*SAMPLE LETTER TO YOUR MEMBERS OF CONGRESS*
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Dear [Member of Congress],
The ongoing blockade of the Strait of Hormuz due to the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran has limited the supply of fossil-fuel-derived synthetic nitrogen fertilizers, causing prices to spike and the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization to warn of a coming food crisis.
Our country’s small-scale family farmers don’t use much of the fertilizers impacted by the war against Iran.
It’s the industrial farms producing crops for ethanol, animal feed, and export that use most of the fertilizer—and they use 30 to 50 percent more than they need, causing waste and pollution.
The fertilizer and precision agriculture industries want you to believe it is impossible to grow food without synthetic nitrogen fertilizer, but every organic farmer does so.
Conventional farmers who adopt regenerative organic practices for soil health and to prevent nutrient run-off are also helping to protect our air and water from fertilizer pollution.
The yearly human health impacts of fertilizer pollution in the U.S., include:
-2,939 cases of very low birth weight; 1,725 cases of very preterm birth; and 41 cases of neural tube defects.
-12,594 cases of cancer, including colorectal, ovarian, thyroid, kidney and bladder cancer; and
-4,300 premature deaths due to nitrogen oxide-heavy smog from synthetic nitrogen fertilizer use on corn alone.
A transition to organic and regenerative agriculture would put an end to these tragic and costly health problems and the vast amounts of money in water treatment and pollution controls aimed at preventing them.
The Farm Bill can be used to transition farming away from synthetic nitrogen fertilizer by fully funding conservation, environmental quality, and nutrition programs to:
-Support farmers in creating nutrient management plans that include nitrogen-fixing cover crops, conservation tillage, and vegetative buffers to prevent nutrient run-off from entering waterways.
-Scale back the amount of cropland dedicated to growing nitrogen-hungry corn for animal feed by finishing ruminant animals on pasture rather than in feedlots.
-Making locally produced healthy organic food available to everyone.
Please take these steps to improve farmers’ livelihoods, people’s food security, the safety of drinking water, and the health of the environment.
It is also important to untie our food system from volatile fossil fuel markets. The price of farm inputs and food shouldn’t be left to swing up and down with the price of oil and gas.
Thank you.
[Your Name]