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Religious Working Group on the Farm Bill Press
Release FAITH LEADERS CALL ON SENATE TO REFORM 2007 FARM BILL WASHINGTON, DC – As the United States Senate prepares to begin marking up the 2007 farm bill today, an alliance of U.S. faith groups called upon Senators to adopt reforms designed to reclaim the farm bill’s historic moral identity as a covenant with small- and medium-sized farmers in the U.S., and a source of hope to people in need at home and around the world. “Fairness and opportunity for farmers in times of need were the fundamental values upon which Congress built the first farm bill in the 1930s,” said the Most Reverend Katharine Jefferts Schori, Presiding Bishop and Primate of the Episcopal Church. “Today’s farm policy has abandoned those values. 2007 is the year for Congress to put fairness and opportunity back into U.S. farm policy and establish a new covenant with rural America and those in need at home and around the world.” "Our country needs a fresh, new approach to the farm bill, one that helps people who need it the most—U.S. farmers of modest means, struggling rural communities, hungry people and farmers in developing countries,” said the Reverend David Beckmann, President of Bread for the World. “The demand for comprehensive reform is mounting from many people of faith and both sides of the aisle.” “I pray that Congress understands that the future of rural America is no longer inextricably linked to farming, as is reflected in small towns throughout South Dakota that are struggling to survive,” said the Reverend David B. Zellmer, Bishop of the South Dakota Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. “We need increased investment in rural development, conservation, and nutrition; these are the programs that are most meaningful to rural America.” “The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has expressed concern that payments are going to the largest, wealthiest farms while leaving behind the majority of farm families,” said the Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, Stated Clerk of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA). “We urge the Senate to pass meaningful commodity program payment limits such as those proposed by Senators Dorgan (D-ND) and Grassley (R-IA).” "If we fail to provide real reform to trade distorting commodity programs, then our subsidized export is not food, but poverty for the developing world," said the Reverend Dr. Earl Trent Jr., Executive Director of Mission for the Progressive National Baptist Convention. "We have a historic opportunity with this legislation to reduce hunger and poverty both here in the United States and in some of the world's most impoverished countries,” said the Reverend Jim Wallis, President and CEO of Sojourners/Call to Renewal. “It's time for our Senators to show courageous leadership to enact reforms that serve the common good." “We can and must do more to address the plight of struggling family farmers,” said the Most Reverend Ronald Gilmore, President of the National Catholic Rural Life Conference. “Have we honestly done enough to target farm supports to those who need it most?” -30- Learn MoreFarm Bill Frequently Asked Questions
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