Food Policy Action
Sara Sciammacco
Tracks Food and Farm Votes, Identifies Good Food Champions in Congress
Washington, D.C. – Chef Tom Colicchio and other healthy food advocates, animal welfare and anti-hunger champions launched a new organization on National Food Day (Oct. 24), devoted to holding members of Congress accountable to the public interest for their positions on federal food policy.
The group, known as Food Policy Action, published the first-ever National Food Policy Scorecard ™ to rate federal lawmakers on critical floor votes related to food.
“For the first time, we will have a seat at the political table, armed with important information about how our senators and representatives voted on important issues involving our food,” said Colicchio, a founding board member of FPA and owner of Craft Restaurants. “Greater transparency is the right recipe for food policies that improve Americans’ diets, feed hungry kids and protect family farmers and the nation’s food supply.”
The FPA board selected 32 floor votes — 18 in the Senate, 14 in the House — taken by Congress over the past two years. These covered food safety, hunger, farm subsidies, food labeling, organic farming, and local food systems. While other national organizations have graded lawmakers on various federal policy issues, no group has ever done so on recorded votes on specific legislative actions concerning food.
“In this political season, when food policy has become a political football-from anti-hunger programs like ‘food stamps’ to fledgling efforts to make school lunches healthier-the National Food Policy Scorecard is a vital tool for voters,” said Ken Cook, founding board president of FPA and president of the Environmental Working Group. “Until now, consumers have been voting with their pocketbooks to demand safe and affordable food that is produced without harming the environment or treating animals inhumanely. Now, they can actually vote for lawmakers who have stood with them, not with big food or industrial agriculture.”
FPA analysts identified 50 members of Congress who received a perfect score of 100 percent.
Good food champions in the Senate are:
Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J.
Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M.
Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse. D-R.I.
Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif.
Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn.
Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md.
Sen. John Rockefeller, D-W.Va.
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore.
Sen. Jeffrey Merkley, D-Ore.
Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I.
House members who are good food champions are:
Rep. Gerald Connolly, D-Va.
Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif.
Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash.
Rep. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M.
Rep. Sander Levin, D-Mich.
Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn.
Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Tenn.
Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore.
Rep. Pete Stark, D-Calif.
Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif.
Rep. Mike Quigley, D-Ill.
Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif.
Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif.
Rep. John Larson, D-Conn.
Rep. James Moran, D-Va.
Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn.
Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Wash.
Rep. William Pascrell, D-N.J.
Rep. Steven Rothman D-N.J.
Rep. Paul Tonko, D-N.Y.
Rep. Brian Higgins, D-N.Y.
Rep. Linda Sanchez, D-Calif.
Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y.
Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas
Rep. Suzanne Bonamici*, D-Ore.
Rep. Gary Ackerman, D-N.Y.
Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass.
Rep. Michael Doyle, D-Pa.,
Rep. Janice Hahn*, D-Calif.
Rep. Michael Capuano, D-Mass.
Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y.
Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger, D-Md.
Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass.
Rep. John Olver, D-Mass.
Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y.
Rep. Ron Barber*, D-Ariz.
Rep. John Sarbanes, D-Md.
Rep. Christopher Van Hollen, D-Md.
Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash.
* Lawmakers who did not serve a full term and did not vote on all scored votes.
The average score for Senate lawmakers was 58 percent, while the average score for House lawmakers was 57 percent. Many GOP lawmakers had higher than average scores, including Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine, Sen. Scott Brown of Massachusetts, Reps. Jon Runyan, Frank LoBiondo and Chris Smith of New Jersey, Reps. Chris Gibson and Richard Hanna of New York, Reps. Jaime Herrera and Dave Reichert of Washington State, Reps. Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania, Charles Bass of New Hampshire, Frank Wolf of Virginia, Robert Dold of Illinois and Erik Paulsen of Minnesota.
Prominent members of the House and Senate who received very low scores include House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., and Sens. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., Pat Roberts, R-Kan., and Jim Inhofe, R-Okla.
Among the votes included in the score calculations were proposals to cut nutrition assistance, increase food safety funding, repeal conservation programs, allow states to label genetically engineered food and subject crop insurance subsidies to means testing and payment limits. The scorecard will continue to track votes on a wide range of food policy issues, including food and farm worker protections, increased food access and affordability, food additives, animal welfare, and the environmental impact of farm and food production.
In addition to Colicchio and Cook, the board includes Ray Offenheiser, president of Oxfam America; Robin Schepper, former executive director of First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! initiative; Rev. David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World; Gary Hirshberg, co-founder and chairman of Stonyfield Farm; Wayne Pacelle, chief executive officer and president of the Humane Society of the United States; Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest; Dave Murphy, founder and executive director of Food Democracy Now!; Mia Dell, chief lobbyist for United Food and Commercial Workers; Navina Khanna, co-founder of Live Real; and John Boyd, president of the National Black Farmers Association.
“Hungry people don’t have well-paid lobbyists working to protect the programs they rely on to help lift themselves out of poverty,” said Beckmann. “The food policy scorecard will ensure that families who are hungry, as well as those who care about hunger, know who voted for food and farm policies that serve the public interest.”
“Without greater pressure from voters, Congress won’t change our food policies to promote healthier diets and lifestyles,” said Schepper. “Everyone has a role to play if we are going to reduce childhood obesity, especially our legislators in Congress.”
“While many of us have begun voting with our forks, too few of us have been voting with our votes,” said Offenheiser. “That’s about to change. Now legislators will think twice about casting votes in Congress to protect the narrow interests of well-heeled lobbyists above the will of people in their districts and hungry people around the world. The FPA will be keeping an eye on our elected leaders on behalf of the voters who sent them to Washington.”
“Studies show that only 2 percent of our food economy is food that’s healthy, clean, green, and fair,” said Khanna. Voting with our forks isn’t an option for most people. It’s time to hold our legislators accountable for creating and enforcing policies that make a food system healthier for people and the planet. The scorecard allows us to do that.”
