Green Corps organizers are advocating for Fair Farm Rules on behalf of Food & Water Watch

Our current food system is broken.  Many people don’t have access to safe, nutritious, affordable food; farmers can’t make a living; many regions of the country can no longer produce the food they consume; and large-scale industrial agriculture pollutes our soil and water. 

Everyday we’re losing more and more small and midsized farms, leaving consumers with less options for healthy sustainable food and giving more power to big agribusiness. Our nation's agriculture policy favors huge companies like Monsanto and Cargill, while the small farms that are the backbone of American agriculture are disappearing by the thousands every year.  In fact, nearly 27,000 midsized independent family farms have been lost in the past five years.

The good news is that we can make our food system work better for small farmers and our communities. We can ensure fair markets for small farmers, and rebuild regional food systems that will benefit rural, urban and suburban communities. 

Right now, we have a critical opportunity to change the way food policy works in this country. The Farm Bill is a piece of legislation that’s reauthorized every 5 years that controls how food reaches our plates: how it’s grown, processed, distributed, and therefore who has access to local, sustainable food. Congress passed rules for Fair Farm policy coming out of the 2008 Farm Bill, which would level the playing field for small farmers, but the funding to implement these rules is under threat by big agribusiness.

This fall, a vote is coming up in the Senate on the Fair Farm Rules, so a team of Green Corps organizers are working on behalf of Food & Water Watch in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Minnesota to make sure key Senators on the Agriculture Committee stand up for small farmers and local, sustainable food.