Senate Rigs Rules to Kill Farm Bill Reform

The Senate voted December 13th to drive a stake in the heart of farm bill reform and to continue current federal farm subsidies largely unchanged. By a vote of 56-43, Senators rejected a key reform measure—the Dorgan-Grassley Payment Limits amendment—which would have established a $250,000 limit for federal farm subsidy payments to agricultural producers. Should other farm reform amendments be defeated, the Senate farm bill will largely keep intact the existing rules for payments to farmers which have often been sidestepped in creative ways leading to million dollar payments for many large, wealthy farmers.

How could the payment limits reform amendment lose despite a vote of 56-43 in favor of the amendment? Under rules agreed to by the Senate leadership, key amendments that would have reformed a broken farm safety net system required a 60 vote margin for passage.

Oxfam President, Ray Offenheiser, criticized the Senate's decision to change the rules for this and other key reform measures. "Despite the fact that a majority of Senators voted for reforming a bloated and unfair federal farm subsidy system, no reform was adopted."

"Opponents of farm policy reform are out of step with Americans and even with the majority of their colleagues. So, they rigged the rules for this key vote to ensure that despite majority support, it would not be adopted. This decision to change the rules speaks volumes about the real commitment to change by the Senate Democratic leadership. It is all talk but little action."

The consequences of this vote and the Senate's decision yesterday to reject the larger reform measure offered by Senators Lugar and Lautenberg, mean that US farm policy will continue to benefit the rich over the poor, both in the United States and abroad.

Relatively few US farmers participate in farm programs. Yet, for those who do, the benefits flow largely to a small minority of producers in states whose elected officials fiercely protect their handouts from their seats on the agriculture committees in the House and the Senate. While few would have expected reform to come from these committees, it was reasonable to believe that the new Democratic leadership in the House and the Senate would have advocated reforms consistent with their message of change. Sadly, we have seen that this is not the case in either body of the Congress.

Just as the US has rigged its trading rules to benefit large corporate farms at the expense of developing countries and farmers who struggle to survive on a dollar a day, the Senate elected to rig the rules for voting on essential farm policy reforms so that no reform was possible. Family farmers in the US, impoverished families abroad who are dependent upon agriculture to survive, and American taxpayers who foot the bill for unnecessary US farm subsidies will ultimately pay the price.

Action Alert!

US Senators Ready to Vote on the Farm Bill. Tell Them to Stand Up for Poor Farmers Here and Abroad!

Time is running out for Congress to do the right thing on the Farm Bill. If a few key US Senators don’t take a stand, Congress could sell out poor farmers with policies that have devastating effects on rural communities here and abroad.

The Senate begins debating the Farm Bill today. Two key amendments that would fight poverty and injustice, the Dorgan-Grassley Payment Limits Amendment and the Lugar-Lautenberg FRESH Amendment, could be up for a vote as early as Tuesday or Wednesday. We need you to call your Senators now and ask them to vote yes in favor of these two key amendments. Phone calls are one of the strongest ways to make your voice heard.

It's fast and simple, and it will make a big difference. And to make it easier, we are providing a script for you to use below. Please follow these simple instructions.

1. Call 1-800-977-1912 and listen to the prerecorded message.
2. An automated message will tell you what to say.
3. Please enter this six-digit code: 630367.
4. You will be connected to Senator Feinstein’s office.
5. Hang up and call Senator Boxer using the toll free number and the code 630368

"Hello, my name is _________ and I am a constituent from __________, California. I would like you to vote yes on the Dorgan-Grassley Payment Limits Amendment and on the Lugar-Lautenberg FRESH Amendment to the Farm Bill. These amendments will reduce unfair subsidies and shift funds to programs that feed hungry families, protect the environment, and help poor and minority farmers. Thank you for your time."

(If you have technical difficulties please try again or dial the Capitol switchboard directly at 202-224-3121 and ask for your Senator)

You can be sure the special interest groups will be trying to defeat these amendments, so it is critical that you call today. Senators listen to their constituents. They want to hear from you!

Volunteer at Green Fest!

Green Festivals are a celebration of what’s working in our communities– for people, for businesses and for the environment.

Green Fest San Francisco, taking place November 9, 10 & 11th, brings together local and national socially responsible businesses, and environmental, social justice and community organizations. Hundreds of thousands of concerned individuals over the years have attended these “parties with a purpose” aimed at forging a just, sustainable, inclusive economy – a green economy.


Oxfam will be there all 3 days, advocating for social and economic justice by educating Bay Area attendees about their role in Making Trade Fair!



