11-29-12 RMFU Delegates Adopt Position on Farm Bill...

As part of policy debate at the RMFU convention in Loveland, delegates from county Farmers Unions across Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming adopted a special order of business urging Congress to act on the stalled 2012 Food and Farm Bill and offering direction for completing Congressional action.

The special order of business reminds congressional leadership that agricultural producers must make decisions about the coming crop year in the midst of huge uncertainties and national food security depends on those decisions, that with the expiration of the 2008 Food and Farm Bill, risk management programs are not available to protect farmers and ranchers against catastrophic risks, and that the nation’s poor, including children and seniors, depend on the programs in the bill for their food security.

Delegates called on the House of Representatives to pass the Food and Farm Bill reported out of their own committee, so that the conference committee can begin to reconcile it with the Farm Bill passed by the Senate in June. They urged the conference committee to facilitate adoption of the reconciled bill by December 21, 2012.

Delegates stressed the importance of risk management, farm safety nets, and crop insurance and urged conferees to make sure these programs offered a realistic program to protect agricultural producers from disaster. They also affirmed their support for nutrition and food assistance programs and stated that farm program funding must not be cut by more than the $23 billion proposed by the Senate.

A copy of the Special Order of Business will be sent to the states’ senators and representatives.

Submitted by:

Mick McAllister

Director of Communications

Rocky Mountain Farmers Union

7900 E. Union #200

Denver, CO 80237

Phone: 303.283.3537

Fax: 303.752.5810

Switchboard: 303.752.5800