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Food Prices Soar As Farm Bill Enters ´Home Stretch´

WASHINGTON, Apr. 16 /PRNewswire/ --

WASHINGTON, April 16 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Bread for the World today urged congressional leaders and President Bush to dramatically reform and finalize the roughly $250 billion five-year farm bill they are negotiating so that it continues to provide an effective safety net for Americans of modest means who are being squeezed by soaring food prices.

The farm bill was set to expire on April 18 but the House this morning passed another week's extension, to April 25, subject to Senate and White House approval.

"Rising food prices are taking an immense toll on the world's poor people, who typically spend between 60 and 80 percent of their income on food," said David Beckmann, president, Bread for the World. "The alarming jump in food prices should emphasize to our leaders that the farm bill should not continue to subsidize wealthy farmers when poor people in this country and around the world are being squeezed by skyrocketing food prices."

Economists estimate that food prices have increased by as much as 83 percent globally - inciting social unrest in several countries and a change of government in Haiti. According to the World Bank, the lives of as many as 100 million poor people around the world could be made worse off by this crisis.

"A genuinely reformed farm bill should strengthen the Food Stamp Program, increase aid to our rapidly depleting food banks, and bolster international food aid," said Beckmann.

Even before food prices began increasing so dramatically, food stamp recipients were running out of their benefits by the third week of each month. Nearly 28 million Americans now receive food stamps, the highest since the program began in the 1960s. Economists project the number will rise even more.

"Continuing to send taxpayer dollars to millionaires when farm income is at record levels does not make sense," Beckmann said. "Reform of commodity payments would free up money to better support struggling farm and rural families of modest means in this country and around the world while providing help to low-income Americans caught between a weak economy and rising food prices."

For more information on the global crisis of rising food prices, visit www.bread.org

Bread for the World (www.bread.org) is a collective Christian voice urging our nation's decision makers to end hunger at home and abroad. By changing policies, programs and conditions that allow hunger and poverty to persist, we provide help and opportunity far beyond the communities where we live.