Faith leaders urge reform of farm bill

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Church World Service is in a group of faith leaders calling the Senate to reform U.S. farm policy.

The Rev. John L. McCullough, head of the New York-based hunger fighting agency, said the U.S. system of low crop prices and government subsidies is destroying small farmers and communities in developing nations and harming U.S. rural communities.

“We need farm policy that supports small farmers and does not make it difficult or impossible for small farmers in developing nations to make a living by farming,” John said.

The alliance of faith groups urges Senators to adopt reforms to reclaim the farm bill’s historic moral role as a covenant with small- and medium-sized farmers, and a source of hope to people in need at home and abroad.

“Fairness and opportunity for farmers in times of need were the fundamental values on which Congress built the first farm bill in the 1930s,” said Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori. “Today’s farm policy has abandoned those values. We need to put fairness and opportunity back into U.S. farm policy.”

“Our country needs a fresh approach to the farm bill to help U.S. farmers of modest means, struggling rural communities, hungry people and farmers in developing countries,” said the Rev. David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World.

“The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is concerned that payments go to the largest, wealthiest farms, leaving behind the majority of farm families,” said the Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, stated clerk of the assembly.

“If we fail to provide real reform to trade distorting commodity programs, then our subsidized export is not food, but poverty for the developing world,” said the Rev. Earl Trent Jr., executive director of mission for the Progressive National Baptist Convention.

“We can and must do more to address the plight of struggling family farmers,” said the Most Rev. Ronald Gilmore, president of the National Catholic Rural Life Conference.

As part of its Sow Justice campaign, CWS has educational resources and updates at www.churchworldservice.org/Educ_Advo/farmbill/.