National Campaign for Sustainable Agriculture

House and Senate Conferees Moving

Toward a Farm Bill Funding Compromise – Organic Priorities At Risk

It’s crunch time! House and Senate Conferees are determining the final funding levels for programs under the 2008 Farm Bill. Senate Agriculture Committee Chair Tom Harkin drafted a Farm Bill with strong organic provisions. Unfortunately, it has become increasingly clear that other Conference Committee members are giving short shrift to key sustainable and organic agriculture programs. We must ensure that our organic priorities are included in the final version of the Farm Bill.

The timeline is short and your Elected Officials need to hear the importance of including organics in the Farm Bill – please contact them TODAY and urge their support for our Farm Bill organic goals! Below are our specific Farm Bill asks. When you call, ask to speak to the agriculture aide.

Organic Goals for the Farm Bill

$25 million/year in mandatory funding for the Organic Agriculture Research and Extension Initiative (OREI).
$25 million over 5 years for the Organic Certification Cost Share Program.
An Organic Conversion Program to help farmers switch to organic practices with at least 50% of funding for technical assistance.
$2 billion in new funding for the Comprehensive Stewardship Incentives Program (CSIP), which includes the new and improved Conservation Security Program and support for organic practices.

Calls and faxes are more effective than emails. You can call your Senator’s office through the US Capitol Switchboard (just ask for your Senator’s office): 202-224-3121 or visit congressmerge.com/onlinedb

Background & Recent Farm Bill Developments

Both the House and the Senate have passed their versions of the Farm Bill. A Conference Committee is now working to iron out the differences between the two bills. The Compromise bill will be brought back to both houses for passage and then be sent on to the President for his signature. House and Senate Agriculture Committee leaders and the Bush administration have been negotiating over the final cost of the bill, how money can be raised to pay for any new spending under the bill and the final outlines of commodity program payment reform.

The Bush Administration has threatened to veto the farm bill but says it would accept a bill that spent $10 billion over the budget baseline provided the bill adopted “significant” payment limit reforms and did not use budget gimmicks or tax measures to finance the increase. Both the House and Senate farm bills rely on revenue raised by tightening tax rules to fund spending over baseline. The Bush administration has proposed a set of spending offsets to pay for the increases. With a proposed permanent disaster program costing $5 billion on the wish list of some leaders there is enormous pressure to scale back funding on sustainable agriculture priorities.

The current farm bill has been extended to expire on April 18th Please call your elected officials today to urge them to fight for organic priorities.

For more information on the Farm Bill go to:

NCSA Farm Bill Website: http://www.sustainableagriculture.net/farm_bill.php;

Sustainable Agriculture Coalition: http://www.sustainableagriculturecoalition.org