Your Daily Dose of Climate Hope, July 12, 2024
Action Party: Fix the Farm Bill!
A new Farm Bill is being decided in Congress, with hundreds of billions in federal funding at stake.
You can help by joining our all-online Action Party event on July 16th to Fix the Farm Bill!
Touch or click the image below to register for the Action Party on Eventbrite:
A new Farm Bill is being debated in Congress, six years after the passage of the last Farm Bill in 2018. The potential 2024 U.S. Farm Bill is the biggest opportunity left for federal climate legislation in the foreseeable future. The U.S. spends an average of $648 billion per year on Farm Bill programs, including farm subsidies, loans, and more, and competing Senate and House versions of a 2024 Farm Bill is currently before Congress. The Senate’s early version, led by Senator Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, includes a range of items that would benefit farmers and the environment, and would be a great Farm Bill to pass!
But passage of this critical legislation before the end of the year is increasingly uncertain, with possible negative consequences. Conservative legislators are trying to use the Farm Bill to preempt local pesticide regulations, significantly reduce SNAP funding1, remove climate guardrails from conservation programs, and redirect vital Inflation Reduction Act funding intended to support climate-resilient agriculture towards programs favored by large agricultural businesses.
In 2024, we might see the passage of a helpful Farm Bill that moves us forward, or an unhelpful Farm Bill that harms landscapes and climate action, or Congress might just pass another extension of the 2018 Farm Bill to keep the status quo - it’s quite uncertain at the moment.
So, now is a key juncture for citizens to speak up to ensure that climate-friendly and other critical provisions of the Farm Bill are preserved. To help make this a fun and easy avenue for civic engagement, Climate Action Now is coordinating one of our famous Action Parties on July 16. (An Action Party is basically a “Zoom party” where attendees use the CAN App to take action to contact their legislators in a coordinated way, helping each other overcome difficulties and sharing a sense of camaraderie and positive energy).
In this Action Party, our Farm Bill experts will unpack which actions have the greatest impact and why it is critical for all of us to advocate for them. We’ll be joined by Geoff Horsfield from land, food, and health NGO Environmental Working Group, community food advocate Eloisa Trinidad from Chilis on Wheels, and Maisy Deans from climate policy group Evergreen Action, with the overall event led by Marianne Krasny, Ph.D from Cornell University.
If you can, please join us on July 16 for the Action Party, and help turn the Farm Bill into a watershed legislative victory for farmers AND the climate!
Stay up to date with all our climate actions by downloading the CAN App!
SNAP is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as “food stamps.”