The Farm Bill and Organic Agriculture

I received an email today from the National Organic Coalition requesting that I call my senator regarding restoring funding for organic programs in the new farm bill. Included in the email was a link to a pdf which compares the House and Senate versions of the 2012 bill (which  did not pass), along with the farm bill extension. It also details what the NOC would like to see included in the farm bill and why. Perhaps some of you will find it interesting (or at least informative): http://www.nationalorganiccoalition.org/MembersOnly/January%202013%20Meeting/Farm%20Bill%20side-by-side%202013%20FINAL.pdf

The Farm Bill

In between talking about practical stuff like soil improvement, transplanting, pest control, and what-have-you, we've managed to squeeze in some conversations about the larger political, socio-economic, and cultural issues that affect my farm and what we're able to do here. One significant piece of legislation that governs our current food system is informally known as "The Farm Bill." Officially titled "The Food, Conservation, and Energy Act," this bill sets policies for just about everything you can think of that's even remotely connected to our food system, from conservation and rural development to food assistance, agricultural subsidies, and exports.

Congress reviews and renews the farm bill approximately every five years. Our last farm bill was enacted in June of 2008 and was due to expire last September. Despite the usual amount of legislative wrangling, Congress was unable to pass a 2012 Farm Bill before the 2008 bill expired and since then we've been limping along on extensions of the old bill. The debate has resumed this spring, however, and both the House and Senate Agricultural committees will be voting on their versions of what is now the 2013 Farm Bill this coming week.

For an overview of the farm bill and its reenactment process, check out the Congressional Research Service's What is the Farm Bill? The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition's website is another place that you can find information on the farm bill and its progress (or lack thereof) through Congress. In particular, there are two acts that activists supporting small, local, and organic agriculture are attempting to galvanize support for right now. They are The Beginning Farmer and Rancher Opportunity Act of 2013 H.R. 1727 and S.837 (http://sustainableagriculture.net/our-work/beginning-farmer-bill/) and The Local Farms, Food, and Jobs Act H.R. 1414 and S. 679 (http://sustainableagriculture.net/our-work/local-food-bill/bill-summary-2/).

Here's a link to the NSAC's blog on all things farm bill: http://sustainableagriculture.net/blog. If you'd like to know more about the farm bill and how it impacts you, ask Caroline! She's spent a significant amount of time researching and thinking about this piece of legislation.

Thursday, April 11: First Brunch!

For our first class brunch, we were hosted by Max and Hannah at Max's house (the day before their SIP readings, no less. Bravo!) It was a really lovely morning: sitting around the table together chatting with quiche warm in our bellies, safe from the cold rainy weather.

The quiche was delicious and made entirely from scratch. 

We first talked about course logistics, such as the brunch schedule, farm visits, the hoophouse raising at Green Gardens, and independent projects. Everyone offered their reflections on the first two weeks, and we discussed some form of more formal written reflection moving forward. Finally, we covered a number of conceptual issues: from government subsidy policy and the Farm Bill to acquiring (and keeping) farm land; Amy was kind enough to share her own story about the latter piece. Overall, one emergent theme was definitely how hard we're realizing small farmers work to provide healthy fresh produce to their community and care for the land!