Protect families on SNAP and other proven food and farming programs

This family relies on snap 

President Trump’s proposed budget is a huge threat to proven food and farm programs that support public health, help farmers, and keep farm pollution out of our drinking water. Slashing the funding for SNAP would lead to poorer nutrition and needless suffering for millions of Americans in rural and urban communities. Cuts to research and conservation programs would deny farmers the science they need to maintain profitability while adapting to the harsh realities of a changing climate, and would leave our water more at risk from farm pollution. But we can fight back—Congress, not the president, ultimately writes the federal budget. Tell them these cuts are unacceptable.

Sign the petition.

It reads as follows. 

I'm writing to urge you to fully fund essential healthy food and farm programs in the FY18 appropriations process and the upcoming farm bill. Cuts to these programs would have unacceptable impacts on our public health, the environment, and on the resources farmers depend on to sustain their land and livelihood.

Specifically, vote to fully fund:

1. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), a program with a demonstrated record of success in alleviating hunger and poverty. The president's massive cut would lead to suffering and hunger for tens of millions of Americans in rural and urban communities across the country.

2. Conservation Programs, which help farmers sustain their land and livelihoods while reducing pollution. Significant changes to conservation program--eliminating funding for the Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) and preventing new enrollment in the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP)--would hurt farmers and leave the nation's waters at risk from pollution.

3. Agricultural research, including the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) and the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program (SARE). These programs provide the science farmers need to be profitable for the long term.

The proposed budget is an attack on science and on proven programs that help hungry families, improve farmers' livelihoods, and keep our drinking water clean. I urge you to restore full funding to these essential programs in upcoming spending legislation and the next 5-year farm bill.

- Union of Concerned Scientists