The following is a press release by Massachusetts Congressman Jim McGovern:
Today, July 28, 2023, U.S. Representative James P. McGovern(D-MA), Ranking Member of the House Rules Committee and Senior Member of the House Agriculture Committee, introduced a bill to support American farmers and rural communities through plant-based food production.
McGovern’s bill establishes new opportunities for farmers and food companies, creates new jobs in farming communities, advances USDA’s efforts to connect American farmers to new markets at home and abroad, and expands consumer choices at the grocery store, through plant-based food research and production.The Peas, Legumes, and Nuts Today Act, orPLANT Act, provides a blueprint for maintaining America’s leadership in plant-based food production, while empowering farmers and rural communities and producing delicious, affordable food options for all Americans.
The PLANT Act will help us win the future of food. Plant-based foods are already creating new opportunities for farmers across the country and exciting new options for consumers, and this legislation will be a game-changer.
By putting farmers and their communities front and center as we grow the greatest plant-based sector in the world, we can create countless good jobs while showing the world what makes American agriculture so strong.
Now is the time to embrace the enormous potential that plant-based foods have to strengthen our economy and our food system.
Congressman McGovern said
Congress should do more to support farmers and food companies making plant-based foods when Congress renews the Farm Bill. Right now, America is the world’s plant-based foods leader, but other countries are making big investments in their plant-food sectors.
If Congress does not support our farmers and food companies, America could lose our place as the world’s plant-based foods leader. Supporting plant-based foods in the farm bill helps the farmers growing ingredients, helps the rural workers turning those ingredients into great foods, and helps ensure that America remains the world’s plant-based foods leader.
USDA has always supported our meat and dairy farmers, investing more than $50 billion since 1995. Now, to maintain our global leadership role, it’s time for USDA to also support the farmers growing for the plant-based industry.
Environmental Working Group’s Senior Vice President for Government Affairs Scott Faber, said
We are thrilled to endorse the PLANT Act as a critical step in ensuring strong federal support for plant-based foods. This legislation championed by Representative McGovern will create more opportunities for farmers, provide essential support to food manufacturers–like many of our PBFA members–and bolster efforts to promote the growth and export of plant-based foods.
By empowering a diverse range of stakeholders, from farmers to manufacturers and brands, we can accelerate the advancement of plant-based foods and contribute to a healthier, sustainable, and inclusive food future.
The Plant Based Foods Association’s Vice President of Food Systems and Policy Nicole Negowetti, said
I’m so grateful that Congressman McGovern has made the farmers and companies providing plant-based options a priority for USDA. We need more leaders to join Congressman McGovern to help make sure that USDA is providing as much support as possible for plant-based foods. Giving consumers what they want – which is more plant-based options – is good for the climate, farmers, and food companies.
Artist and plant-based food activist Moby, said
Chefs are seeing first-hand the growing interest in plant-based options as more and more consumers are looking for ways to build healthier diets or to make choices that reflect their values.
Congress should make it easier for consumers to make these choices by supporting the farmers who produce the ingredients, and by supporting the companies to turn these ingredients into the food we love. We’ve invested billions in federal funding to build the world’s largest animal protein industry, so it’s past time for USDA to do more to also lend a hand to farmers and plant-based entrepreneurs.
World-renowned celebrity chef Andrew Zimmern, said
The United States is already the world leader in plant-based food production, with over 55,000 people directly employed in a sector that generates $4.5 billion in annual revenue. Other countries are making significant public investments in plant-based food innovation that may eclipse U.S. production. Since 2020, Canada, France, Denmark, Australia, the European Union, and Sweden have all invested more in this sector than the United States. The PLANT Act would enable the U.S. to maintain a leadership role in plant-based food production by supporting farmers, food manufacturing workers, and rural communities. Specifically, the PLANT Act would provide support for U.S. farmers who grow the ingredients used in plant-based foods; ensure that food companies who turn those ingredients into plant-based foods are eligible for USDA producer programs; and make targeted R&D investments at USDA to foster American innovation.
The PLANT Act is supported by a broad coalition of stakeholders who recognize that the success of the U.S. plant-based sector presents an unprecedented opportunity to support American agriculture and rural communities, including:
AUTHOR COMMENTARY
I mean, gee whiz, can you say “lobbying?”
Many will intreat the favour of the prince: and every man is a friend to him that giveth gifts.
Proverbs 19:6
If you have not been following the economics of the plant-based industry, it’s been suffering greatly, not just because of food inflation and supply-chain problems, but simply because the American consumer does not want all these meat and dairy replacements. The plant-based meat industry is hemorrhaging cash left and right, with so many of these brands that you see listed above cutting jobs and operations, lowering output, burning cash, and going belly-up before they even get a small space at the grocery store.
SEE: Plant-Based Meat Sales Continue Its Precipitous Decline
Fake And Plant-Based Meat Sales Have Collapsed As 20% Of Staff Laid-Off At Larger Companies
McDonalds And Companies Drop Beyond Meat Plant-Based Burger, JP Morgan Says They Are ‘McDone’
This is the core of why this bill is being proposed and has so many backers. These companies need to protect their rear-ends so they don’t closeup relatively soon; while still pushing and keeping the globalist agenda of reducing meat consumption alive.
For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
1 Timothy 6:10
Bare in mind also that last year Biden’s health summit garbage to reform the health standards and recommendations was a bipartisan affair, with two Republicans from my home state of Indiana.
This bill, based on the whitewashed wording of it, is another, or has the potential, to become another bellwether and trailblazer for another Netherlands and Ireland situation; where you got these evil psychos sequestering family’s land and culling all their livestock to meet made-up climate goals.
We should continue to monitor where this goes…
[1] Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; [2] Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; [3] Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. 1 Timothy 4:1-3
[7] Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? [8] Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also? [9] For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? [10] Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope. (1 Corinthians 9:7-10).
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