Aug 12 2010

Fix the farm bill so it promotes public health

The Farmers Legal Action Group has a new report out analyzing the 2008 Farm Bill and explaining what needs to happen to bring our agricultural policies in line with public health policies.  The report has a title that warms my heart, “Planting the Seeds for Public Health.” Its subtitle: “How the farm bill can help farmers to produce and distribute healthy foods.”

Its main findings:

  • Fruit and vegetable farmers lack a safety net to protect them from natural disasters in a manner comparable to programs that are available for farmers producing major commodity crops, such as corn, soybeans and wheat;
  • Crop insurance, disaster assistance, and loan and conservation programs are not designed to address the unique characteristics of fruit and vegetable production and marketing; and
  • Nutrition program expenditures are not adequately directed to ensure children, including those from low-income households, receive healthy food.

And one key observation: many of the recommended changes could be made by the USDA without the need for additional direction from Congress.  Translation: No need to wait until 2012 when the Farm Bill comes up again.

USDA could do a lot of this NOW!

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[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Marion Nestle, Land Animal, Don Carr, Cold Mud, Jonathan Chiu and others. Jonathan Chiu said: Marion Nestle: Fix the farm bill so it promotes public health http://bit.ly/aYkhoR [...]

Absolutely. Interesting study, particularly its finding on the importance of marketing and promoting fruits and veggies.

  • Emily
  • August 12, 2010
  • 12:05 pm

Organic farmers also don’t qualify for crop insurance (due to the lack of numbers avaialable for insurability) The only programs we qualify for are conservation programs and some direct payments. Since we are ineligable for crop insurance we are ineligable for disaster relief. I would suggestion making it a requirement to have a crop rotation plan to qualify for programs and disasters relief. Also, more money for research. Our land grant universities are hurting. Very little federal dollars are sent for research so universities go else where for funds (i.e private companies), which makes the findings biasis.

Those are the changes I would make in the 2012 Farm Bill.

[...] short-but-to-the-point blog posts, one about the Farm Bill, the other about sneaky food marketing by the always awesome Dr. Marion [...]

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