Farm Bill Dispatch #1
The House Committee on Agriculture votes tomorrow (May 23, 2024) on their version of the Farm Bill (titled The Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2024, or FFNSA). This House Committee version emphasizes large-scale, commodity agriculture by increasing commodity subsidies, prioritizing expensive precision agriculture research, and failing to remove barriers for small, medium, and urban producers to accessing USDA support. With regards to nutrition programs, the House bill assumes no future increases to the Thrifty Food Plan (TFP) - the policy on which SNAP payments are based, and which is already assumed by many policy experts to be unrealistically low.
The May 23rd meeting, also referred to as the “markup,” will provide space for House Committee on Agriculture members to introduce amendments and vote on language. Senator Debbie Stabenow, Chair of the Senate agriculture committee, has committed to blocking any legislation that diminishes support for climate and nutrition initiatives; as the House text currently stands, it would be a non-starter in the Senate. USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack called the House version “a crack in the coalition that is absolutely necessary to the passage of a farm bill.”
I am especially interested in any language related to urban agriculture. The House bill includes Section 7207: Urban, indoor, and other emerging agricultural production research, education, and extension initiative under Title VII, Subtitle B; and Section 10004: Office of Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production under Title X, Subtitle A. While the bill increases the responsibility of the Office of Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production, and while it extends the Office’s authorization, it does not increase funding, which has already proven to be inadequate to meet the need.
Resources
Politico’s overview of the political similarities and differences expressed in the House text, published May 20.
The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) released this overview of the House bill on May 20. They also released an overview of the Senate version, available here.
Rural Advancement Foundation International (RAFI) tracks Farm Bill progress on this dedicated webpage.
An overview of various ag organizations’ responses to the Farm Bill from Morning Ag Clips, published May 20. These organizations largely represent commodity and industrial agriculture. The Farm Bureau released an expanded statement of support on May 21.
The House Committee on Agriculture touted quotes in support of their text from established agriculture and forestry institutions, including the American Soybean Association and The Fertilizer Institute.
Here are two great videos for learning more about the Farm Bill in general:
A very snackable, basic overview from FERN
A 1-hour+ overview of the 2018 Farm Bill, including a tutorial on accessing and reading the actual legislation through congress.gov, from RAFI