Today Republicans failed to move their disastrous Farm Bill, the Agricultural Act of 2026, out of the Senate Agriculture Committee. A fierce movement of advocates built enough pressure to keep poison pills, like the Save Our Bacon Act, out of the Committee’s debate on the bill.
Instead of serving everyday people, this Farm Bill was designed to funnel more taxpayer dollars to corporate factory farm expansion, maintain devastating nutrition assistance cuts, and weaken fundamental conservation investments. The bill:
- Fails to address the devastating impacts of the H.R. 1 cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), leaving millions of people vulnerable to food insecurity and hunger.
- Expands support for dirty factory farm gas projects and factory farm infrastructure through the Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) despite documented project failures and loan defaults.
- Guts the budget authority for the Environmental Quality Incentive Program and cuts $500 million from the Conservation Stewardship program, two of the nation’s most oversubscribed conservation programs, stripping critical funding without ensuring sustainable farmers will have access to replacement conservation support.
- Ignores the devastating impact of the Monsanto Co. v. Durnell Supreme Court decision, which effectively handed pesticide corporations a liability shield and closed the courthouse doors for tens of thousands of sick and suffering Americans.
In a shocking moment of bipartisanship, seventeen members of the Senate Agriculture Committee voted to include an amendment authorizing Mandatory Country-of-Origin Labeling for beef.
In response, Food & Water Watch’s Food Policy Director Rebecca Wolf issued the following statement:
“A Farm Bill that fails to protect farmers from corporate consolidation, invest in real climate solutions and ensure healthy, affordable food for all is not a solution – it’s just more of the same. Senate Democrats were smart to reject this deeply flawed Republican bill. They must continue to do so in September.
“After years of skyrocketing food prices, family farm decimation and worsening climate impacts, Congress should use this opportunity to create a new Farm Bill that builds a resilient food system – not double-down on the same corporate model that created these problems in the first place. We need a fair Farm Bill, not one that continues to prioritize agribusiness profits over farmers, workers, consumers and the planet.”
This content originally appeared on Common Dreams and was authored by Newswire Editor.