Farm Bill Frequently Asked Questions "The ELCA and the Farm Bill" Brochure (text) (pdf ) Hunger and the Farm Bill Fact Sheet (text) (pdf ) Religious Working Group on the Farm Bill Statement of Principles Take the Food Stamp Challenge! Join Faith Farm Teams ELCA Advocacy: Farm Bill Home

Frequently Asked Questions

5. How does U.S. farm policy impact farmers at home and around the globe?

United States
The Farm Bill includes payment programs that support U.S. farmers who grow certain types of commodity crops. These commodity payments support only a small percentage of U.S. farmers growing a selected number of crops.

• According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, commodity supports went to only 39 percent of the nation’s farms in 2003.
   
• In 2004, more than half of the $9.9 billion in farm subsidy payments were given to farmers with over $250,000 in annual revenue, which represent only about 7 percent of the nation’s farms.

This system provides an important source of support to smaller farms, enabling many of them to remain profitable and in business, but has increased the price of commodity cropland, thereby preventing new farmers from buying or renting land and encouraging the growth of large farms with the revenue to pay high rental costs.

Abroad
Commodity subsidies encourage U.S. farmers to produce more by guaranteeing that they will receive a set price for their crops. These price supports also allow U.S. commodities to be sold at artificially low prices on the world market, thereby undercutting small farmers in poor countries by flooding their markets with cheap grain and fiber.

For example, a 2002 World Bank report found that the low price of cotton on the world market is exacerbating poverty in some of the world's poorest countries in central and western Africa. The report notes that if the United States were to eliminate its subsidy of domestic cotton production, these African countries would increase their production by 3 to 12 percent with an annual increase in earnings of between $94 and $360 million.

This is a difficult problem, but one that raises issues of justice and fairness. Our ELCA policies clearly state that we should seek justice for farmers in the U.S. and farmers in poor nations. Our nation’s economic policies should support family farmers, but must not lead to greater poverty for farmers in other nations.

->Next: What progress has the Farm Bill made in building a stronger rural America?

Learn More

Farm Bill Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is the Farm Bill?
2. What are subsidies and commodities?
3. What solutions does the Farm Bill offer in addressing hunger in this country?
4. How does the Farm Bill address conservation and protection of land?
5. How does U.S. farm policy impact farmers at home and around the globe?
6. What progress has the Farm Bill made in building a stronger rural America?
7. What voice does the Lutheran church lend to discussion and debate about the Farm Bill?

Download "The ELCA and the Farm Bill" Brochure

Hunger and the Farm Bill Fact Sheet (text) (pdf )

Religious Working Group on the Farm Bill Statement of Principles

Get Involved

Join Faith Farm Teams

Join the ELCA Farm Bill online discussion on LutherLink
(If you are not yet a member of LutherLink, you can register here.)

Take the Food Stamp Challenge!

June 2007