| The farm bill, as you likely know, is an enormous piece of legislation passed every five or so years that governs a lot of our food system. This year, as the Supercommittee deadline looms, lawmakers are trying to pass a "secret farm bill" through that process. That is, they are trying to bypass the year of hearings and deliberation that normally proceeds a farm bill and instead cram an entire farm bill into the Supercommittee budget.
This is scary, unnerving, and antidemocratic. However, I feel that I should point out that it's not as if we were going to get an awesome farm bill even if they didn't do this. Don't get me wrong: I oppose the Secret Farm Bill. I oppose the entire Supercommittee and the budget cutting B.S. I would like to see us INCREASE spending to get the economy back on track, and then once the tax base has increased and entitlement spending is down, THEN address the deficit. I'd like to see us raise money by taxing millionaires and billionaires and corporations and save money by ending our wars and cutting back on our military spending. I think we can still be safe even if we don't spend more than every other country in the world combined on our military.
That said, the farm bill will likely suck no matter what. I'm getting my way on roughly none of my wishes. They are cutting the budget, ridiculously, and continuing down the same path they are on, one way or another, as far as agriculture goes. What we in the local food movement can hope for is a few pennies - very significant pennies, as far as we're concerned - via grant programs and such for young and beginning farmers, local food, organics, etc. A $5 million program here or there would do us a lot of good. But that's nothing compared to the billions in the entire farm bill that props up the system we oppose. What I fear for in the Secret Farm Bill is that, without time to lobby, we won't even get that. |
