News Release

Sacramento, CA, Sep. 10 –Small farmers and ordinary citizens across the country are taking a stand against wasteful agricultural subsidies in the federal Farm Bill. With only a few weeks left before they adjourn for the election, reauthorizing or extending the Farm Bill is one of Congress’s top priorities.

CALPIRG’s campaign has collected over 59,000 petitions from California residents and 100 endorsements from California small farmers opposing these lavish subsidies to big agriculture. Nationally, through the federation of state PIRGs, the campaign has collected endorsements from over 500 small farmers. Between 1995 and 2011 taxpayers spent $277 billion on agricultural subsidies. Some of this money subsidizes corn and soy, which is then processed into junk food ingredients like high fructose corn syrup, accelerating the obesity epidemic in America.

“For too long this expensive legislation has worked against the average American’s interests. It has encouraged farms to produce products that are dangerous to our health and has concentrated wealth in the hands of a few big corporate farms,” said Austin Price, CALPIRG Health Care Advocate.

“In this current economic climate the reauthorization of the farm bill should be a straightforward opportunity to end these subsidies and stop sending taxpayer dollars to profitable agribusinesses that don’t need the help,” said Price. “As the Farm Bill heads to the floor or to an extension, we urge members of Congress to stand with the public and end these wasteful subsidies.”

#  #  #

CALPIRG, the California Public Interest Research Group, is a non-profit, non-partisan public interest advocacy organization that takes on powerful interests on behalf of its members, working to win concrete results for our health and well-being.