House Farm Bill Prioritizes Corporate Agribusiness Over Farmers and Public Health 

Friends of the Earth U.S. joins more than 600 farmer, environmental and anti-hunger organizations opposing the House-passed legislation 

WASHINGTON – The House just voted 224-200 to pass a deeply flawed Farm Bill that is not only widely unpopular with Americans but also actively harmful.  

While the Food Movement across the political spectrum scored a significant victory by getting the liability shields for pesticide companies removed, this bill remains a sweeping giveaway to corporate agribusiness at the expense of farmers, public health, and rural communities.   

“American farmers are being squeezed from every direction, and this Farm Bill does nothing to ease that pressure. By gutting conservation programs and failing to invest in organic agriculture, Congress is missing a critical opportunity to help farmers break free from the costly chemical fertilizer and toxic pesticide treadmill. We need a Farm Bill that gives farmers real tools and real support – not one that weakens environmental and animal welfare protections, and further entrenches industrial agriculture,” said Kari Hamerschlag, Deputy Director for Food and Agriculture at Friends of the Earth. “Congress must do better. The Senate must do better.”   

This Farm Bill:   

• Cuts critical conservation funding, including a $1 billion reduction to EQIP, while shifting resources toward subsidies for the largest agribusiness subsidies;   
• Overturns voter-approved laws like California’s Proposition 12, invalidating hundreds of state and local measures on food safety, environmental protection, and animal welfare;   
• Fails to invest in local food and sustainable, organic and agroecological farming that could help farmers get off the costly chemical fertilizer and toxic pesticide treadmill.  
• Locks in deep cuts to SNAP, weakening support for families already struggling with the rising cost of food;   
• Weakens protections for forests and public lands by limiting environmental review and public input;   
• Includes multiple giveaways to industrial agriculture that erode states’ rights and restrict local communities from protecting themselves;   
• Undercuts rural clean energy programs that help farmers and small businesses reduce costs and build resilience;   
• Undermines endangered species protections and reduces oversight of pesticide impacts on wildlife.  

“A powerful movement of people from across the political spectrum came together this week to demand that members of Congress put our health above the profits of the pesticide industry,” said Sarah Starman, Senior Campaigner with Friends of the Earth. “By stripping out the Farm Bill’s liability shield on pesticide companies, our elected leaders today affirmed that no one should be above the law— especially not billion-dollar corporations that sell chemicals linked to cancer, infertility, and other devastating harms to human health. That is a huge victory for health and justice. Now we won’t stop fighting until we have a Farm Bill that truly advances healthy food and farming. Even without the pesticide liability shields, this remains a fundamentally flawed Farm Bill that will do little to help our farmers get off the pesticide treadmill.”

Contact: Lindsay Tice, [email protected]