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The Florida Veterans for Common Sense Board has approved the FLVCS’s Environmental Working Group’s 2023 Farm Bill Position Paper.
2023 Farm Bill Position Paper
Our food system is responsible for 20% – 30% of our nation’s greenhouse gas emissions. The harm is much worse than that. In too many cases, our food products fuel epidemics of diabetes and heart disease. [DK][A][U] The food production processes exploit workers and worsen racial and income inequality. Our dominant farming methods despoil the landscape, pollute air and water, and accelerate climate change. Every five years Congress writes a piece of legislation called the Farm Bill. This year, we urgently need legislation that rights these wrongs.
Florida Veterans for Common Sense, Inc. (FLVCS) recognizes that the current U.S. agriculture system is unsustainable, unhealthy, and inequitable. Our industrial-scale agricultural practices continue to use tilling, fertilizer, and pesticides to produce crops, even though scientists now know how destructive those actions are. Without a doubt, current practices have turned living soil into dead dirt, effectively creating a biological as well as a hydrological desert. Consequently, the soil is usable only with massive, expensive energy, and water inputs. As a result, harvested crops do not yield as many calories for consumption as they require for production. [N][L] Furthermore, in the process, economies of scale have all but eliminated smaller, often local and minority farms, and the livelihoods of many citizens.
While correcting the current agricultural situation is a huge challenge, FLVCS is focused on one partial solution – the redirection or elimination of current subsidies to be put forward in the 2023 Farm Bill so that the funds can be redirected to encourage sustainable farming practices. To help put the FLVCS position in context, look at the programs in the current Farm Bill.
Source of pie chart: National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition
How to reallocate subsidies in the 2023 Farm Bill
Subsidies from Title I (Commodities) and Title XI (Crop Insurance) of the Farm Bill should be used instead as incentives to implement Conservation Programs (Title II) which promote regenerative agriculture, protect ecosystems, and mitigate climate change, such as:
- Promote rebuilding healthy soil damaged by the use of chemical pesticides and fertilizer and incentivize the reduction of use of these damaging substances.
- Promote carbon sequestration without resorting to false solutions such as carbon trading schemes.
- Prioritize specialized crops (especially sustainably grown vegetables and fruits) instead of commodity crops (especially corn and soybeans for processed foods and biofuel).
- Recognize the ecological value of regenerative and traditional indigenous practices and incentivize the use of such practices.
- Increase funding for research focused on regenerative practices in agriculture that emphasize climate health, environmental protection, and equity.
For example, sustainable food and farming techniques that should be incentivized in the Farm Bill [H]:
- Silvopasture
- Regenerative agriculture
- Conservation agriculture
- Composting
- Nutrient management
- Tree intercropping
- Abandoned Farmland restoration
- Improved rice production
- Managed grazing
Florida Veterans for Common Sense believes that all citizens and our elected officials should understand and work toward the above redirection or elimination of current subsidies.
References
[A] Appel, Carrie, and Ranjani Prabhakar. 2022. Inflation Reduction Act Shows Congress — At Last — Understands Agriculture’s Contribution To Climate Change And The Opportunities To Reduce It. Earth Justice. August 17
[DK] Darovec. John and William (Coty) Keller. 2018. Urgency and Action: Drawdown to Reverse Global Warming. A report published by Florida Veterans for Common Sense. April
[H] Hawken, Paul editor. 2017. Drawdown: the most comprehensive plan ever proposed to reverse global warming. Penguin Books.
[HEAL] A FARM BILL FOR A THRIVING FUTURE FOR US ALL. HEAL (Health, Environment, Agriculture, Labor) Food Alliance.
[K] Keller, William (Coty), 2022. If we want to reduce heat-trapping gases, we need to distinguish between beneficial and harmful ‘renewable energy’ Invading Sea. June 19
[L] Lott, Melissa. 2011. 10 Calories in, 1 Calorie Out – The Energy We Spend on Food. Scientific American. August 11.
[N] Norton, Daphne 2010 Energy Expenditures Related to Food Projection. Sustainable Food Committee at Emory University.
[U] Union of Concerned Scientists. A Food and Farm Bill for Everyone
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