From the California Food and Justice Coalition: Last Minutes Bill Puts Fresh Ideas Into the Mix

Senator Lugar of Indiana and Senator Lautenberg of New Jersey introduced the FRESH ACT. The ACT would end the billions of dollars going to corn, cotton, wheat, rice, soy and other big crops and replace it with a crop insurance program available to all farmers--including the 90% of California farmers who get NO money from the current

Farm Bill programs, growing much healthier food. The money saved will go to food stamp improvements and fruit and vegetable programs in schools, among other things. Learn more:

Rebel farm bill would help state, but puts Boxer, Feinstein in bind
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An odd pair of senators joined Tuesday in an assault on farm programs that will put their colleagues - none more than California's Democratic Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer - in a tough spot. Sens. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., and Richard Lugar, R-Ind., proposed a rebel farm bill called the Fresh Act that would replace billions of dollars in payments to farmers of a handful of crops with an insurance program that would be available free to all farmers - including the 91 percent of California farmers who receive no federal crop subsidies. They estimate that California would by far be the biggest beneficiary of the changes, gaining an additional $7 billion in federal aid over five years, mainly for environmental, research, and pest and nutrition programs. But it would come at the expense of the state's heavily subsidized cotton and rice farmers and the cluster of seven states in the Midwest and South that get most of the $7.5 billion that will be spent this year on subsidies for corn, cotton, rice, wheat and soybeans.