There are still spots available to volunteer with Oxfam at this important and fun event! Volunteer by e-mailing Megimegs1@yahoo.com.

Action Alert:

US Senators are Getting Ready to Vote on the Farm Bill. Tell Them to Stand Up for Poor Farmers Here and Abroad!

1. LEARN
Time is running out for Congress to do the right thing on the Farm Bill. If a few key US Senators don’t take a stand, Congress could sell out poor farmers with policies that have devastating effects on rural communities here and abroad. Since the House has already acted, the Senate is next in line for a vote. Oxfam is encouraging all our supporters and allies to ask their US Senators to vote in support of Farm Bill reform that reduces trade-distorting subsidies for commodities such as cotton. These subsidies lead to excess production, reducing world market prices and undercutting those in developing nations who depend on agriculture to survive.

By reforming trade-distorting subsidies, Congress could help 10 million people in West Africa alone, who depend on cotton for their livelihoods. Cotton is often the only source of cash income for these families who live on less than $1 a day per person. With the added income from increased cotton prices, the typical West African cotton farming family could cover the costs of:
• one year’s worth of health care for four to 10 people,
• or one year of schooling for two to 10 children,
• or one year’s food supply for one or two children.


2. ACT
Since every vote matters, can you take a moment to call your US Senators today?
For your convenience, we have set up a toll-free 800 number with simple instructions on what to say.
1. Please call 1-800-977-1912
2. An automated message will give you a brief introduction.
3. When prompted, press 630367 for Senator Dianne Feinstein
OR 630368 for Senator Barbara Boxer.
4. After reaching your first US Senator, please hang up and repeat the instructions to reach your second US Senator.

Be sure to tell the staff member who answers the phone that you are a constituent and that you want your US Senator to vote in support of Farm Bill reform that reduces trade-distorting subsidies for commodities such as cotton. Tell them that these subsidies lead to excess production, reducing world market prices and undercutting the poor in developing nations who depend on agriculture to survive.


3. CHANGE
It will only take a minute. A few well-placed calls from people like you can help the world’s poorest farmers. Please call today!

Working Together for Change: The Oxfam Hunger Banquet, September 23rd

You may think hunger is about too many people and too little food. That is not the case. Our rich and bountiful planet produces enough food to feed every woman, man, and child on earth. Hunger is about power. Its roots lie in inequalities in access to education and resources. The results are illiteracy, poverty, war, and the inability of families to grow or buy food. Today, you join Oxfam's fight against hunger and poverty.

There are solutions. Altering the current system of trade so that it benefits all countries, rich and poor, will help reverse many inequalities that currently keep people poor. **For example, if the poorest regions of the world increased their share of world exports by just 1%, they could lift 128 million people out of poverty!

Instead, poor countries are forced to open up their markets to floods of cheap imports; if they don't, vital aid dollars will be cut off. Yet for every dollar given to poor countries in aid, $2 is lost because of unfair trade barriers against their exports. More than 40% of the world's population lives in low income countries—yet these countries account for only 3% of world trade. Today's rules of trade make so-called "free trade" very profitable for rich countries but hinder poor country's access to a better life for its citizens.

US and European countries also spend billions on agricultural subsides, mostly to large and wealthy agribusiness, putting farmers in poor countries AND in the US out of business, or driving down their incomes, and furthering the demise of small farmers globally. Oxfam believes that human rights are not contingent on our country of origin, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or the money we have or need. Rather, human rights are fundamental and nonnegotiable.

Here's a new version of an old story:
-Give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day
-Teach a man to fish, he'll eat for a life time
-But, we must also ask ourselves, who controls the river?

Who controls the river is an important question because there may well be a company whose factory is polluting upstream. A government or international institution could be planning to build a dam, displacing thousands of villagers. One large fishing company may be over fishing, placing the entire livelihood of ordinary fishers at risk. Oxfam's mission is one that is quite ambitious: we want to end hunger, poverty and injustice. And Oxfam believes the question of injustice-- whether it be social, economic, or political injustice-- goes to the heart of the question, who controls the river?

Please join us at this unique, powerful and memerable event to learn more and experience firsthand how our decisions affect others in the world.


