I’d like to contribute to the Farm Bill discussion initiated earlier this week in a Baltimore Sun op-ed penned by Tom Albright, Holly Freishtat and the CLF’s own Bob Lawrence. The op-ed called for farmers’ markets to be provided with electronic benefits transfer (EBT) technology, to ensure that they are able to process purchases made with SNAP benefits (otherwise known as food stamps). The authors rightly point out that providing EBT at farmers’ markets would provide both a financial boon for local farmers, and increased access to fresher, more nutritious food for SNAP participants, who often live in areas where such food can be hard to come by and difficult to afford. I encourage you to read the op-ed for more information on the cost and benefits of this provision, and would like to add a few additional points for your consideration. Read More >
This is the sixth blogpost in the series, “Corn-Fed Cars: On the Road with Ethanol.”
While increased food prices is the most contentious of the many controversies surrounding the rapid increase in ethanol production from corn, the increase in greenhouse gas emissions from what is termed “indirect land use change” (ILUC) ranks a close second in the debates. (Here is a one study on ILUC.)
The controversy was triggered by a 2008 paper in Science by Searchinger et al. that stated, “Most prior studies have found that substituting biofuels for gasoline will reduce greenhouse gases because biofuels sequester carbon through the growth of the feedstock. Read More >
“Sustainability is a business strategy. It’s not a charitable giving strategy.”
I wasn’t surprised to hear this from Beth Keck, Walmart’s Senior Director of Sustainability, who spoke on the role of the private sector in sustainable agriculture at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington, DC late last month. Indeed, I’ve heard Gary Hirshberg, Chairman, President and CEO of Stonyfield Farm and author of Stirring it up: How to Make Money and Save the World, call on sustainable producers to harness the power of big business. Ms. Keck echoed this sentiment: “What we’re concerned with is how our business processes and our business decisions make a difference in the supply chains we interact with.” Unlike Mr. Hirshberg, though, Ms. Keck could not provide a real definition of “sustainability.” Walmart does not have its own definition, but “often cite[s] the original concept of leaving the earth in the same shape that you have found it or better—trying to be neutral or add back.” Read More >
Today the Baltimore Sun ran an opinion piece co-authored by CLF director Robert Lawrence, Holly Freishtat, and Tom Albright. The piece proposed a win-win for farmers and SNAP (food stamp) participants: Supply farmers’ markets with electronic benefit transfer (EBT) machines so that people can spend their SNAP dollars at those markets. The essay makes an appeal especially to Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), who sits on the Super Committee that may have sway over Farm Bill re-authorization.
To read the op-ed in the Baltimore Sun, click here. FarmPolicy.com, a daily agricultural news review excerpted the op-ed. Read More >
While the leaders of the Congressional Agriculture Committees have yet to announce the final details of their proposed Farm Bill cuts to the Super Committee, they have announced a goal of $23 billion in cuts to FB programs. We expect that cuts will touch commodity supports, conservation, and nutrition. The most recent information suggests that the proposal will cut:
- Conservation programs by $6.5 billion (a 10 percent cut relative to the Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) currently projected baseline for the Farm Bill).
- Commodity supports by $14 to $15 billion (24 percent)
- Nutrition programs by $4 to $5 billion (1 percent)
At first blush the cuts to conservation and nutrition may seem small, but there’s more at risk than meets the eye. Read More >
A Center for a Livable Future study, published recently in Environmental Science and Technology, shows that testing of imported seafood by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is inadequate for confirming its safety or identifying risks.
About 85 percent of seafood consumed in the U.S. is imported, and most of those imports are produced in overseas fish farms, where drugs may be administered to the fish to treat and prevent fish diseases. In terms of food safety, imported seafood is one of the most significant high-risk foods, and FDA oversees the safety of imports. CLF researchers David Love, PhD, and colleagues believed it was important to measure and evaluate the degree to which imported seafood is tested for drug residues. Read More >
This June, South Korea took a giant leap in protecting human health, the environment, and animal welfare—by banning antibiotic use in animal feed. This is big news.
Most importantly, the ban comes at a time when we know with greater and greater certainty that the misuse of antimicrobials in industrial farm animal production (IFAP) is linked to an increase in antibiotic-resistant infections in humans. (A very recent article by Bonnie Marshall and Stuart Levy, published in Clinical Microbiology Reviews, provides one of the most comprehensive summaries of the evidence to date. For more on this read this blogpost by CLF’s Tyler Smith.) Other negative impacts of using antibiotics in animal feed to promote growth and as prophylaxis against the unsanitary conditions of IFAP include allowing to continue practices that degrade the environment, compromise animal welfare, and, too frequently overlooked in discussions about IFAP, harm the mental and physical health of IFAP workers. Read More >
Pingree-Brown: strengthen local food systems
Local farmers have been a hot topic in Congress lately.
Last Tuesday, Rep. Chellie Pingree (D–ME) and Sen. Sherrod Brown (D–OH) introduced the Local Farms, Food and Jobs Act in Congress. The goal of the bill, which was intended for inclusion in the 2012 Farm Bill, is to strengthen local and regional food systems. It addresses the needs of smaller farms that produce for local markets, as well as of consumers who may lack access to healthy foods.
The bill has between 35 and 40 cosponsors in the House, including Rep. Donna Edwards (D–MD), and six cosponsors in the Senate, including Senator Barbara Mikulski (D–MD). Read More >
Fasten Your Farm Bill Seatbelts
Normally, passing the Farm Bill takes at least a year and involves a great deal of input from interest groups of all stripes. That process allows air-time for the voices fighting for healthier, more sustainable, and more equitable food systems. This time around, however, the process may happen entirely behind closed doors—and at breakneck speed.
You may be asking yourself: How can this process be so undemocratic?
Let’s look at what the House and Senate Agriculture Committees are doing at this very moment. The leadership of the two committees is drafting their own version of the Bill, reportedly with little or no input from other committee members, and will make recommendations to the Super Committee in the next few days. The Super Committee can then do whatever they want with the recommendations: ignore them, change them, or adopt them. Any debate will happen in secret. Read More >
Much of the world's phosphate is in the Western Sahara
Here’s a riddle: What is essential to all life on earth, is thrown away instead of recycled, is quickly running out on a global scale, and yet has no substitute?
If you guessed fresh water, you wouldn’t be wrong. But would you have guessed phosphorus?
Despite growing acceptance in the scientific community of peak oil as a legitimate cause for concern—and perhaps a bit more attention from the media—far less attention has been paid to the phenomenon dubbed “peak phosphorus,” despite increasing evidence that peak phosphorus is expected to occur by 2030, if it hasn’t already. Read More >
