A massive piece of legislation that dictates what our public dollars are going to support in agriculture. It’s… our opportunity — instead of propping up factory farming (which…has been done for decades) to…seeing those billions of dollars… supporting meaningfully higher welfare farming systems.
Kara Shannon, Lunch + Legislation, July 1, 2024
Kara presented a “good news/bad news” picture. The Farm Bill was scheduled to be passed in 2023, but Congress was unable to reach a deal. The 2018 Farm Bill was extended but we are in the same position. This session of Congress is about 3/4 of the way finished, and there appears to be no deal in sight.
Kara discussed the two versions of the bill, Senate and House. She reports that the Senate Agriculture Committee (whose chair is Michigan Senator Debbie Stabenow) released a framework that includes portions of two bills that the “A” has supported which for the first time ever would provide funding to farmers stuck in the factory farm system to get out: 1
- Farm System Reform Act provisions that would fund costs for those farmers who want to transition from factory farms to more humane, sustainable practices
- Annual, public reporting requirements on farm animal “depopulation”, which was an issue during COVID and continues with the HPAI (bird flu) pandemic taken from the Industrial Agriculture Accountability Act; currentlly there is no transparency
The bad news is the House Agriculture draft bill, which has passed out of committee, contains part of the EATS Act language.
Kara is concerned that some legislators may see the current EATS language in the House draft as a “compromise” because it only applies to livestock, and therefore will be more willing to go along with keeping the language in the final bill.
That’s where advocates come in. Contact your U.S. Representative and U.S. Senators (Michiganders are in a pivotal position because its senior Senator chairs the Agriculture Committee) to tell them not to allow the EATS language into the Farm Bill, and to support the progressive provisions in the Senate framework.
She also suggested writing a Letter to the Editor, which metions your federal elected officials by name (to ensure that the Senators or Representative will see it). Her office offers assistance in drafting a LTE. If interested, contact her at kara.shannon@aspca.org
Kara’s message was loud and clear: Don’t Forget the Farm Bill!
You can see her full interview here.
- ASPCA Blog, May 3, 2024: “Big News for Animals: Farm Bill Framework Finally Unveiled” https://www.aspca.org/news/big-news-animals-farm-bill-framework-finally-unveiled ↩︎