Abstract
THE FARM BILL IS DECEPTIVELY SIMPLE SHORTHAND for the gargantuan package of legislation about food and farming that the US Congress drafts, debates, and ultimately passes every five to seven years. Each bill, as well as the drafts now under consideration, actually has a formal name—such as the Food and Agriculture Act of 1977; the Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996; the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002; the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008; the Agricultural Act of 2014—but people generally refer to each as simply “the Farm Bill.” Since its origins in 1933 as the Agricultural Adjustment Act, the bill has snowballed into one of the most—if not the most—significant legislative measures affecting land use in the United States.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Notes
- 1.
Renée Johnson, “Previewing a 2018 Farm Bill,” CRS Report R44784, Congressional Research Service, March 15, 2017.
- 2.
Ferd Hoefner, Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, “Farm Bill Primer,” PowerPoint presentation, September 2005.
- 3.
The American farm lobby is politically secure thanks to the overrepresentation of rural America in the Senate and makes slightlymore than $50 million worth of political donations in each election cycle. The food and nutrition programs—with their backing from urban representatives—historically have provided the “critical mass” of political support for the omnibus bill from outside of Farm Belt states.
- 4.
Daren Bakst, Josh Sewell, and Brian Wright, “Addressing Risk in Agriculture” (Washington, DC: Heritage Foundation, September 8, 2016), http://www.heritage.org/agriculture/report/addressing-risk-agriculture.
- 5.
Environmental Working Group, “Commodity Subsidies in the United States Totaled $183.7 Billion from 1995–2016,” accessed May 28, 2018, https://farm.ewg.org/progdetail.php?fips=00000&progcode=totalfarm&page=conc®ionname=theUnitedStates.
- 6.
USDA Office of Budget and Program Analysis, “FY 2016 Budget Summary and Annual Performance Plan,” https://www.obpa.usda.gov/budsum/fy16budsum.pdf.
- 7.
According to the USDA, 1.73 billion tons of soil was lost in 2007, the most recent year for which there is data. However, there are concerns that this number does not represent the true amount of soil loss. Many believe that major crop expansion for ethanol and export markets may be contributing to increased soil loss. “RCA Appraisal 2011: Soil and Water Resources Conservation Act,” United States Department of Agriculture, March 2011, ftp://ftp-fc.sc.egov.usda.gov/NHQ/rca/2011_RCA_Appraisal_Pre_Publication_Copy.pdf, 3-2.
- 8.
Brenda Carlson, email message to Christina Badaracco, June 20, 2017.
- 9.
“Crop Insurance Primer,” Environmental Working Group, accessed March 5, 2018.
- 10.
Renée Johnson, “Previewing a 2018 Farm Bill,” Congressional Research Service, Report R44784, March 15, 2017.
- 11.
Integrated Policy Group, “U.S. Baseline Briefing Book Projections for Agricultural and Biofuel Markets,” University of Missouri Food and Agricultural Research Group,March 2015.
- 12.
John Cawley and Chad Meyerhoefer, “The Medical Care Costs of Obesity: An Instrumental Variables Approach,” Journal of Health Economics 31, no. 1 (2012): 219–30; Eric A. Finkelstein et al., “Annual Medical Spending Attributable to Obesity,” Health Affairs 28, no. 5 (2009), doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.28.5.w822.
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Daniel Imhoff
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Imhoff, D., Badaracco, C. (2019). Who Benefits from the Farm Bill?. In: The Farm Bill. Island Press, Washington, DC. https://doi.org/10.5822/978-1-61091-975-3_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5822/978-1-61091-975-3_3
Publisher Name: Island Press, Washington, DC
Print ISBN: 978-1-64283-030-9
Online ISBN: 978-1-61091-975-3
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)