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Help Reinforce Our Farm Bill Victories –
“Thank You” Calls and Letters Needed Now!
The Farm Bill is now (mostly) law, and thanks to all of your tireless advocacy efforts, organic agriculture programs made remarkable strides. While the bill is far from perfect, there are several provisions in the bill that will provide a tremendous boost for organic farmers, and these provisions would not have happened without your calls, letters, and visits. (Scroll down for more information.)
Now we need your help in thanking the leaders in Congress who fought hard to ensure that the Farm Bill included these strong organic provisions. It is crucial that you let them know how much you appreciate their efforts – this will help ensure that they continue to champion organic agriculture.
Below is a list of the organic agriculture champions in Congress. Please write or call them and thank them for their leadership on behalf of organic farmers and ranchers. If your Senators or Representative are on this list, your calls and letters are especially important.
Senators
Tom Harkin (D-IA)
ph: (202) 224-3254, f: (202) 2249369
Patrick Leahy (D-VT)
ph: (202) 224-4242, f: (202) 224-3479
Barbara Boxer (D-CA)
ph: (202) 224-3553, f: (415) 596-6701
Russ Feingold (D-WI)
ph: (202) 224-5323, f: (202) 224-2725
John Tester (D-MT)
ph: (202) 224-2644, f: (202) 224-8594
Representatives
Dennis Cardoza (D-18th CA)
ph: (202) 225-6131, f: (202) 225-0819
Steve Kagen (D-8th WI)
ph: (202) 225-5665, f: (202) 225-5729
Tim Walz (D-1st MN)
ph: (202) 225-2472, f: (202) 225-3433
Rush Holt (D-12th NJ)
ph: (202) 225-5801, f: (202) 225-6025
Donald Payne (D-10th NJ)
ph: (202) 225-3436, f: (202) 225-4160
Kirsten Gillibrand (D-20th NY)
ph: (202) 225-5614, f: (202) 225-1168
Sample Message
I am calling/writing to thank Senator/Representative _______________ for being such a strong champion for organic agriculture priorities in the 2008 Farm Bill. His/her advocacy efforts helped to provide a tremendous boost for organic farmers and will plant the seeds for the growth of a more sustainable food and agriculture system.
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If your members of Congress are on the list of people to thank and you want to write a longer letter thanking them for their specific contributions to the Farm Bill and would like some tips and talking points, please contact Tracy Lerman, Policy Program Assistant, at tracy@ofrf.org or 831-426-6606 x 108.
Farm Bill Update
As we reported in our last OFAN update, the 2008 Farm Bill passed Congress in late May. The President vetoed it as expected, and the House and Senate both voted to override the veto. But only 14 of the 15 titles became law because the bill the President vetoed, and Congress proceeded to override, was missing Title III (which deals with international trade and food aid), due to a clerical printing error. To deal with the error, the House decided to re-pass the entire Farm Bill and the Senate followed suit last Thursday (June 5, 2008), passing the same exact Farm Bill that was originally passed, but with a different number - H.R. 6124. The Bill will likely be sent to the President next week, vetoed again, and the veto then overridden again by both the House and Senate, at which point Title III, along with the other titles already in law, will become the law of the land. OFRF does not expect any surprises during this “do-over” formality.
While the 2008 Farm Bill lacks significant reform in several areas, particularly in the subsidy payment program to commodity crop growers, it provides significant new support for organic farmers and ranchers, including a fivefold increase in funding for organic agriculture research. We see this Farm Bill as a tremendous boost for the organic community, and we will use these gains to work for even more resources and funding for organic farming programs.
Read our Summary of Organic Provisions for a quick overview of the Farm Bill’s organic gains.
Read OFRF's press release for our official statement on the Farm Bill passage.
What’s Next, You Ask? Implementing the Farm Bill!
Now that the Farm Bill is officially the law for the next five years (well, most of it at least!), our next challenge is implementation. There are several agencies within the US Department of Agriculture who now have money that needs to be spent and new programs that need to be designed, and it is very important that farmers are involved in those processes and decisions. We want to ensure that small to midsized organic family farmers’ needs are considered when the Natural Resource Conservation Service (the agency responsible for administering conservation programs) writes the rules and sets priorities for their programs. And of course, when the research priorities for the Organic Agriculture Research and Extension Initiative (OREI) are developed, we want to ensure that organic farmers are front and center in that discussion.
At the same time, we will need to be vigilant throughout the annual federal appropriations process to protect – and hopefully enhance – the funding gains we secured for organic programs in the Farm Bill. In fact, we’ll be sending an OFAN alert on this issue very soon, possibly in the next 24 hours.
So expect to hear more from us soon. And because thank-yous are so important, we want to take a moment again to express our gratitude to all of you for all of your important and effective advocacy efforts.
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A Note on the Importance of Thanking Elected Officials
In our experience as organizers and policy advocates, we get quite a bit of feedback from elected officials on contacts from their constituents. Aside from a few high profile campaigns and email blasts, they receive a relatively small number of communications on specific pieces of legislation, and a handful of letters or phone calls, at best, thanking them for actions already taken.
Thanking elected officials for advocating on behalf of a particular issue is really important. Thank-yous let them know that you are paying attention and care about what they do. Appreciation from their constituents is also an incentive for them to continue supporting that issue.
So please take a minute to thank the members of Congress who did their part for organic agriculture.
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