As House Advances Farm Bill, HEAL Food Alliance Calls Out Legislation for Putting Corporations Before Farmers, Workers
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Following House passage of the Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2026, the HEAL (Health, Environment, Agriculture, Labor) Food Alliance is reiterating its opposition to a bill that continues to put corporate interests ahead of farmers, workers, and communities, and fails to advance a more just, resilient, and worker-centered food system in line with HEAL’s farm bill policy recommendations.
In response to the bill’s advancement, Nichelle Harriott, Policy Director at HEAL Food Alliance, released the following statement:
“At a time when farmers, workers, and families are facing rising costs and worsening climate pressures, Congress has once again advanced a farm bill that fails to address the current crisis facing American agriculture.
Most notably, the House’s farm directs federal resources to prop up the expansion of precision agriculture technology, which provides little meaningful long-term benefit to farmers. At a time when farmers are struggling to stay on the land, these costly technologies deepen corporate control and allow big tech to gain access to farmers’ land and data, all while diverting public resources away from proven, farmer-led climate and environmental solutions. The bill continues the status quo by increasing the bottom lines of large corporations over the needs of the small and mid-sized farmers and farm workers who feed our country. This bill also fails to restore SNAP funding after the drastic cuts inflicted by H.R 1, further cementing the reality of food insecurity for 44.2 million people, including over 13 million children.
HEAL urges lawmakers to reject this farm bill that leaves workers and vulnerable people behind and instead pursue policy that supports small and mid-sized farmers, strengthens local and regional food systems, protects worker health and safety, and invests in long-term resilience.”
While the House bill includes limited provisions to improve credit access and support heirs’ property, those measures do not outweigh the broader harms. The legislation preserves longstanding inequities in access to USDA programs and does little to protect workers across the food chain. These policy choices leave farmers, rural communities, and workers bearing the brunt of weak protections and ongoing risks to their health, safety, and thriving farm economies.
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About the HEAL Food Alliance
The HEAL (Health, Environment, Agriculture, Labor) Food Alliance is a national multi-sector, multi-racial coalition. HEAL is led by its member organizations, who represent about two million rural and urban farmers, ranchers, fishers, farm and food chain working people, Indigenous groups, scientists, public health advocates, policy experts, and community organizers united in their commitment to transform our food and farm systems.