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Provision of the House Farm Bill Draft Would Hinder Humane and Safer Practices
Joe Wanda has emerged in the Illinois livestock farming community as a leading young advocate of regenerative agriculture and humane pasture-raising of farm animals. I had the pleasure of visiting his Wanda Farms in Harvard, Illinois in June, and a lengthy trek across the property to view his cattle and chickens verified that Joe does indeed walk the walk in pursuit of a better food system.
Joe does a weekly newsletter. Most of the time it focuses on products and farming anecdotes, but he doesn't hesitate to speak his mind. This week, he stated that he'd received an invitation from an advocacy group to go to Washington, D.C to speak to congressional offices in opposition to the EATS Act. Joe says he is seriously considering the trip in September, his only hesitation that his wife is expecting their third child early this fall.
Before I share his newsletter, a little primer on the EATS Act. EATS stands for Ending Agricultural Trade Suppression. Authored by Republican Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas, it aims to override laws passed in California and other states that ban the sale of meat and eggs produced using practices that opponents deem as cruel, such as forcing sows to live in gestation crates that drastically limit their ability to move; ban certain agriculture chemicals; and institute stronger food safety practices.
As written by Food and Water Watch in May:
Last year, the Supreme Court affirmed a huge win for state authority to regulate agricultural goods. It upheld a California law that only allows the sale of pork, veal, and eggs from animals raised in improved living conditions.
But Big Ag and its cronies in Congress couldn’t let this go without a fight. Soon after, Senator Roger Marshall introduced a bill called the “Ending Agricultural Trade Suppression (EATS) Act.” Now, House lawmakers have slipped some of EATS into their first draft of the Farm Bill...
For years, states have been empowered to enact stronger food and agriculture protections than federal law and carry them out with local authority. However, the House Farm Bill draft threatens that precedent.
It includes EATS language to target state regulations on “covered livestock,” including the meat and dairy industries. The draft also includes similar language preempting state and local rules on pesticide labeling.
Such preemptions mean states cannot create their own regulations and must default to federal standards — many of which are weak or nonexistent. This would effectively lead to deregulation and would gut states’ right to set standards for many agricultural products sold within their borders.
As a result, Big Meat could use cheaper, more harmful practices in more places, and chemical giants could more easily sell toxic pesticides.
The EATS Act was introduced by Marshall in June 2023 and has gone nowhere as a stand-alone bill. It was referred to the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee, but according to Congress.Gov, no hearings have been held. The site also shows that it was never separately introduced in the House.
The House Agriculture Committee, however, has a narrow Republican majority, and they included the EATS Act as a provision of the omnibus Farm Bill that has already been extended for a year past its 2023 expiration date and may have to be extended again unless it shockingly becomes an election year priority in the waning weeks of the 118th Congress.
Here I put on my old political analyst hat. I find it virtually impossible to believe that the Democratic-controlled Senate would include the EATS Act in any version of the Farm Bill it should pass, nor would it accept a compromise version of the legislation that includes the EATS Act.
But in a huge bill with hundreds of provisions, I believe the advocates are right to visit with lawmakers to ensure they know what the EATS Act is and how it violates states' rights to regulate the production and sale of agricultural products.
With that said, here's Joe Wanda's newsletter.
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It's election season and it feels like everyone is getting hyped or maybe just annoyed with it all.
Haha...I don't know 🤷
Either way, I'm thinking I might go to Washington, D.C.
I recently had somone from the "Americans for Family Farmers" email me and ask= if I'd join them in D.C. in September to voice our opinion on the EATS Act.
I've never been to D.C. before, so the thought of going sounds awesome. I'd love to see more of the history of our country....
However, I need to ask Hannah permission 1st. She is about to have our 3rd baby in October. So maybe it's cutting it too close.
Of course, I had to do my research about the EATS Act before I could give any thought on whether I supported the cause or not.
What's the EATS Act?
The "Ending Agricultural Trade Suppression Act" lawmakers are seeking to include on the upcoming farm bill.
This Act would end individual states' laws that are in place to ensure livestock are raised with ethical treatment, certain toxic pesticides are banned, and potential harmful foods sold within their state are regulated.
If this is passed, this deregulation would help Big Ag get bigger by continuing to use their cheap, damaging practices even more and each state would have no say on it.
I'm worried along with many other farmers that this would lead to more imported food from China and other countries that may not have our best interest, leaving individual states with no rights on the matters.
It would seem this Act going into the farm bill will only strengthen the Big Ag cronies that want to control our food system and keep us sick.
Now don't get me wrong....I'm a free-trade sorta of guy.
Business and Americans should have freedom to choose what and where they purchase.
However, I can't support this ACT because the reality is a lot of what goes on in Big Ag is unethical and should be illegal.
Oppose Cheap Food
While I'd rather see we the people stand up and not support these big corporations with our food dollars and leave government out of it, most people don't know and fall prey with the cheap price tag at the grocery store.
The horrible chemicals and junk they let into our food is slowly killing us in so many ways.
Therefore, I'm all in support to keep the individual states' regulations in place that keep these big guys at bay with their horrible practices.
Food vs Commodity
Unfortunately, I think these farm bills have a long lasting impact on our agriculture sector.
It seems our food system took a nose dive in 1971 when our secretary of Ag Earl Butz told family farmers the following: "Get big, or get out"
He helped shape the farm bill to model the American farmers his way.
Most farmers had no choice but to follow as they wanted to stay in business.
What we know as food that nourishes our bodies changed to just a "commodity" that traded only on price.
A market that didn't incentive farmers to produce quality.
Therefore the farmers' mindsets became how do we produce more product for less money.
And the big corporations such as Monsanto and other large chemical corporations have profited big time giving the farmers less and less of the food dollars spent by the consumer.
I'm worried this farm bill will only damage the American farmers in the future again like Earl Butz policy did, especially those that are trying to produce a value add product vs. a commodity product.
Thanks to consumers like yourself, Bob, that care about the food you are consuming, you are actually voting to reverse our farmers' mindset on food production from a commodity to an actually consumable, nutritional product.
I think as the farm to table sector continues to grow, farmers are going to start looking at their practices a little differently.
You watch, things are going to change.
However, we still have to fight these big guys and their strong lobbying power in Washington.
So I'm thinking it maybe worth the trip to Washington to voice my thoughts.
What do you think?
Should I represent you as well?
Let me know.
God bless,
Farmer Joe
P.S. Stay tuned. We have some HUGE Pasture Raised Chicken Sale savings coming your way Friday!
Our freezer is full...Like bursting at the seems full....and I need to make space for beef and pork coming!
I'll send you more details Friday.
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