Farm Bill

Last month the 2014 Farm Bill passed both House and Senate.  After lengthy bipartisan wrangling, our legislators finally signed on to a bill which might just begin to take food production in the US in some new directions.  Since we are consumers and taxpayers, as well as farmers, we’re trying to gauge what to expect from this legislation.

Farm bills are reviewed, revised and reauthorized about every five years.  A farm bill as defined by the USDA is a ‘large-scale reauthorization of diverse Federal agriculture and food programs.’  The first farm bill, a product of the depression, addressed two of the gravest issues of the time.  It gave direct help to struggling farmers and set up a system which sought to ensure that the nation could maintain an adequate food supply.

                                  

This newest farm bill, the Agriculture Act of 2014, projects spending of about $956 billion over the next ten years, and it covers a whole lot of territory.  Its many provisions will affect the future of conservation and energy, price supports, crop insurance and risk management, organic and sustainable agriculture, farmers markets, food labeling, school lunches, local and regional food systems, rural development, urban farming and much more.   

Sorting out what this farm bill is expected to accomplish is daunting.  There are so many factions, so much debate.  The news media in all its diversity, from The Washington Post to Ag Week, from heritage.org to the Huffington Post, have weighed in on various aspects of the bill.  But there seems to be general agreement as to the two major issues addressed by the 2014 version. The first is how farmers, from small family farms to large corporate agribusinesses, can expect the federal system to support the risky business of raising and selling food.  The second, almost overwhelming in its scope, is nutrition.  For more than a decade the bulk of any farm bill’s funding is steered toward programs intended to protect public health and nutrition. That is true of this year’s bill, but it is also the area of the bill to suffer significant cuts. 

So now that the Farm Bill is law will the appropriated funding be enough to support so many and such far reaching programs?  We’ve got to hope that as a country we can ‘put your money where your mouth is.’  Will funding be adequate to help keep farmers on the farm and keep agricultural land available for continued food production? Will it truly support small farm enterprises and programs to help new farmers enter the field?

Will funding allow the expansion of current organic and sustainable agriculture programs, and support the development of local food marketplaces?  Most of all, despite the cut-backs in the supplemental nutrition program, will funding ensure that all Americans, wherever they live and whatever their income, have access to the best of nutrition -- foods fresh from America’s farms?  

Interesting and useful links for keeping an eye on how the 2014 Farm Bill is doing:

FarmPolicy.com                                                            http://farmpolicy.com

Rural Advancement Foundation International               http://rafiusa.org

Farm Aid                                                                      http://www.farmaid.orgT

The Equation - Union of Concerned Scientists             http://www.ucsusa.org

National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition                 http://sustainableagriculture.net/

Image thanks to Agrarian Nation                             http://agrariannation.blogspot.com