Update: Congress Misses Opportunity for Farm Bill Reform
You might have heard that the US Congress just missed a huge opportunity to help poor people around the world. For the first time in five years, they had the chance to rewrite the Farm Bill so that it reduced farm subsidies, the same subsidies that go to mostly large farms here in the US and fuel a cycle of overproduction that hurts family farmers here and abroad.
But instead of fixing a broken system, they agreed to perpetuate it. By a sizable margin, Congress voted to override a presidential veto, passing a Farm Bill that makes some incremental gains but overall is even worse than its predecessor. Learn more »
What Oxfam is Doing
The Farm Bill was originally written to give family farmers the support they needed, but these days, it no longer lives up to that promise. A small percentage of American farmers receive a large amount of government support while many others receive little or nothing. And by encouraging overproduction and lowering crop prices, the Farm Bill hurts farmers in other parts of the world. more »
Learn More
- Fairness in the Fields: A vision for the 2007 Farm Bill
- Farm Bill 101: A quick and easy guide to understanding the Farm Bill
- How Does the USDA Farm Bill Proposal Measure Up?
- Watch Oxfam America's six-minute educational slideshow about the issues surrounding the 2007 Farm Bill reform effort.
Real Lives
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With US Subsidies Comes Lower Prices and a Change in How Africans Farm
An elderly widow in Mali shares her insight. |
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On the Great Prairie, the Farm Bill Does Little to Help Land Stewardship
A multi-generational family farm in Minnesota is overlooked in favor of industrial producers. |