy Building Sustainable Futures for Farmers Globally Rural Coalition Agriculture Policy Analysis Center Community Food Security Coalition National Campaign for Sustainable Agriculture National Farmers Union Food & Water Watch Food First	Heard on the Hill Testimonies for the Food from Family Farms Act Capitol Hill is a buzz lately with Hearings galore including representation by John Zippert on credit, Randy Jasper on dairy, Larry Mitchell on commodities, and Emily Jackson on community food security. Even if you aren't in DC, you can listen and watch and learn. The Hearing process provides a venue for our elected officials to listen to alternatives to our current runaway food system. In the Senate: April 24^th, NFFC Dairy Testimony (Randy Jasper) April 25^th, ACGA Food from Family Farms Act Testimony (Larry Mitchell) The Senate Agriculture Committee Hearings are archived at http://agriculture.senate.gov/. In the House: April 26, NFFC Food from Family Farms Act Testimony March 27, ACGA Food from Family Farms Act Testimony (Larry Mitchell) March, 27, Rural Coalition & Federation of Southern Cooperatives Testimony on Credit (John Zippert) The House Agriculture Committee Hearings are archived at http://agriculture.house.gov/hearings/statements.html.
	Welcome Irene Lin to DC Office NFFC is pleased to introduce Irene Lin as she comes on board to help staff our farm bill policy platform in the coming months. Irene Lin served as the research and policy director for Claire McCaskill's Senate race in Missouri. Prior to that, she was a Congressional fellow for the House Ways and Means Committee during the CAFTA fight. Irene also lived in Zimbabwe in 1999, where she was a reporter looking at the illegal importation of GMOs into Zimbabwe and was a research assistant for an NGO advocating for Africa's interests in the WTO. She has also completed research on the history of the nonrecourse loan for corn. She has a BA from Amherst College and MPP from Johns Hopkins University. To contact Irene: irenehlin@gmail.com or call 202.543.5675
	Chewable Policy Pieces To digest the Farm Bill in consumer friendly terms, read these three recent articles: What We Need in the Farm Bill by George Naylor: “Large, multinational corporations count on the farm bill to ensure that they can buy U.S. farm products at the lowest cost possible. Their interest is not farmers' income or the consumers’ health but rather turning farm products into high-profit processed food "items.” Iowan: Farm Program Works Against Growers, Environment: Interview with George Naylor: "We need a sustainable agriculture system, not just a few sustainable farmers." --Des Moines Register, April 29^th, 2007 You Are What You Grow by Michael Pollan in the NY Times Magazine on April 22nd: “Enlightened eaters also recognize their dependence on farmers, which is why they would support a bill that guarantees the people who raise our food not subsidies but fair prices. Why? Because they prefer to live in a country that can still produce its own food and doesn’t hurt the world’s farmers by dumping its surplus crops on their markets.” Learn about the 2007 Farm Bill by reading NFFC’s Spring newsletter and listening to the webcast of Food Fight: A Teach In on the 2007 Farm Bill at Berkeley, CA on March 21^st.
	Get Involved! Farm & Food Policy Conference Call Monday, May 7^th at 3:00 pm (EST)
	Working in Partnership Sign on letters to support fair and competitive markets, increase conservation incentives, enhance truth in labeling, etc. have been hitting the desks of our elected officials and forcing them to take action on legislation essential to our farms and ranches. Recent positions NFFC has endorsed include: National Campaign 2007 Fair and Competitive Markets Sign On Letter Country of Origin Labeling 2007 Sign On Letter INTERNATIONAL WORKERS’ DAY On this May 1, 2007, thousands celebrate International Workers Day all over the US and around the world. Actions are planned in over 75 cities across the country.  Agricultural workers organizations, the Florida Farmworkers Association and Border Agricultural Workers project, are planning general strikes and public acts in Orlando and El Paso.  The National Family Farm Coalition stands with the workers to demand a living wage and respect for basic human rights.  We join these workers today to celebrate the on-going struggle for justice and dignity in the food system.         International Workers’ Day Letter of Solidarity Resources! Building Sustainable Futures for Farmers Globally While inequitable agricultural subsidies are one of the factors that contribute to the crisis in agriculture by indirectly depressing commodity prices, the elimination of subsidies alone will not solve the crisis. Indeed, unless new farm policies are first put in place that provide fair prices to farmers from the market and curtail overproduction, eliminating U.S. farm subsidies could in fact harm many smaller-scale family farmers in the United States and lead to further market concentration. As a result, the Building Sustainable Futures for Farmers Globally campaign advocates a broad platform to address the overproduction and low prices that are harming small farmers in the U.S. and abroad. We pledge our support for alternative agriculture and trade policies that will provide sustainable livelihoods for farmers in the United States and around the globe, by helping to ensure that global food corporations pay family farmers a fair price for their products in the marketplace and promote socially and environmentally sustainable farming.