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The 2023 Farm Bill Could Reshape Our Food System and Help People & the Planet
Tell our Senators to Support Strong Climate Provisions
Our farming practices must be part of the solution to climate change. The US agriculture sector contributes 11% of total US greenhouse gases (GHG). Past farm bills have directed major agricultural subsidies to growers of corn, soybeans, and similar commodities grown largely as feed for animals. This has encouraged pollution of our waterways and air with chemicals, excessive fertilizer use, and animal waste. It has skewed funding and profits to “big ag” while driving small-scale farms out of business. It contributes to food waste and animal suffering in concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs).
Organic farms and small-scale family-owned farms and ranches that use regenerative practices received limited help from past farm bills. We’re joining allies in the faith and farming communities to redirect 2023 Farm Bill funding to promote conservation and climate-smart regenerative farming practices that protect the health of our soil and food, redirect funds to small-scale operations, fight climate change, and make our agricultural and food system more equitable and secure.
The 2023 Farm Bill presents an important opportunity to create a food and agricultural system that provides healthy food for all while helping to avoid a climate crisis and improving equity for consumers and producers. A climate-smart farm bill can achieve many important goals: protecting soil fertility, improving water quality, helping farmers cope with extreme weather, and saving energy. The farm bill must help small-scale distressed farmers and ranchers with loan assistance, including disadvantaged farmers harmed by past discrimination by USDA.
We urge Senators to strengthen programs in the 2023 Farm Bill that help avoid climate change while providing healthy food for all and supporting farmers with the greatest need for assistance. We support the inclusion of climate-smart provisions of the Agriculture Resilience Act (S.1016) and the Environmental Quality Incentive Improvement Program Improvement Act (S.658) in the 2023 Farm Bill.
Suggested Talking Points
- The EPA estimates that agriculture accounted for more than 11% of US GHG emissions in 2020. Agriculture fertilizer runoff and animal waste are the leading causes of water pollution. Including climate-smart provisions in the Farm Bill can protect local farming communities and improve the environment for all.
- Include in the Farm Bill climate-smart provisions from the Agriculture Resilience Act (ARA) (S.1016). The ARA would: 1. increase investment in agricultural research, 2. improve soil health, 3. support pasture-based livestock systems to manage methane, 4. ensure farmland preservation and viability, 5. promote on-farm renewable energy, and 6. reduce food waste.
- Include in the Farm Bill conservation practices that benefit water quality and soil health by shifting funds to conservation practices from the bipartisan Environmental Quality Incentive Program (EQIP) Improvement Act (S.658). Only 23% of EQIP funds go towards conservation now.
- Conservation and climate investments in the Farm Bill must be distributed equitably to reach farmers and ranchers that discriminatory USDA practices have disproportionately impacted.
- Congress should protect the $20 billion in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). This funding can accelerate the adoption of conservation practices to mitigate climate change. Funds help producers to transition to proven climate-smart agricultural practices.
UU Grounding: Promoting regenerative farming practices, conservation, sequestration of carbon, and reducing carbon emissions falls within our UU 7th Principle: “Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.” The 2019 UU General Assembly adopted an Action of Immediate Witness to Build the Movement for a Green New Deal, recognizing the intersectional nature of climate and [environmental] justice issues. In 2011, a Statement of Conscience on Ethical Eating: Food and Environmental Justice was passed that called us to look at systemic food-related issues and advocate for the benefit of animals, plants, food workers, the environment, and humanity.
Tell our Senators to Support Strong Climate Provisions, in the Farm Bill
The 2023 Farm Bill presents an important opportunity to create a food and agricultural system that provides healthy food for all while helping to avoid a climate crisis and improving equity for consumers and producers. A climate-smart farm bill can achieve many important goals: protecting soil fertility, improving water quality, helping farmers cope with extreme weather, and saving energy. The farm bill must help small-scale distressed farmers and ranchers with loan assistance, including disadvantaged farmers harmed by past discrimination by USDA.
We urge Senators to strengthen programs in the 2023 Farm Bill that help avoid climate change while providing healthy food for all and supporting farmers with the greatest need for assistance. We support the inclusion of climate-smart provisions of the Agriculture Resilience Act (S.1016) and the Environmental Quality Incentive Improvement Program Improvement Act (S.658) in the 2023 Farm Bill.
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Unitarian Universalists for Social Justice (UUSJ) has been the leader for a national UU advocacy movement in Washington, DC., and will continue our efforts, acting from:
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Our conviction that Black Lives Matter
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Our belief that No Human Being is Illegal
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Our care for the planet which sustains us all and merits respect
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Our commitment to a people-centered sustainable economy
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Our stance that this democracy should be inclusive
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Become a Member! Join Today!
Unitarian Universalists for Social Justice (UUSJ) has been the leader for a national UU advocacy movement in Washington, DC., and will continue our efforts, acting from:
-
Our conviction that Black Lives Matter
-
Our belief that No Human Being is Illegal
-
Our care for the planet which sustains us all and merits respect
-
Our commitment to a people-centered sustainable economy
-
Our stance that this democracy should be inclusive