{"id":3828,"date":"2022-11-16T01:34:42","date_gmt":"2022-11-16T01:34:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/farmforward1.wpengine.com\/?page_id=3828"},"modified":"2024-03-22T14:50:58","modified_gmt":"2024-03-22T18:50:58","slug":"farm-system-reform-act","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/issues\/food-policy\/farm-system-reform-act\/","title":{"rendered":"Farm System Reform Act: What it is and how to support it"},"content":{"rendered":"\t
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Ending concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) will require broad legislative change to the entire agricultural system. Farm Forward\u2019s vision of this more just and humane world is one step closer because of the Farm System Reform Act (FSRA), a 2023 bill introduced to the U.S. Congress. The bill, authored in the Senate<\/a> by Senator Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and co-sponsored by three senators, and introduced in the House<\/a> by Representative Ro Khanna (D-CA) and co-sponsored by 41 representatives, would be a significant start to transforming our farming institutions. More than 100 local, state, and national advocacy organizations have urged Congress to pass the FSRA, and that list continues to grow<\/a>.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

What is the Farm System Reform Act?<\/h2>\n

When it was first introduced in 2019, the FSRA represented the first time that we\u2019d seen such a bold vision for American farming being put forward on a national policy stage. Federal legislation related to animal agriculture more typically reflects the vision put forward by a small number of corporate meat companies\u2019 lobbyists and advocates in government.<\/p>\n

In contrast, the vision outlined in the FSRA contains several first steps toward Farm Forward\u2019s own vision for ending factory farming, leveling the playing field for independent farmers, and raising fewer animals for food.<\/strong> Making that vision a reality will take money and training for farmers, and the FSRA would provide it.<\/p>\n

At Farm Forward, we believe that it\u2019s best to eat as few animals as possible, ideally none; however, like the authors of the FSRA, we believe that many people will continue to eat animals for the foreseeable future. In a society where people do eat animal products, we believe that animals should be raised in the best possible conditions, which minimize pandemic risk and give animals opportunities to thrive. That won\u2019t happen through incremental improvements to factory farms. Incremental improvements are important, but they leave animals to languish in low welfare conditions, which continue to be terrible not only for animals, but also for workers<\/a>, rural communities, and the environment and climate<\/a>. We need to envision and build a higher welfare, post-factory-farming food system. The FSRA begins to do just that.<\/p>\n

What does the Farm System Reform Act Do?<\/h2>\n

The FSRA would place a moratorium (or \u201cpause\u201d) on construction of new or expanding large CAFOs1<\/a> immediately, and would phase out existing large factory farms by 2041.<\/strong> Fewer animals would be raised for food overall, more animals would be raised on pasture in high welfare conditions,2<\/a> and a significant portion of U.S. food production would be reoriented toward plant-based foods. Such a move would reduce the pandemic risk currently posed by factory farms.<\/a> Further, the bill lays out a \u201cjust transition\u201d to financially support farmers who make the shift from factory farming to higher welfare or plant-based agriculture.<\/p>\n

Helping farmers make the transition<\/h3>\n

An important provision of the FSRA is its focus on helping farmers transition away from animal feeding operations. The bill would relieve farmers of any debt they had incurred as a result of their farming operations and cover any cost for them to set up an alternative agricultural enterprise, like growing specialty crops or organic food.<\/p>\n

Large meat and poultry companies (\u201cintegrators\u201d) rely on farmers taking on significant debt to finance the construction, maintenance, and upgrades of their farms, and integrators reduce their financial risk by keeping farmers as independent contractors.<\/p>\n

Most farmed animals are raised on \u201cfamily farms\u201d and \u201cfamily ranches\u201d that are actually controlled by integrators\u2014the Tysons and JBSs of the world. As the Center for American Progress puts it<\/a>, \u201cgrowing corporate power has left relatively small farms and ranches vulnerable to exploitation at the hands of the oligopolies with which they do business.\u201d<\/p>\n

Family-owned farms bear most of the financial risks, which more often than not leads to crushing debt. If, for example, a chicken farmer receives an unhealthy flock of chickens from an integrator and 50 percent of the birds die from disease, 100 percent of the financial liability is borne by the farmer (not the integrator). In large part due to their taking on most of the financial risks, chicken farmers in the U.S. hold an estimated $5.2 billion in debt.3<\/a><\/p>\n

Debt held by animal farmers is perhaps the biggest hurdle to transforming existing animal farms on a large scale. People who own factory farm infrastructure are often caught in a cycle of crippling debt in which many feel that they have no realistic option except to continue taking contracts with megaproducers to pay down the loans on their existing infrastructure, and the cycle continues.<\/p>\n

As Ezra Klein writes for Vox<\/a>,<\/p>\n

As farmers have lost control of their livelihoods, they\u2019ve also lost control of their animals, their crops, and their land. They have no choice but to contract with companies that dictate the way they raise their animals, setting farmers in competition with one another for production speeds and efficiency. The way you win that competition is to pack more animals into your sheds, pump them fuller of antibiotics so they don\u2019t die from infections that flourish amid overcrowding, raise breeds that live lives of pain but grow with astonishing speed, create massive manure lagoons that poison streams and turn air acrid. The result is a brutal incentive to mechanize the process of livestock production in ways cruel to the animals, the farmers, and their communities.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The FSRA gives farmers a different choice: to retrain themselves and overcome the debt burden that keeps them stuck in the factory farming model by providing a $10 billion voluntary buyout program for contract farmers who want to transition away from operating factory farms.<\/p>\n

