As the summer descends upon Colorado, the fight over the budget will heat up in Congress. And if you thought the eleventh hour negotiations that took place in early April over the 2011 budget were dramatic, just wait -- you ain't seen nothing yet.
One topic that has been conspicuously absent from the fight over the budget is the impact that cuts proposed by the House and the president would have on our healthy food and sustainable agriculture programs. In the rush to cut anything and everything, these proposals move millions of Americans more closer to hunger, eliminate jobs in our communities, and make our food less safe.
The budget-cutters are also going after key farm and environmental programs that have an enormous positive impact. In Colorado, nearly 5,800 of our state's farmers -- representing two million acres of land -- are enrolled in a program that helps them minimize runoff and soil loss and provide habitat for native wildlife. Over 300 Colorado farmers have taken advantage of a program that helps them transition into organic production. And federal grants have helped Slow Food Denver, the Colorado Farmers Market Association, and other entities expand access to healthy food for thousands of lower-income consumers across the state. Despite the clear benefits of these programs, they are all in danger of coming under the knife as Congress hacks its way through the budget this summer.
These cuts are not solutions to our budget crises, nor will they mend our broken food system. Rather, they are ideological prescriptions that will do nothing but further enrich corporate agribusiness and those members of Congress who are the beneficiaries of their campaign contributions.
Clearly, we need to walk a different path. But the oft-repeated solutions being put forward by several groups I know and respect -- that consumers should simply vote with their forks, or push Congress to cut agricultural subsidies in order to fix the food system -- will not extricate us from the agricultural and financial mess we face.
Voting with our dollars won't fix these problems for two simple reasons. First, the share of the money we spend at the grocery store that actually goes back to the farmer has been steadily declining over the past two decades; of each dollar that you spend today on groceries, only 11 cents trickles back to farmer Jane or Rancher John in your community. Guess who gets the rest? The few major corporations that control processing, packaging, and distribution of almost all of our food. Second, the number of Americans currently surviving on food stamps is at an all-time high. With over 44 million men, women, and children -- that's one in seven -- receiving nutrition assistance, the inconvenient truth is that we, or our neighbors, simply don't have the money to vote with their forks. There are no dollars to spend.
Many groups that care about local food and conservation programs have lobbied in favor of cutting subsidies to commodity farmers and using the proceeds to fund their favored programs. Unfortunately, this proposal is an over-simplification of what is wrong with our food system. The overproduction of corn and soybeans didn't start with the subsidy programs that get so much attention in the news. Instead, it started when Congress -- at the behest of grain traders and meat companies -- deregulated agriculture in the 1980s and 90s, eliminating programs that kept production in check and farmers' wages decent. We're reaping the terrible fruits of those political decisions now:the average income of small and midsized farmers -- Farmer Jane and Rancher John -- in our country is just over $19,000 a year. That's a paltry sum,and over a quarter of it comes from government payments (i.e. subsidies). If we really want to restore sanity to our food system, grain traders and meat companies must pay farmers a fair price.
We need real solutions to deal with the consolidation and power that corporate agribusiness enjoys and employs in our food and political systems today. The first basic step to making our food system more sustainable and just is to pressure Senator Bennet to oppose cuts to local food and nutrition programs that create jobs and enable everyone in our communities to access wholesome food.
For the second step, we need to pressure Senator Bennet to support reforms that were passed by Congress back in 2008 to lessen the power that huge agribusinesses hold over our food system -- thus enabling farmers and ranchers to make a living, and not see their share of grocery store revenue fall even lower than it already has.
Underlying this all is one common theme: organizing and getting involved. I invite everyone in Colorado to attend one of our events taking place two weeks after Memorial Day Weekend to learn more. If you've been waiting for a chance to get involved, there's never been a better time. From drive-in movies to wine tastings, we're making the movement to change our food system fun, delicious, and practical. Come and join us!
Sam Schabacker is a Senior Organizer for Food & Water Watch, which is organizing a national call-in day to President Obama on GIPSA on June 22. Find out more by joining their list at www.foodandwaterwatch.org.