With the presidential election coming up, I'm struck by how little I know about official health policy in the US. Take the Farm Bill, which, many experts have noted, should rightly be called the Food Bill for the manifold ways it affects the food available to us.
Very few people (save for a few legislators from farm-heavy states) know much about the Farm Bill. But we should, say the pros. Prominent food writer and journalist, Michael Pollan, writes in the forward to Daniel Imhoff's Farm Bill primer, Food Fight: The Citizen's Guide to the Food and Farm Bill: "Nothing could do more to reform America's food system, and by doing so, improve the condition of America's environment and public health, than if the rest of us were to weigh in [on the Farm Bill]."
So I've decided it's about time to do my part and learn about the Farm Bill -- and drag you along for the ride. Here's the thing, though: I fear learning about the Farm Bill is going to be a wonky drag. So I think we should create some rules. First, we should break our lesson up into installments. Next, we should keep the installments short. And, finally, we should put the information we talk about in lists (who doesn't love lists? They're cute and friendly, and they make the information contained in them seem real important-like. Ahem.).
Let's get started with some facts about what the Farm Bill is (I'm summarizing this info from Food Fight):
1. The Farm Bill dates back to the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933, and it has been renewed every five to seven years since.
2. It is, perhaps, the single most significant piece of legislation effecting land use in the United States.
3. It addresses many issues, but the two biggest are: (1) food stamps and nutrition programs and (2) crop subsidies.
4. The other issues it addresses are many -- and they vary widely, from trade policy to foreign aid to forestry (to name only a very few). And Congress prefers it that way because the more they stuff into one single bill, the more incomprehensible the bill becomes -- and the less apt the general public is to understand, and try to influence, the bill. (How shameless! I feel so used!)
5. The Farm Bill's original goals were noble indeed: they sought to provide a safety net for a fickle profession (farming) and for a vulnerable public (impoverished children and adults who did not otherwise have access to enough calories to sustain themselves). But...
6. Something happened along the way and now, instead of bolstering the health of family farms and meeting the nutritional needs of underprivileged children, the Farm Bill subsidizes the richest 5 percent of corporate farms and promotes the creation of surplus commodity crops, which, more often than not, get turned into cheap, processed foods that contribute to our collective, national weight gain and ill-health.
Okay, that's a good start. Tune in for our next exciting installment: Why the Farm Bill matters. (I know you're holding your breath in anticipation!!)
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