Farm Bill Links
Jan. 28th, 2014 11:06 amA new farm bill was announced yesterday and is expected to pass soon. Here are some news articles I've been reading about it.
New York Times
NPR
AgWeek
Farm Futures
Enviromental Working Group
Looks like SNAP (aka food stamps)will be cut, but not nearly as much as some congress people wanted. (I'm very angry about this.)
Country of origin labeling (COOL) laws for meat will remain.
Direct payments to farmers will end, to be replace with insurance subsidies. (This mostly just moving the money around, and a big win for insurance companies. At least conservation compliance is required for insurance.)
It's not completely clear to me what is happening to conservation programs, but it appears they are being cut. They have been "streamlined" by combining 23 programs into 13 and the overall conservation budget has been reduced by $6 billion.
New York Times
NPR
AgWeek
Farm Futures
Enviromental Working Group
Looks like SNAP (aka food stamps)will be cut, but not nearly as much as some congress people wanted. (I'm very angry about this.)
Country of origin labeling (COOL) laws for meat will remain.
Direct payments to farmers will end, to be replace with insurance subsidies. (This mostly just moving the money around, and a big win for insurance companies. At least conservation compliance is required for insurance.)
It's not completely clear to me what is happening to conservation programs, but it appears they are being cut. They have been "streamlined" by combining 23 programs into 13 and the overall conservation budget has been reduced by $6 billion.