Contact your congressman and senator about farm bill

[Red Knight]

Possible expansion of subsidies for wealthy land owners but no increase for food stamps or help for food banks. Dems and Republicans share in this disaster. Shift money to programs that WILL reduce hunger, not add to it.

If you didn't catch Bill Moyers this week it's worth a look concerning the bill and farm subsidies.

Land owners get money for space shuttle disasters? Uh..huh.

Absurd.

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/index-flash.html

[Breeze54]

1. I saw that School subsidies for lunch were only raised 3% but milk

has gone up 17% and bread has gone up 11%(?) and the schools are now worried how they'll feed the kids who qualify for the School Lunch programs. The increase in people applying for assistance has increased immensely from what I've read on DU in the last few days and weeks and food pantries are overwhelmed and have new people coming to ask for help increasingly every week. So, thanks for the heads up. Just last year they did increase food stamps but that was before the wheat shortage and the high demand for meat from China, which is also driving up the cost and the rise in gas prices is increasing food prices across the board and we all are feeling the effects of that. The Food Stamp program needs another increase asap to make up for the 'unforeseen' rise in basic foods costs.

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House Passes Farm Bill, Expanding Food Stamps

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/28/us/28farm.html?fta=y

By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN

Published: July 28, 2007

WASHINGTON, July 27 — House Democrats voted on Friday to approve a farm bill that would continue generous farmers’ subsidies at a time of record crop prices, ignoring a veto threat and yowls of protest by Republicans over a tax provision that they said spoiled bipartisan support for the bill.

The bill passed, 231 to 191, with 19 Republicans joining 212 Democrats in favor, after a morning of rancorous debate and some hooting and howling that focused not on agriculture policy but on the tax provision inserted to pay for a $4 billion increase in food stamps.

The relatively swift passage of the bill, which is projected to cost about $286 billion over five years, was a victory for Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who untangled a thicket of competing interests. Ms. Pelosi faced accusations from fellow Democrats that she abandoned her demands to reform the subsidies in favor of protecting potentially vulnerable freshman Democrats from rural districts.

Ms. Pelosi hailed the bill as historic for ending subsidy payments to farmers earning more than $1 million a year, creating support for fruit and vegetable growers and increasing money for nutrition, land conservation and other programs like researching alternative fuels like cellulose-based ethanol.

“Future farm bills will never look the same as those of the past,” she said on the House floor.

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