Blog - The Farm Bill's Big Moment

Every five years, Congress lay outs the infrastructure to the food system that determines how we all eat. The Farm Bill, which dishes out subsidies to growers of corn, wheat, soy, cotton and rice at the tune of about $288 billion over five years, is about to hit the Senate floor. Food activists and eaters everywhere have been hoping for a major reform of the Farm Bill this year, but, so far, the changes that Congress has made only skirt around the big issues. But as it goes to the Senate, the debate and amendment process will be held wide open and the opportunity is there for it to be improved.

Michael Pollan, author of “The Omnivore’s Dilemma,” has an essential op-ed piece in yesterday’s New York Times that gets into the details of what’s at stake in the Farm Bill and some of the pending amendments that could bring it in a new direction. Click here to read it.

OpenCongress’s Farm Bill page has many months of aggregated news and blog coverage to give you diverse perspectives on all the issues that the farm bill entails.

And if you are concerned about the illegal immigration legislation that’s been tossed around in Congress this session, watch the farm bill debate closely because votes are expected on several bits and pieces of the failed comprehensive bill.