Originally published in PrairieFire's "Prairie Report:  A semi quarterly update from the Hartland on Rural Faith and Justice Issues," Vol. 1, No. 6, November 1987, published by the Interfaith/Ecumenical Mid-continent Consultation on the rural crisis. Compiled by PrairieFire Rural Action, Des Moines, Iowa.

The risks to human and environmental health come from five main areas along the food production system. However, there is an effective way to reduce or eliminate risks from the use of hazardous materials and methods through changes that can be made to farm policy.

U.S. farm policy has farmers on a treadmill using increasing amounts of hazardous materials in order to produce more to earn a living as prices drop for what they produce. Three changes at the policy level will be required to solve this issue. First, family farmers must receive a fair price for crops and livestock in the market. Second, fragile land currently being cropped must be taken out of production and placed into long-term reserves to ensure it will be productive for future generations. And third, there must be effective supply management programs for all major commodities to eliminate pressure on farmers to maximize their per acre yield.

This article explains why supporting policies addressing these three areas is the solution for toxic hazard prevention in agriculture.