What: Oxfam Hunger Banquet
When: Sunday, September 23, 2007; 5:30-7:30pm
Where: Haight Ashbury Food Program
Address: 1525 Waller Street at Belvedere
San Francisco, CA 94117
RSVP: Megimegs1@yahoo.com

Join us at Dolores Park! Aug. 16th

Last Thursday, July 26th, the House of Representatives passed its version of the Farm Bill without any significant subsidy reform. It missed a rare opportunity to overhaul US trade distorting subsidies that benefit large, corporate operations at the expense of family farmers, rural communities, and efforts to reduce global poverty. It made minimal progress in funding for nutrition, conservation, and rural development programs.

Although the Fairness Amendment was defeated, our advocacy for it helped bring about other benefits. In the hours prior to the vote, House leadership negotiated last minute funding increases for various programs, in effect siphoning votes away from the Amendment from key groups like domestic nutrition advocates, foreign food aid supporters, and members of the Congressional Black Caucus.

These are among the improvements that now appear in the House version of the Farm Bill :

-$4 billion for domestic hunger prevention programs
-$1.6 billion for healthier food systems, including more fresh fruits & veggies for school lunches and funding for organics
-$1.1 billion in mandatory spending for McGovern-Dole, a program to provide lunches for children in Africa
funds to support settlement of USDA racial discrimination lawsuits
-$150 million for socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers
a tighter income eligibility standard for farm subsidy recipients, lowering the maximum eligible income to $500,000 from the previous $2.5 million.
-Closing loopholes for abuse and fraud through the elimination of the 3-entity rule, and direct attribution of payments.

Our will is as strong as ever, and we will now take this fight to the Senate for the next round of the law-making process. Thanks to our efforts, public outcry for subsidy reform has risen to new heights, and Congress will continue to feel the pressure.

As we go forward to consideration of the Farm Bill in the Senate, let’s make sure that we continue to move in this positive direction. In the weeks to come, we need to emphasize to our Senators that in addition to what the House accomplished, they need to address trade distorting subsidies. These specific types of commodity subsidies continue to contribute to farm consolidation, environmental problems, and decline in rural communities. They also cause surplus production that devastates rural communities in the poorest nations around the world.

Thank you so much for all your tremendous work in this endeavor. Let us now go forward and work for a Farm Bill that truly addresses hunger and poverty around the world. Take a moment to rest and pat yourself on the back for putting some muscle into the grassroots democratic process. Then let’s get back to it!

Us Farm Policy Moving From Bad To Worse

In reaction to today’s House of Representatives commodity subcommittee text for the Farm Bill, Raymond C. Offenheiser, President of Oxfam America, made the following statement:

"The text approved by the Commodity Subcommittee for the 2007 Farm Bill moves US farm policy from bad to worse. The subcommittee bill continues current farm commodity subsidies and makes matters worse by reinstating additional subsidies for cotton farmers that were eliminated by the previous Congress. This cotton program was ruled illegal by the World Trade Organization, but the subcommittee has parsed the language to try to slide the subsidy under the WTO screen.

"The subcommittee’s legislation does little to address trade distorting subsidies and signals to our trading partners that Congress doesn't care about fairness in global trade or the impacts of US farm subsidies abroad. In fact, the legislative language reverses progress in many areas.

"Congress can still reform US farm programs. Reform is essential since most US farmers receive little or no benefit from current farm programs, and farmers overseas continue to be harmed by current policy.

“If Congress is to bring more equity to current farm programs and provide more resources to conserve our lands, support rural communities, address the needs of Americans in poverty, and to improve our energy security, changes in the commodity programs are essential. But the action by the Commodities Subcommittee today is a disappointment and is clearly inconsistent with the reform agenda advocated by Congressional leaders”.

Legislative Update:

Action is underway to write the 2007 Farm Bill. Recently House Agriculture Committee Chairman, Colin Peterson (D-MN) introduced his version of the Farm Bill. Now, it's the subcommittees turn to work on the bill. A full agriculture committee vote is expected in June and the Chairman still hopes to have the bill voted on by the full House before Congress breaks for the August recess.

Progress in the Senate is expected to fall behind the work in the House, but both Chairmen still insist Farm Bill work will be completed by Thanksgiving. With Farm Bill activity in full swing in Congress, now is the time Members need to hear from you!

A note about Colin Peterson... as a Congressman from MN he has to answer to many large, commodity producing farmers, who get hundreds and hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars from the government in the form of outdated subsidies. Obviously, they do not want to lose these huge payments, and have dedicated lots of money and power to lobbying Peterson to not propose meaningful reform!

I am very sad to say, but our good speaker Nancy Pelosi has said that she is inclined to follow the recommendations of the Ag. Chairman (Colin Peterson)... NOT GOOD!

