Bread for the World
Bread for the World. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Line On Agriculture.
Bread for the World Institute has released their Hunger Report 2012: Rebalancing Act, which underscores reforms to U.S. food and farm policies to improve efficiency, encourage production and distribution of healthy foods, support rural development, and help farmers manage risk more efficiently. Rev. David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World Institute.
BECKMANN: Bread for the World is a national faith based movement that organizes ordinary people; people across the country who care about hunger and poverty to speak to their members of Congress on issues that affect hungry and poor people around the world.
Beckmann says this is about fixing our food system.
BECKMANN: There’s a lot of interest in healthy food, environmentally friendly food, whole food but we think the top issue for the food movement should be that everybody ought to have enough to eat. (laughs) It should be the prevalence of hunger in our country and the persistence of hunger around the world so this report; Rebalancing Act is about how to chance our food and farm system to reduce hunger and also to make a healthier food supply for low income people and for all of us.
This is the 22nd annual report by Bread for the World and Beckmann says there needs to be a change of thought.
BECKMANN: Actually the Super Committee process that just ended, one thing that they got done was that in the process of the Super Committee; there was a big change in what the agricultures committees in Congress and the farm groups are thinking about our farm policies. And really a decision by top Republicans and Democrats on both the ag committees and by most of the big farm groups to shift from our current patchwork of farm subsidies to a comprehensive revenue insurance program.
The report is available on their website.
BECKMANN: I hope people will connect with Bread for the World. Our website is bread.org and it’s a good place to learn about issues in Congress that are important to hungry and poor people in our country and around the world and especially on those issues which your own senators and representatives are powerful so that you can use half and hour and help to change the world for hungry people.
That’s today’s Line On Agriculture. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.
