AFA calls on Congress to Introduce our draft ‘FARMS’ Act
Farm and Ranch Mobility Solutions Act aka FARMS
AFA calls for Congress to align USDA farm policy with USDA nutritional recommendations and help farmers who want to diversify into producing nutritious, fiber-rich food crops.
Specifically, this draft FARMS legislation would create a pilot program that provides grants to farmers to transition to growing fiber-rich foods. The FARMS Act will empower AFA partner farmers like Paul and Dan to play key roles in implementing effective climate solutions.
Meet Paul, an AFA Partner Farmer
The FARMS amendment will connect farmers with the resources they need when they are ready to diversify into producing fiber-rich foods. According to the Family Farm Action Alliance,
Non-industrial, diversified farms that focus on food crops can produce as much or more food value per acre than specialized, industrial farming operations can. In a 2010 study, an agricultural economist at the Leopold Center at Iowa State estimated that if 270,000 acres of Midwest farmland (about the size of a county) were transitioned from corn-soy rotations to vegetable production, $882.4 million in farm-level sales would be worth about $3.3 billion when sold at retail. This form of production would yield roughly 6,000 new jobs and $345.1 million in wages.
https://farmactionalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Truth-Report.pdf
This is why AFA calls on Congress to adopt the FARMS act – a pilot program that will help farmers diversify what they grow.
The Farm and Ranch Mobility Solutions or “FARMS” Act
Read AFA’s draft FARMS Legislation
AFA explains our theory of improvement in this Washington Post letter to the editor. Furthermore, AFA submitted recommendations to USDA in response to the administration’s call for climate-smart agriculture suggestions.
Farm mobility is the ability to change what is produced on a farm, especially as a means to improve environmental impacts and profitability.
AFA Official Comments Submitted to the Biden Administration for Climate-Smart Policies