Farm Bill negotiations intensify, crucial to food security and sustainable agriculture
Discussions in both House and Senate are intensifying over the renewal of the Farm Bill, which covers the policies for SNAP (food stamps), international food aid, and programs to conserve farmland and mitigate climate change. Here is a May 10 statement from the Christian advocacy group Bread for the World on the Farm Bill negotiations. The Evangelical Environmental Network has provided an action alert and link with an excellent overview of what’s at stake. You can use the email they provide as a draft and customize it to reflect your faith tradition and views.
“After months of relative quiet, both chambers of Congress have jumped into action on the Farm Bill this month,” EEN writes. “On May 1, Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) released a detailed proposal constituting the ‘Senate version’ of the Farm Bill, while House Agriculture Committee Chairman Glenn “GT” Thompson (R-PA-15) released a much-awaited outline of the ‘House version.’ At EEN, we are pleased to see that both the House and Senate versions of the bill increase funding for conservation by 25% and make the historic conservation investments passed through the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act a permanent fixture of the Farm Bill. We applaud both Chairs for these increased resources.
“However, through the Inflation Reduction Act, a promise was made to our farmers: to support them in specifically implementing high-demand, climate-smart agriculture practices. In addition to being climate-smart, these practices are also water-smart, soil-smart, and smart for our farmers’ bottom line. Nevertheless, the House Farm Bill proposal eliminates the guaranteed support for farmers adopting these in-demand practices, which have many benefits for our farm families, rural communities, and God’s creation beyond the important issue of climate.”
Call/write Wednesday for Ohio energy justice bills!
The Ohio House Public Utilities Committee will hold another hearing Wednesday, May 22 on the community solar bill HB 197, during which the committee could vote to send the bill to the full house. In addition, the energy efficiency bill, HB 79, could come up for a vote in the Ohio House in the afternoon.
The bipartisan energy efficiency bill HB 79 failed to appear on the House agenda May 8, probably because the sponsors (including Republican leader Bill Seitz of Cincinnati) were not yet confident they have the votes to pass it. Your call could help persuade representatives who are opposed or on the fence. Use this link to find out who represents you in the Ohio House. You will find the phone number by clicking on your Rep’s photo.
The House Public Utilities Committee held an opponent hearing on HB 197, the Community Solar bill, and the primary opponent, American Electric Power, did not even send a representative to testify in person. Here is the link to send an email to every member of the House Public Utilities Committee. Ohio is facing a major shortage of electric generation capacity as major economic development projects are implemented and the number of heatwave days grows. The Chair supports the bill and the House Speaker is on record as supporting an increase in Ohio electric generation. Senator George Lang has introduced a companion bill, SB 247.
Young Xavier women charged with felony latest example of Ohio leaders intimidating protests and education on human rights
On May 11 two young women – a Xavier University student and a recent graduate – were charged with a felony for wearing masks while protesting the war in Gaza before the university’s commencement. I’m writing to put this news in the context of laws that have been introduced – and some passed – in Ohio to deter protests over police violence and pollution, as well as to chill discussion of the underlying issues in K-12 schools and public universities. This matters to us because of our denomination’s clear stands for racial and environmental justice.
Remember that the Ohio Legislature stripped the Ohio School Board of any authority over curriculum last year,after a long fight following the Board’s adoption of a resolution in 2020 to work to overcome widely-documented racial disparities in Ohio schools. SB 33, which attacks diversity, equity and inclusion programs and the teaching of “divisive content” in Ohio’s public colleges and universities, only needs a positive vote in the Ohio House to be sent to the Governor’s desk to be signed into law.
In response to the protests following the killing of George Floyd in 2020, the Ohio Legislature introduced two bills that would have increased the number of arrestable offenses at protests and added new felony penalties. “For example, SB 16 would create a new crime for blocking traffic or ‘unlawfully impeding public passage,'” reported the Columbus Dispatch. “If committed during a riot, as defined in state law, the charge could be a fifth-degree felony.
“‘When people think of a riot they think of cars being overturned or buildings on fire, but Ohio defines riot extremely broad,’ ALCU Ohio’s chief lobbyist Gary Daniels said. ‘Five people who get together in violation of disorderly conduct to commit a misdemeanor is a riot.’ In a protest where thousands of people were packed into the streets, he said, a riot could be declared because people didn’t walk away fast enough after an order to disperse.” Neither bill passed by the end of the 2021-22 legislative session.
But the Legislature did pass the Critical Infrastructure Protection Act making it a felony for protesters to trespass on energy company property including pipelines, refineries, and power plants. This law, based on model legislation promoted across the country by the American Legislative Exchange Council ALEC, which gets major funding from fossil fuel companies, was a response to the Dakota Access Pipeline protests, in which Presiding Bishop Michael Curry took part with many other Episcopalians.
Ohio protesters can be charged with a third-degree felony for destroying or ‘tampering with’ the fossil fuel industry’s “critical infrastructure.” The Ohio law creates a new penalty for any organization found to be “complicit” in the trespass with fines ten times the maximum allowable fine for an individual protester.
That puts religious orders, interfaith groups, and denominations like the Episcopal Church at risk for encouraging members to attend a protest at fossil fuel sites in Ohio. “This bill was created to impose fear upon citizens who have become increasingly aware and vocal about the threats to their health, and their wellbeing as a result of the oil and gas industries’ assault on the land and people of this state by extraction of oil and gas, injection of toxic radioactive waste from this extraction and the infrastructure build outs of pipelines and gas compressor stations,” said Roxanne Groff, a former county commissioner who testified to the Ohio Senate Judiciary Committee.
The two young women at Xavier, who were wearing blue surgical masks, faced a felony charge under a 1953 Ohio law making it “a felony to commit a crime — even a misdemeanor — with two or more people “while wearing white caps, masks, or other disguise,” according to Ohio Revised Code 3761.12,” Megan Henry reported in the Ohio Capitol Journal. “Several states passed anti-masking laws in the mid-20th century in response to violence by the Ku Klux Klan, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.” A Hamilton County grand jury ignored the charge, but the young women still face a misdemeanor charge for trespassing.
“AG Dave Yost wrote to university presidents in early May ‘saying recent protesters who were arrested may have committed a felony by wearing a mask,” Henry reports. “’There are few more significant career-wreckers than a felony charge,’ Yost said in his letter. ‘I write to inform your student bodies of an Ohio law that, in the context of some behavior during the recent pro-Palestinian protests, could have that effect.’”
Advocacy updates are compiled by Ariel Miller, a longtime community advocate and member of Ascension & Holy Trinity, Wyoming. Connect with her at arielmillerwriter@gmail.com.
