The Farm Bill is a massive omnibus bill which sets policy and funding levels for a wide range of programs under the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
In 1933, the first program sought to help farmers during the Great Depression by paying them subsidies to reduce production of certain commercial crops, with the aim of raising crop prices in general. Over time many more issues have been recognized, so the scope has expanded to include not only production agriculture, but also soil conservation, crop insurance, wetland and forest protections, nutrition assistance and more, including the first steps toward addressing climate change.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s five-year review and re-authorization is underway right now. Given the complexity of the bill, it is tempting to sit back and simply trust that our congressional representatives will work for a package which addresses Vermont’s needs and opportunities. The stakes are high — the 2018 Farm Bill was authorized with a budget of $867.2 billion.
Fortunately, many public-interest groups work to understand and inform both the public and lawmakers about the ramifications of these policy and funding decisions from the perspective of impacts on the well-being and resilience of people, communities and the ecological systems we depend on. Their lobbying on our behalf provides an alternative to the entrenched, but false, concept that what’s good for large corporations is good for everyone.
A core component, which will likely continue. is a competitive grants program which seeks to advance science and its application in six areas:
Agriculture economics and rural communities
- Agriculture systems and technology
- Animal health and production and animal products
- Bio-energy, natural resources and environment
- Food safety, nutrition and health
- Plant health, production and plant products.That sounds reasonably good, until you evaluate what has for many years been promoted and what has been suppressed in those categories.
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