Wrapping it Up

We're back from a much needed (and, of course, well deserved) vacation to fabulous western Nebraska.  Pictures and stories to follow later.  But for now, I should wrap up the list of organizations whose work I truly appreciate and enjoy, and if I miss anyone I apologize.  There are dozens if not hundreds of other great organizations that worked on the farm bill, and these are just a few of the ones I interacted with on a regular basis. If you have the chance, I recommend checking out their websites and maybe throwing a few dollars their way.

I should also note that I'm just naming organizations here- I can't even begin to list all the good individuals I had the privilege of working with on this farm bill.  To all of you, thanks.  Here we go:

Community Food Security Coalition:  Steph Larsen.  Good people fighting for great programs, and they succeeded.  That's all there is to it.  Oh, and one of the top three e-updates/newsletters around.

Organic Farming Research Foundation:  A fellow member of the Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, I got to know more about them when we had a coalition meeting in California.  I was impressed.  Zach Baker, TraceyLerman and Mark Lipson are top notch policy advocates, with Tracy writing many of the better sustainable agriculture action alerts floating around on the web.  When you combine that with the impressive wins the organic sector had in the farm bill, you know they're doing great work and will be a major player in the policy world for a long time.

National Catholic Rural Life Conference- If you've ever met Bob Gronski, you know it's hard to improve on faith-based public policy advocacy.  In addition to the policy wonkishness, they have the truly moving social justice perspective that many of us in the nonprofit world would do well to pay more attention to.

Rural Advancement Foundation International:  Scott Marlowe knows as much about farm programs as anyone, and he works on crop insurance, an area in which I certainly wish we had more expertise.  They also did good work on livestock contract reform, and provide much needed geographical diversity to the farm bill campaign.

The Environmental Working Group:  They publish the farm subsidy database, which has probably done more to advance the cause of farm program reform than any other initiative in the past 15 years.  I had the particular privilege of working with Ken Cook and the inestimable Don Carr (formerly of South Dakota), both more than willing to share credit and media opportunities, an all-too-rare instinct in the nonprofit world.  While we didn't always agree with EWG on particular policy positions (and no one should get too worked up those sorts of things), we did have the opportunity to fight with them to win payment limits.  They never- and I mean never- wavered in their support of farm program reform, and no amount of funding for other priorities was going to change that.  And they work on a bunch of other righteous causes as well.

Oxfam America:  Sure they're a big organization, but they do the grassroots stuff really well.  Jim French and the other farm bill organizers remind us constantly that the farm bill isn't just about the United States.  They deserve major recognition for giving a voice to overseas farmers and their concerns, and despite the claims of their critics, they certainly do not forget the plight of the American farmer either.

Bread for the World:  Another faith-based organization whose grassroots work is just incredible.  Tammi Walhof, Elise Young, Derrick Boykin and the many other BFW organizers do great work (though they also have a great video to help them out; I'm really jealous).  The Rev. David Beckmann is one of the most eloquent voices arguing in favor of farm program reform in Washington, period.  And from a purely professional perspective, it's incredible that their organizers continually transition to working on new issues.  I couldn't imagine having to learn new policy issues every year.

Like I said, these are just a few of the great organizations that worked on the farm bill.  If you have an individual or organization that you think just totally kicked ass in the farm bill, stick them in the comments and I'll put it up on the main blog page.  Next up, one of my usual rants and maybe some vacation pictures.