Washington, DC — House Republicans released a draft Farm Bill today, in advance of a House Agriculture Committee Markup scheduled for May 23. The draft legislation includes several policies to boost Big Ag profits and factory farms at the expense of consumers, farmers and the environment, by:

• Removing animal welfare protections: The draft includes The EATS Act, dangerous legislation to preempt state regulation of the factory farm and agribusiness industry, effectively reversing a Supreme Court ruling to uphold California’s Proposition 12 last year, widely celebrated as a victory against the worst factory farm abuses.
• Gutting “climate-smart ag” funding: The draft includes a proposal to remove climate-friendly requirements from Inflation Reduction Act “climate smart” funding, and divert the money toward USDA programs like EQIP and REAP, opening up more funding for dirty factory farm biogas. The move comes as hundreds of groups and Congressional Democrats call on President Biden to keep Inflation Reduction Act money away from biogas operations altogether.

In response, Food & Water Watch Managing Director of Policy and Litigation Mitch Jones issued the following statement:

“The Farm Bill is a seminal opportunity to reform our food and agriculture sector away from factory farms and corporate greed. Instead, House Republicans want to double down. Some of leadership’s more dangerous proposals would take us backwards on animal welfare, and climate-smart agriculture — both The EATS Act and support for factory farm biogas must be dead on arrival. It’s time Congress put the culture wars aside and got back to work on a Farm Bill that puts consumers, farmers, and the environment above politicking and Big Ag handouts.”