This support would be part of a \u201cjust transition,\u201d an idea gaining broad momentum in environmental, labor, and energy advocacy. Societal transitions always distribute benefits to some and burdens to others; a \u201cjust transition\u201d seeks to distribute benefits and burdens more fairly than would market forces. Key provisions of the FSRA would allow farmers to apply for government grants to eliminate debt, freeing them to leave factory farming and to transition to higher welfare or plant-based agriculture. As a requirement of the grant, the former site of the factory farm would be placed under an easement prohibiting the land\u2019s use as a factory farm or animal agriculture waste management system.<\/p>\n

Transforming industrial animal agriculture<\/h3>\n

The FSRA would convert a significant portion of American farming from animal agriculture\u2014and from growing feedstuffs for animals (soy, corn)\u2014to growing plant-based products for people to consume directly.<\/p>\n

Specifically, the FSRA would fund the conversion of lands from use for factory farming to \u201craising pasture-based livestock, growing specialty crops, or organic commodity production.\u201d Raising farmed animals on pasture is a gold standard for animal welfare. Specialty and organic commodity crops refer to an even higher welfare choice\u2014for farmers to leave animal agriculture entirely in favor of raising plants for human consumption.4<\/a><\/p>\n

If factory farms were financially liable for their pollution and bore more of their own operating costs,5<\/a> animal products would be more expensive. When meat is more expensive, people eat less. That\u2019s a good thing, for animals, our health, and the climate. The USDA recommends approximately 737 g of meat, poultry, seafood, and eggs per week;6<\/a> yet U.S. consumption per capita is more than double even the USDA\u2019s recommendation\u20141555 g per week.7<\/a> The current low price of animal products is a historical anomaly, made possible by poor worker pay and dangerous working conditions, crowding and genetic abuse of animals<\/a>, environmental degradation, and the trampling of independent farmers. If consumers have to pay more and eat fewer animal products in order to not sacrifice family farmers, sacrifice our environment, sacrifice workers, and sacrifice animal welfare, that\u2019s well worth the price\u2014in fact, any lower price is an exploitative price.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Who was opposed to the farm system reform act?<\/h2>\n

As of early 2023, the bill has not come before a vote in either house of Congress, so there has not been any official political opposition. However, a number of animal agricultural industry groups like National Cattlemen\u2019s Beef Association<\/a> and Protect the Harvest<\/a> have denounced the bill.<\/p>\n

What is the current status of the Farm System Reform Act?<\/h2>\n

Since its introduction and reading in Congress in 2019, the bill was reintroduced<\/a> in July 2021 and February 2023.8<\/a> In the 2023 Senate, the bill was read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry. In the 2023 House of Representatives, the bill was referred to the Committee on Agriculture, who referred it to the Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry, and to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, who referred it to the Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment. Since then, both versions of the bill have languished in stasis, neither pushed forward nor voted against. However, the chances of the bill being signed into law were always slim, and part of its intent was to create a national conversation about the reality of American factory farming, in which it has succeeded.<\/p>\n

In 2022, Cory Booker introduced a bill called the Industrial Agriculture Accountability Act<\/a>, which builds on and modernizes aspects of the FSRA, adapting them to realities exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic response. During the pandemic, as slaughterhouse workers fell ill, supply lines were broken up, leaving supermarket shelves empty and meatpacking plants closed. Many farmed animals were killed using \u201cculling\u201d methods like mass suffocation or heatstroke. To stop this supply crisis, Uncle Sam took out his pocketbook. During 2020 and 2021, the U.S. government spent about $16 billion<\/a> on pandemic-specific aid to animal farming operations. Senator Booker\u2019s bill would put an end these subsidies, reduce the speed of slaughter lines to help workers, end prison labor in animal agriculture, and eliminate \u201cculling\u201d methods that are considered inhumane. It would also require CAFOs to create disaster preparation plans, for both economic and natural disasters. Upon arrival, the Industrial Agriculture Accountability Act generated press and conversation, as intended.<\/p>\n

In addition to Cory Booker\u2019s newest legislation, at least one aspect of the FSRA will become law through a different channel. The FSRA proposed that \u201ccountry of origin\u201d laws be updated, closing a loophole by which farmed animals who were raised and processed outside of the U.S. can have their meat, eggs, or dairy deemed U.S. products if processed or even packaged in a single U.S. facility. In March 2023, the USDA announced a proposed rule<\/a> to eliminate this loophole.<\/p>\n

How can we support the Farm System Reform Act?<\/h2>\n

Both the FSRA and the Industrial Agriculture Accountability Act have the potential to change the conversation about the future of animal agriculture in America. What can you do to support them? Share this article on social media. Be sure to tag the accounts of the legislators who introduced them: Cory Booker (@CoryBooker), Ro Khanna (@RepRoKhanna), Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren), Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) and Kirstin Gillibrand (@SenGillibrand). Write a letter to the editor of your local paper to raise public awareness. Contact your own senators<\/a> and representatives<\/a> and ask them to co-sponsor the Farm System Reform Act and Industrial Agriculture Accountability Act. Talk about the Acts with people that you know. Generate as many waves as you can.<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/h2>\n

Our farming systems need to change, for the animals housed within the farms, the workers and farmers locked in exploitative systems, our public health, and the environment. Any systemic change requires long-term, large-scale action on multiple fronts. While these bills are unlikely to be passed in their current form, they are already succeeding by sparking debate about alternatives to industrial animal agriculture. And when certain provisions of the bill do succeed, like the closing of the \u201ccountry of origin\u201d loophole, we can see that legislative progress is possible.<\/p>\n

Together, we are building a future without factory farms.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/section>\n\n\n\t

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April 13, 2023<\/p>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":3829,"parent":672,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3828","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3828\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/672"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}