[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 81 (Friday, May 16, 2008)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E953]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

[[Page E953]]


 CONFERENCE REPORT ON H.R. 2419, FOOD, CONSERVATION, AND ENERGY ACT OF 
                                  2008

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                        HON. DENNIS J. KUCINICH

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, May 14, 2008

  Mr. KUCINICH. Mr. Speaker, I reluctantly rise in opposition to H.R. 
2419, the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008. This version of 
the Farm Bill bears significant improvements over its predecessors. I 
fully support the inclusion of an unprecedented 10.4 billion dollars 
over 10 years for the Nutrition Title that has been included in the 
Conference Report.
  Funding for the Nutrition Title will have a strong impact on efforts 
to prevent domestic hunger by increasing the Food Stamp Program's 
minimum monthly benefit and the Emergency Food Assistance Program's 
mandatory funding level. Participation in the Food Stamp Program has 
increased over the last several years, with an additional 1.3 million 
people participating in the program in the last year alone. Portions of 
my district, including Lakewood, Fairview Park and Parma, have 
experienced a 74 percent increase in participation in the Food Stamp 
Program between 2002 and 2007. The bill also provides assistance to 
food banks by $1.25 billion. I have been a consistent supporter of 
efforts in the House of Representatives to strengthen Food Stamp 
Programs, nutritional assistance programs, and other programs to 
increase the quantity and quality of food available to those most in 
need. I will continue to do so.
  These programs help to address a severe short term problem. The 
purpose of the Farm Bill is to set long term priorities. However, this 
bill maintains the very policies that are driving several underlying 
problems.
  For example, the single biggest share of subsidies under this bill 
goes to corn. Yet this bill continues massive subsidies for ethanol 
production from corn at only a slightly lower level than was previously 
the case. Corn-based ethanol is a well-known driver of recent increases 
in food costs. Some are predicting that 25 percent of the corn crop in 
the U.S. will go toward ethanol by the end of the 2008 crop year. That 
is great news for corporate agribusiness that produces most of the corn 
in the U.S. But it's bad news for food prices and those families for 
whom food costs are a large portion of their budget.
  The vast majority of corn goes to cattle feed, which has health 
implications. It increases stomach acidity in the cattle, which makes 
them more susceptible to infection by E. Coli H:0157, the source of 
many food recalls. A corn-based diet also increases the level of 
saturated fat in the meat.
  The ubiquity of corn in our diet is further implicated in various 
health problems like the obesity epidemic and diabetes. Abundant corn 
means that high fructose corn syrup, HFCS, a food sweetener, is cheap 
and abundant. Most Americans would be hard-pressed to get through a 
meal without consuming it. It is high in calories, with little to no 
nutritional value. Between 1970 and 1990, HFCS consumption increased by 
1000 percent, which is roughly the same period in which the obesity 
epidemic accelerated. This bill continues to subsidize HFCS, while 
taking only baby steps toward promoting healthy, locally grown fruits, 
vegetables and meats. According to writer Michael Pollan, ``the real 
price of fruits and vegetables between 1985 and 2000 increased by 
nearly 40 percent while the real price of soft drinks (aka liquid corn) 
declined by 23 percent.'' Unhealthy food is cheap. Healthy food is 
expensive. The obesity and diabetes epidemics affect low-income 
Americans more often and with more severity.
  The bill contributes to a host of environmental problems. It 
shortchanges conservation programs that can reduce global warming 
pollution. It removes the sod saver program which would have 
discouraged the alteration of valuable native grasslands and rangeland 
into crop production. It includes cuts to the Conservation Reserve 
Program and Wetland Reserve Program, which respectively substitute 
crops for resource conserving plantings on highly erodible and 
environmentally sensitive land and encourage restoration of lands to 
their original natural conditions.
  It continues to encourage factory farms where our antibiotics are 
rendered weak or useless because of overuse on cattle, where cattle are 
treated inhumanely, where toxic runoff contributes to contaminated 
drinking water, and where employees suffer the highest rates of 
workplace injuries of almost any other industry.
  Finally, this Farm Bill maintains massive giveaways to corporate 
agribusiness and rich families instead of helping the vanishing family 
farmer. Though the thresholds have been lowered compared to the past, 
this bill allows families with up to $2.5 million in income to get 
subsidies. The result is that the top 10 percent of all the benefactors 
will get about two-thirds of the payments. This bill continues the 
failed policies that allow the profits of agribusiness to skyrocket 
while pushing family farmers off their farms, forcing them to sell 
their farms to survive.
  Increasing funding to buy more nutritional foods is a good idea in 
the short term. But we need to stop perpetuating the very policies that 
cause food prices to increase and cause unhealthy food to be cheap. We 
need to move away from corn-based ethanol. We must shift subsidies 
toward healthier foods, like locally and regionally grown fruits, 
vegetables, grains and meats if we ever hope to address nutritional 
deficiencies. And we need to come to the aid of the family farmer. The 
Farm Bill does little to address these problems, and I could not vote 
for it.

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