Late Thursday night, the House Agriculture Committee approved their version of the Farm Bill. After two hectic days of amendments and some furious behind-the-scenes negotiation, the results were mixed - On the bright side: Country-of-origin labeling remained intact due to incoming emails from constituents which helped keep COOL alive and on track to go into effect in 2008!
Despite intense lobbying efforts by the meat and grocery industries, a threatened amendment that would have gutted COOL was not introduced. Instead, some clarifying language about how country of origin labeling will work for meat products was included.
* More support for organic production! The bill now includes funding to help farmers transition to organic production (It takes several years to be certified as organic, but farmers don't receive the higher prices paid for organic crops during this transition period. So financial assistance during this period is a critical factor in getting more farmers to go organic.) It also includes more support for research into organic production methods.
On the not-so-bright side: Competition measures removed. The committee removed a provision that would have stopped meat companies from requiring farmers to sign arbitration clauses in their contracts. This measure would have restored a small measure of fairness to the one-sided contracts many livestock producers sign with meat companies.
Conservation. The House version of the bill cut a critical program called the Conservation Security Program, which encourages getting sensitive lands out of production.
So What's Next? Now the bill goes to the full House of Representatives. That is scheduled for the end of next week. So stay tuned for alerts about how to maintain country-of-origin labeling and support for organic, and to get competition and conservation measures back into the Farm Bill. You can also visit the Farm Bill section of the FOOD AND WATER WATCH website for more information by clicking here - Then, we'll get ready for the Senate! check out FOOD AND WATER WATCH @ http://www.fwwatch.org/
