Hirono Sponsors Two Bills
to Help Small Farmers
Vast majority of federal subsidies
go to big corporations

by Joan Conrow

As Congress prepares to debate a Farm Bill that will set policies for the next five years, environmental groups, slow food advocates, organic farmers and others are looking at it as a rare opportunity to shift the nation away from industrial agriculture and into healthier growing and eating practices.
But the challenge in implementing that vision may lie not in shaping Congressional will, but in finding the funds to both placate subsidy-dependent agribusiness and adopt new initiatives.
"I think that money is the big limitation," says Anne Stewart, legislative director for Rep. Mazie Hirono. "The funding for the Farm Bill could be less than in previous years. recognize that some people are getting too much support, but it's difficult to change those programs overnight. Given limited money, I'm not sure how much we'll be able to do."
Still, Hirono has taken the lead among Hawai'i's Congressional delegation in pushing for a new approach. The freshman lawmaker, whose district is primarily rural, is co-sponsoring two bills aimed at giving organic farmers, conservation programs, fruit and vegetable growers and alternative energy a bigger slice of the $30 billion annual Farm Bill pie.
House Bill 1551, also know as the Healthy Farms, Food and Fuels Act, encourages alternative energy, strengthens farmers market initiatives to support local production and consumption of fruits and veggies, and shifts more money into organic agriculture and farm and ranch land conservation programs.
Stewart says the conservation programs are one of the few ways that Islanders benefit from current federal farm spending. "We always have more people in Hawai'i who want to use those programs than funds available," she says, noting that HB 1551 would channel nearly $10 million more into those initiatives annually.
House Bill 1600-the Eat Healthy America Act-would boost school lunch and elderly nutrition programs, and allocate more money for farmers who grow fruits and vegetables. Currently, those crops represent half the value of the nation's overall agricultural production, yet they receive less than 2 percent of the federal funds, Stewart says.
Farm spending critics, such as Oxfam America and the Environmental Defense Fund, claim that nearly all of the federal crop subsidies-some $25 billion annually-now go to large corporations that produce corn, soybeans, wheat, rice and cotton. They contend the payments encourage overproduction of commodity crops, creating a glut that drives down world prices and harms small farmers across the globe, while damaging land and water in rural areas.
Others, such as author Michael Pollan, have shown how the subsidies are linked to the proliferation of low-priced, calorie-laden junk foods that are filled with sugar and fat, leading to obesity and other serious health problems, especially among the poor.
In a New York Times commentary, Pollan noted that produce prices rose nearly 40 percent between 1985 and 2000, while the cost of soft drinks-made from subsidized corn syrup-dropped 23 percent.
"The reason the least healthful calories in the supermarket are the cheapest is that those are the ones the Farm Bill encourages farmers to grow," he wrote, adding that the same polices also determine what your kids are served in school lunch programs.
On the Web
For more information about
the Farm Bill, visitusda.gov.
To encourage lawmakers to reform the Farm Bill, visit oxfamamerica.org/farmbill.

Top of Page