The House Agriculture Committee is meeting right now to finalize their version of the 2007 Farm Bill, and several key programs are in play that effect organic farmers, country of origin labeling (COOL), and the future of local foods and family farmers and ranchers. Please take a moment to tell the House Agriculture Committee and your Representative to implement mandatory COOL as Congress intended in the 2002 Farm Bill, and include programs that support organic agriculture, consumers, and family farmers and ranchers.

Please send your comment today and make calls to a few of the committee members and your Representative. Your thousands of calls and emails to remove section 123, the federal preemption clause, worked – this section has been removed from the current draft of the Farm Bill! Keep those calls and emails going!

Sample Letter for Campaign

Dear [ Decision Maker ] ,

I urge the Committee to address the following in the 2007 Farm Bill:

Implement Mandatory Country of Origin Labeling (COOL)- Recent headlines about tainted food imports have made consumers more aware than ever of the importance of where their food comes from. The latest House markup of the farm bill contains a provision to tie COOL to the controversial National Animal Identification System (NAIS), a provision thought by many to only benefit factory farms and substantially harm small, independent and family farmers. In addition, an amendment will be offered in the House Agriculture committee by Rep. Goodlatte, to do the following: Establish a "herd" definition for cattle and hogs that says an animal imported into the U.S. will be considered "USA" unless it goes directly to slaughter; Overturns mandatory produce COOL for voluntary and further limits COOL to the 20 most frequently consumed varieties of raw fruits and vegetables; and Reduces the fine to $1,000 after a 30-day window of opportunity for retailer to resolve mislabeling.

I urge the House to: * Reject the Goodlatte COOL amendment * Reject the provision in Title XI, Subsection B, Section 11101 that ties COOL implementation to NAIS * Pass mandatory COOL as Congress intended in the 2002 Farm Bill, and reject any attempts to delay, weaken or gut the law.

Support Organic Agriculture, Local Foods, Nutrition Programs, and Small and Minority Farmers - The Committee should support organic certification cost share to help small farmers convert to and maintain organic status, additionally I urge the House to:

* Support the amendment by Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) for organic conversion assistance. * Support the amendment by Rep. Steve Kagen (D-WI) requiring a "fair share" of total USDA-ARS funding be applied to organic research. * Support the amendment by Rep. Dennis Cardoza (D-CA) calling for mandatory funding for organic research. * Support mandatory funding for the Community Food Project Grant Program, the Organic Research and Extension program, the Fruit and Vegetable Snack Program and the Healthy Enterprise Development Program that would help small and mid-sized farmers distribute their products to local markets. * Increase funding for the Food Stamp and Nutrition Program. * Support Crop Insurance Equity: Currently organic producers are required to pay a 5 percent surcharge on their crop insurance rates, and are often reimbursed for losses based on conventional prices, without recognition of the higher value of their organic products.

Conservation Security Program - The Conservation Security Program was authorized by the 2002 Farm Bill to provide on-going financial assistance to reward farmers for implementation of conservation practices on their farms. However, changes need to be made to make it easier for organic producers to participate in the program.

* Support full mandatory funding to be available in all watersheds * Create easy "crosswalk" between organic certification and CSP, so that a producer's certified organic farm plan can also provide eligibility for higher tiers of CSP benefits.

No Federal Preemption in the Farm Bill - In the previous House draft, the Livestock Subcommittee inserted section 123, broad language that would have preempted states or localities from passing regulations pertaining to food safety or GMO crops that were stricter than those put in place by Federal agencies. I thank the Committee for removing this section, and would like to again express my opposition to any such preemptive language being reinserted into the Farm Bill.

I appreciate the opportunity to share my views on the direction of the 2007 Farm Bill.

Sincerely,

Campaign Launched:
July 18, 2007