Once a Farm Bill comes out of the House Agriculture Committee and is sent to the floor for a vote by all 435 members, there will be opportunities for amendments to the bill. This is where Nancy Pelosi and the House leadership have enormous power over the farm bill. The number and type of amendments allowed is essentially controlled by the House leadership. If Colin Peterson really has an agreement with the leadership to prevent a vote on any meaningful amendments to the farm bill on the floor, then anyone pursuing an entirely floor strategy is doomed.

This is a huge deal! If Pelosi blocks amendments on the bill, it is very possible that reforms suppported by the majority of the House will not be in the House version of the Farm Bill because votes will never be allowed. This would be a subversion of democracy- one committee being allowed to write an enormously important piece of legislation without regard to the desires of the rest of the House.

Concert Outreach Opportunities!

We'll be tabling at some great upcoming concerts in the Bay Area, and we need your help. Concert tabling is a lot of fun -- you get to work with great people, rap to more great people about fair trade and the Farm Bill, and you get to watch the show for FREE! Plus, we'll give you a training before the tabling, so you'll either know the answers to people's questions, or you'll at least know where to find them. It's a great way to help build the movement for Farm Bill reform in California while having fun, too.

Bay Area Oxfam Action Corps tabling events at upcoming concerts:

June 1 & 2: Arcade Fire - Greek Theater, Berkeley: www.arcadefire.com

June 9: Live 105 Festival - Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View - NorCal's biggest alternative music festival - Bloc Party, Interpol, Queens Of The Stone Age, Kaiser Chiefs, Social D., and more! www.live105.com

July 1: Warped Tour - Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View - punk, ska & extreme sports festival: www.warpedtour.com

August 3: Reggae Rising - Humboldt - Sly & Robbie, Steel Pulse, Ziggy Marley & more: www.reggaerising.com

Sept 29: Robert Randolph, SF Blues Festival - Great Meadow, Fort Mason, SF - www.sfblues.com




Space is limited, so sign up today! E-mail:
Megimegs1@yahoo.com.

Join The Oxfam Action Corps!

Let us introduce ourselves... we are Megan and Jessica, the Oxfam Action Corps field organizers for the San Francisco Bay Area. We have an extraordinary opportunity to create meaningful positive change during the next few months, and would love your help! Join us as we call on Congress to reduce misguided agriculture subsidies and redirect the money to the programs that need it the most! Please take a minute to join our Bay Area listserve by clicking on "Get Involved" link.

Background: The Oxfam Action Corps started as an initiative to cultivate 20 volunteers from 10 key cities to provide Oxfam America with additional campaigning clout and grassroots outreach. From now through the fall, we will focus on reforming the Farm Bill, a law that will govern our farm, food, and conservation policy over the next five years. The broader goal is to create a strong base of activists for Oxfam’s campaigning work in the future.

Our early efforts have been both fun and effective! Our concert outreach at DJ Shadow was great, and we have many more concert outreach opportunities available to you throughout the summer... dates will be posted soon. Our collaborative World Fair Trade Day celebration in Dolores Park was also very successful and fun, as we joined forces with the Bay Area Fair trade Coalition, Alter Eco, Global Exchange, Equal Exchange, and Barefoot Coffee Roasters to promote fair trade awareness and educate San Francisco residents about their role in reforming the Farm Bill and getting Rep. Pelosi's attention. We would be very excited to have you on board and look forward to working with you soon!

Join Oxfam's campaign to change the rules and double standards that keep farmers from getting a fair price!

Devised during the Great Depression, the Farm Bill was designed to give American farmers a safety net when the market bottomed out.

Today's Farm Bill gives out commodity subsidies, or large government payments made to producers of a small number of crops. Most American farmers get little or nothing. Meanwhile, these subsidies don't alleviate the biggest problems in rural communities: lack of medical services, poor schools, population loss, and environmental degradation.

While the Farm Bill falls short in the US, it also hurts farmers in developing countries. By encouraging the overproduction of crops such as cotton and rice, commodity subsidies create a glut that drives down world prices, undermining the livelihoods of millions of small farmers around the world. This situation is not only unfair; it violates international rules set by the World Trade Organization.

The money we're spending on these misguided subsidies should be redirected to the programs that help the people most in need. More money should go to providing Internet access for rural communities, food stamps for poor families, conservation programs that protect rivers and streams, and the research and development of renewable sources of energy.

The time is right and the momentum is growing. Ask Congress to revamp the Farm Bill. Let's put our tax money to work for farmers, families, and our future.