In June, the most recent Farm Bill finally became law. Here’s a short rundown of the result. For a full report, check out the pdf format.

About two-thirds of Farm Bill spending goes towards nutrition programs, the federal safety net for lower-income families that includes food stamps and the school lunch program.

The other major piece of the Farm Bill is the commodity title, which establishes federal government payment programs for specific crops.  For the most part, the 2008 Farm Bill renews existing policy that has encouraged the overproduction of these crops. These government payments serve as corporate welfare for the big companies that buy their raw materials cheap, with the government making up the difference to farmers.  In other words, Congress simply extended old policies and let agribusiness continue to call the shots.

read our recent Factsheet
Click here to read a more detailed version of the 2008 Farm Bill’s results. For more background on how the Farm Bill works, you can read our report, The Farm Bill: Food Policy in an Era of Corporate Powe

But while the commodity programs remained the same, there are some areas of the bill that improved:

Country of Origin Labeling
The Farm Bill includes instructions for the USDA to write the rules for mandatory country-of-origin labeling for meat and produce, due to go into effect in October 2008.  The new bill clears up many of the issues that have been disputed by industry, including how to label mixed products like ground beef.

 
Organic Food
Among other things, the organic community gained new funding for research and data collection on organic production and to help beginning organic farmers with the cost of organic certification.

Competitive Livestock Markets
The final bill included several reforms that put independent livestock producers on a more even footing with the giant meatpackers and processors that dominate the industry. The bill prohibits several of the most abusive contract practices.

 
Local Food Systems
The Farm Bill ends the ban on interstate shipment of state-inspected meat, which has been an impediment to small farmers getting their meat into big city markets that are close by, but in a different state. It also includes funding for several important local food programs, including farmers’ market vouchers for low-income seniors and funding for schools in low-income areas to purchase fresh produce.

The bill includes funding to allow more than 100 million acres to be enrolled in a federal land conservation program.  And payments made under a different program, called the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, were capped, allowing huge factory farms to receive less of the money.

 
So what’s next? We have to watch USDA and Congress as they write the rules and budgets for all of the new programs in this bill.  And we have to make sure that our elected officials know that we have lots of ideas about what should be in the next Farm Bill. Stay tuned for ways to get involved.

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