Farm Bill

Climate insurance, not just crop insurance

Today, the Senate Agriculture Committee will hear arguments to expand the federal crop insurance program in the 2012 Farm Bill. Most likely, proponents of this expansion will point to the devastating crop losses wrought by extreme weather last year. Indemnity payouts for 2011 have so far cost taxpayers a record $10 billion, a number expected to grow as claims are processed.

A Farm Bill idea that helps farmers and consumers

Agriculture, like the rest of the economy, sits in the midst of a marketplace dominated by a handful of big corporations. Farmers and most livestock producers have little to no say in what prices they are paid (regardless of costs), and similarly grocery store prices for consumers are non-negotiable.

WEBINAR: A Risky Proposition: Crop Insurance and Climate Change

In 2011, a year of record floods and droughts, federal spending on crop insurance outpaced commodity crop subsidies. What does it mean to make crop insurance the largest source of federal support for farmers with the growing threat of climate change?

Casting a ballot for local food

Last November, Rep.

EU Commissioner of Agriculture on organic farming and CAP reform

EU Commissioner of Agriculture, Dacian Ciolos, talking about organic agriculture and the Common Agriculture Program reforms.

WEBINAR: Visualizing Health and the Farm Bill

With an eye toward envisioning a Farm Bill that promotes health, the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy's Jennifer Billig will provide an overview of the Farm Bill and its intersections with public health, including the kinds of farming and eating the bill currently supports.

WEBINAR: Farm Bill 101

The Farm Bill always seems to be part of the food and justice conversation, yet few of us feel fluent in the language of this massive piece of legislation. How does it affect our work on the ground? Who has the power to influence it? Why is it so darn hard to understand?

The Story of Broke

Led by the budget-slashing Super Committee, most eyes in Washington are focused on how to cut government programs. Right now, the Agriculture Committee Chairs are in the late stages of a secret negotiation on how much farm and food programs will be cut. With the rising budget deficit, what choice to we have? So, the Beltway story goes.