Grangers take part in Farm Bill Now rally

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Grange members, along with representatives of about 90 different organizations and about a dozen politicians from both major parties, gathered on Capitol Hill Wednesday, Sept. 12, to call on Congress to pass the 2012 Farm Bill before Sept. 30, the date current legislation will expire.

National Grange Executive Committee Chairwoman Betsy Huber, of Oxford, Pa., who attended the rally, called it an important step toward raising public awareness about the scope of the Farm Bill and the need of all Americans to see the legislation passed.

“It’s about more than just farms and farmers – in fact, very little of the Farm Bill money is dedicated to farms at all. The Farm Bill is about jobs, it’s about nutrition, health, education, research, conservation, energy, trade, and often lastly about farms,” Huber said. “Every American is affected by the Farm Bill.”

Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) spoke to the crowd of nearly 500 during the rally, saying the Senate got their job done, passing a Farm Bill, and it was time for Congress to do the same.

“There’s no reason that this Farm Bill can’t get passed by the House… you just have to want to get it done, have some political will to get it done,” Stabenow said.

Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) said as farmers around the country know, tasks that must be done cannot be put off, and now is the time for Congress to “harvest a Farm Bill.”

However, despite last week’s rally, the Farm Bill remains stalled in the House of Representatives where House leadership has been reluctant to address the trillion-dollar piece of legislation so close to the November elections.

In an effort of last resort, Congressman Bruce Braley (D-IA) filed a discharge petition on the 2012 Farm Bill last Thursday in hopes of gathering the required 218 votes needed to override House leadership’s decision not to bring it up for a vote. Unfortunately, that effort seems to have failed, with little more than 50 signatures as of yesterday.

Without a new 2012 Farm Bill, one of two things will probably happen. First, Congress will address the issue after the November elections during the lame duck session. Second, depending on how the elections turn out, Congress might dismiss the issue altogether and let the new 113th Congress deal with it in January.

Either way, once the 2012 fiscal year ends on September 30th, over 40 vital Farm Bill programs will lose their funding and essentially shut down. According to the National Sustainable Agriculture Commission, these programs include, “all the major programs for beginning and minority farmers, farmers markets, organic agriculture, renewable energy, and rural economic development.” The Market Access Program (MAP) and the Foreign Market Development Program (FMD) will not be funded as well.

Organizers and legislators both stressed the importance of individuals contacting their Representatives in Congress to urge passage of the 2012 Farm Bill; however, with three working days left on the calendar, passage of a 2012 Farm Bill seems unlikely.