Farm Bill 2012
The Farm Bill is a huge piece of legislation that literally shapes the American farm and food landscape.
In This Series
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Will this Farm Bill do enough for young farmers?
By the time the next Farm Bill expires in five years, 125,000 American farmers will have retired. This fact may well be the biggest threat to national food security, but you wouldn’t know it if you’ve been following this year’s Farm Bill hearings.
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Would you like a bad farm bill — or a terrible one?
For food reformers, little has changed since the "Secret Farm Bill" process was exposed to the public last fall. But now the GOP-led House has turned their attention to food stamps and it remains to be seen whether Congress can agree on a bill in time.
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Farm Bill 2012: ‘It’s a mess, but it’s our mess’
Daniel Imhoff, the man who literally wrote the book on food policy, talks about democracy, debate, and why we should feel thankful for the farm bill, even in depressing years like this one.
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Farm bill fail: Is food policy headed back to the future?
If Congress can't pass a new farm bill by September, farm policy will default to a 1949 version of the bill that was constructed for a very different America.
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Despite the headlines, Big Ag subsidies aren’t going anywhere
Is crop insurance just another way to say "handouts for Big Ag"? Or is it an excuse to send taxpayer dollars to overseas insurance giants? Our sources say it's both.
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Corn, corn everywhere — and not a drop to eat
Record-high crop prices have all the big farms in the Midwest planting up a storm while farm state politicians plan to trim conservation programs. Put them together and what do you get? A Big Ag bubble.
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Farm Bill update: Fewer secrets, more hard work
The Secret Farm Bill process is long over and the Senate Ag Committee has scheduled its first round of Farm Bill hearings. So where should the sustainable food community put its attention now?
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Why the 2012 Farm Bill is a climate bill
The Environmental Working Group says climate change activists should be concerned about proposed cuts to farm bill conservation programs, which would be the carbon-emissions equivalent of adding 2 million cars a year to America's roads.
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Can the 2012 Farm Bill protect the Ogallala Aquifer?
Kansas wheat.Photo: Brian McGuirkMy father farmed in Kansas and envied those lucky farmers in the wetter states to the east of us, who could grow 200-bushel corn and other lucrative crops like soy beans and sugar beets. He had to satisfy himself with wheat, a drought-tolerant crop first brought to the States from a place […]
