One of the key tenets of Florida Veterans for Common Sense (FLVCS) is to support policies within our communities and our country that support environmental health and combat climate change. With this in mind, the Environmental Working Group reviews local, state and federal policies to find those we can support or modify. The federal Farm Bill falls into this realm. 

The Farm Bill establishes federal policy that financially supports the agriculture industry as well as nutritional programs.  The majority (about 75%) is for nutritional programs throughout our nation.  Title II of the Farm Bill is dedicated to conservation programs. Approximately 6.8% ($59.7 billion) is allotted to this section. 

In our research, we found that much of this funding goes to large industrial agricultural corporations that regularly use processes that are not environmentally friendly or combat climate change. 

In fact, many of them use chemical pesticides and fertilizers that are damaging to the environment. The way the Farm Bill funds are allocated ignores smaller farmers that fully support and want to use regenerative and traditional practices in farming. 

Based on our research, the Environmental Working Group has developed a FLVCS position paper supporting more dollars for conservation and shifting Farm Bill funding to farmers so they can implement environmentally friendly processes.

Action

We encourage all FLVCS members to read our FLVCS Farm Bill Position and to review the references to learn more about the need for transformational change in our food and farming systems.

Send our Farm Bill Position to your environmentalist friends and to those environmental organizations to which you belong.