The U.S. Senate passed a historic Farm Bill Thursday, paving the way for an important fight in the House to preserve measures for conservation, local food economies, and healthy food for families and school children.

Here’s a media report from Politico.

And here are reports from four key advocacy organizations we respect. They’ve been working hard on the Farm Bill in Washington:

• Farm Bill Report from the Community Food Security Coalition.

• Farm Bill report from the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition.

• Farm Bill report from American Farmland Trust.

• Farm Bill report from Fair Food Network.

Sen. Debbie Stabenow

Contact information for additional groups following the Farm Bill can be found at the policy page of the Northwest Michigan Food & Farming Network.

Each of these organizations will provide timely updates and action alerts as the Farm Bill moves to the House over the next few weeks, where it is expected to face major threats of being gutted to the detriment of the environment, local food economies, and healthy food for all of us, particularly those of us who are facing very hard economic times.

It also could fail to pass the House at all, due to the polarizing politics of our times. Sen. Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, with steadfast resolve, showed it’s possible to muscle together a bipartisan bill.  It’s time for the House to do the same. And time for us to weigh in to preserve what’s important for our food and farm economies.

Diane Conners is senior policy specialist in food and farming at the Michigan Land Use Institute.

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