Farm Bill: a New Focus to Fix the Mess and High School Student Proves Monsanto is Killing Bees

Kayla Elizabeth Foulk, a Junior at Camdenton High School (Missouri) in 2009 got it, why can't the EPA figure it out? Our bees are not RoundUp Ready. A new study is underway at the University level. Read Kayla's full and very thorough research paper here:
http://k12science.missouristate.edu/Junior_Academy/MJAS%20Docs/State%202009/Papers%202009/HS_ENV/Foulk_Kayla_HS.pdf

These Junk Food Brands all contain GMO. Combined they own thousands of product companies, although it's hard to know each of the brands, Boycott the parent company. Also look on the side of boxes as it sometimes discloses who owns it.

They are going to separate SNAP from farm AID and make it a separate bill,
so women and children won't be affected by the Grim Reaper coming for biotech and esp. of course MONSANTO

Trying to find out how much Monsanto collects in FARM subsidies... Not easy. If you know where to find the info ...please let me know. I want to put it on my blog... Stuff is up with the farm bill. We may have the revolution we are hoping for...

The current Bill’s failings are clear. The billions in unmet demand for USDA stewardship dollars reveals that too little money is available to farmers and ranchers seeking to build soil and stop agriculture’s pollution of waterways. Far too little money goes to research and innovation designed to meet the needs of nature and the challenges wrought by a warming planet. Too little of SNAP funds are spent on healthy fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts and whole grains. The Farm Bill remains wed to the 1940’s goal of creating abundant cheap calories, which we achieved. But in so doing, we ignited the obesity epidemic ravaging our families and healthcare system. 
Twenty-first century policies must acknowledge that healthy food and farms form the foundation for secure, prosperous and healthy communities. A new nutrition policy must provide low-income people easy and affordable access to nutritious food and commit resources to teach children and young families the skills and knowledge essential to food production, preparation, nutrition, and enjoyment. Agriculture policy must make more money available to protect soil, water, and biological diversity and prevent the exploitation of workers and animal cruelty. The next Farm Bill must aim to prevent any corporation or individual from controlling farmers, ranchers, genes and markets. The challenges of climate change and obesity require aide to farmers and ranchers harmed by flood and drought as well as support for beginning farmers and projects that build sustainable regional food supply systems that make nutritious fresh food available all across the nation.
  http://civileats.com/2013/07/12/a-game-changer-for-the-farm-bill-and-snap/#more-18247

According to GAO’s analysis,

about 2,300 farms, or about 0.15 percent of the 1.6 million farms receiving direct payments in 2011, reported all their land as “fallow,” that is, producers did not plant any crops of any type on this land, for each year of the last 5 years (i.e., 2007 through 2011), as allowed under the farm bill. These producers received a total of about $2.9 million in direct payments in 2011…

In addition, according to our analysis of USDA data, 622 farms reported all of their farm’s acreage as fallow for each of the previous 10 years, from 2002 through 2011.

While some farms were receiving subsidies without actually growing crops, others got billions even though they didn’t grow the crops for which they were being subsidized, GAO reports:

Cumulatively, USDA paid $10.6 billion—almost one-fourth of total direct payments from 2003 through 2011—to producers who did not, in a given year, plant any of the crop for which they had base acres. Specifically, during this period, producers cumulatively did not plant more than 633 million acres with the crops associated with their base acres in a given year. This amounted to an average of 70 million acres each year, or 26 percent of the 268 million base acres on average that are annually eligible for direct payments.

GAO concludes with a simple policy prescription: “In light of the need to identify potential savings in the federal budget and questions about the continued need for direct payments, Congress should consider eliminating or reducing [direct subsidy] payments.”

In fact, both the House and Senate versions of the legislation contain provisions that would eliminate these direct payments in favor of expanded crop insurance subsidies.

GAO also recommends enhanced screening techniques to weed out non-farm land from USDA’s subsidy programs. The agency accepted some of those recommendations, but rejected a proposal to gather a more representative and comprehensive sample of farms that benefit from federal subsidies to confirm that those farms are still in operation.

http://blog.heritage.org/2012/07/09/usda-gives-millions-to-farmers-who-arent-actually-farming/