The Farm Bill and Why It Needs Changes

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) administers food assistance programs that help provide food for low to no income families. It is their goal to increase food security and reduce hunger by increasing access to food, a healthful diet, and nutrition education for low-income Americans (Caswell, 2013, para. 1). Some of the current nutrition assistance programs include “the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC)”(Caswell, 2013, para. 1). SNAP will be the primary nutrition assistance program of the paper at hand. No matter how morally good it is to try to help reduce hunger and increase food security within the United States, there are still many questions regarding issues with SNAP. This paper will be discussing why there is such a strong support for the program, how it helps the United States as a whole, problems with the program, and why some people are against SNAP.

Agricultural subsidies is a very complex and controversial economic topic today. It will continue to be a hot topic as government continues it. It is largely debated in the United States as well as in other countries. The reason it is so largely debated is because it literally have an effect on the entire world market. Not to mention that the farm has been booming the last 5 to 10 years. This topic also tends to draw strong opinions in our area in particular due to the large agricultural community in our region. However, even within different states there are many supporters as well as opponents to these government subsidies.

The increase in corn production and acreage that comes from FAIRA is yet another slap in the face to the American farmer. By allowing for increased corn production on top of the already surplus of corn that domestic farms already produce, the government is actively lowering the price of corn on the market, making it less profitable for farms to grow and forcing a lot of farms to close down. In the Great Depression era, the United States government under President Roosevelt took to subsidizing and buying up excess stores of corn to maintain crop prices and prevent the collapse of the farming industry in the United States (Pollan 49). This protects farmers and allows them to make a living while also providing reasonably priced crops to feed the country with. The Nixon administration began the trend of deregulation in the 1970s, preferring a free

The Farm Bill only faced minor changes up until 1996, when a Republican Congress in favor of deregulating the industry redrafted the legislation to allow for more free market engagements. Since then, the debate over deregulating and unsubsidizing farmers has grown immensely.

The Future Farms of America or the FFA is the extracurricular activity that has affected me the most in my high school years and my life thus far. Many people may think that the FFA is only an organization of farms that go around judging cows and grow plants but we are much more than that. Through FFA, I have been able to come out of my comfort zone, take a leadership position, and learn to give back to the community. Meeting new people through all the competition the FFA does and working with members in my chapter caused me to make new friends who slowly help me out of my comfort zone. I even gave a speech in front of my whole about how FFA can cause anyone to step out of their comfort zones leaping out of the zone myself in that moment. As

He started off with saying “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.” The New Deal was meant to try to restore and recover farms and their prosperity. This New Deal was enacted by President Roosevelt within the first three months of his candidacy. The New Deal was the set of federal programs launched by President Franklin D. Roosevelt after taking office in 1933, in response to the calamity of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl, and lasting until the Second World War in 1942. The New Deal was important to society because it provided short term relief and long term structural relief. However, it did not end the Great Depression due to Roosevelt’s political enemies fighting him about it.The next act that was really important was the Taylor Grazing Act of 1934. This act provided regulation of grazing on public land to expand the range of farming and regulate their use. This act permitted 80,000,000 acres of unreserved land that could be used for farming. These permits can also be used for other things such as building fences, reservoirs and other

“This Nation asks for action; and action now” (pg.92). Referring to the New Deal, included was living standards and to prevent future crisis. A goal was to get people back to work. One of the groups that were hit the hardest due to the Great Depression was Farmers. There was an overproduction of products and not enough people consuming or buying their products. Around World War I, prices of crops were very low and the farmers were not making any income, leaving the farmers in trouble when the depression rolled around. With the New Deal, FDR established Agricultural Adjustment Act and prices of crops were raised.

This led to the federal government passing tariffs of farm imports and in 1922 the Capper-Volstead act exempted agricultural cooperatives from antitrust laws. Another act, the Agricultural Credits act of 1923, made it easier for farmer to receive loans from the Federal Farm Board which was established by the Agricultural Marketing Act of 1929. The federal Government also needed to regulate the power of businesses. The Federal Government began to limit the power of business by enforcing antitrust laws created by the Shermans act of 1890. Antitrust enforcement was another area in which Federal government increased in power.

The Labor Unions protect their workers in many different ways people do not know. The Unions make it possible for their members to receive adequate pay better benefits, have left of absences, and have vacation time when you ask and not take the punishment for it. Once you are in the union books it is hard to be fired from it. There is a downside of it, you can be laid off which is not being fired.

The Agricultural Adjustment Act in Great Depression Era in 1933 was a the United States federal law, part of the New Deal, which reduced agricultural production by paying farmers subsidies not to plant on part of their land and to kill off excess livestock. Its purpose was to reduce crop surplus in order to effectively raise the value of crops. This act represented a transformation about government’s role playing in the country. Before the period, the government only taxed import or export; it didn’t touch economy. But the AAA showed that government started to have power to change its economy.

To pursue effective and long-term change, the current system needs to include a legal structure for environmental conservation. Every five to seven years, federal legislation sets the general direction of agricultural policy (American Farmland Trust [AFT], 2012a). The U.S. Farm Bill of 2008 expires on October 1,

The agriculture field is one of the biggest employers, employing over 155 million people in the United States. What do you think about when you hear the word “agriculture?” Many people would say farming, but this is not the most common occupation in this field. Farmers make up a fraction of the agricultural jobs at 900,000, but over 2.1 million people own, rent, and claim farming as a primary source of income. The average farm size has dropped from 460 acres in 1990 to 418 acres in 2007, while the average age of this occupation rose to 57, making this one of the older workforces in the United States.

The Agriculture sector has changed monumentally over the past century in response to vast economic change and technological advancements. Farm subsidies are various forms of payments from the federal government put in place in an effort to stabilize prices, keep farmers in business, and ensure quality of crops. The federal government currently pays $20 billion in cash each year to US farmers and spent an estimated $250 billion between 1995-2005. Presently, a new farm bill is passed every five years

Agriculture was the most important economic activity in America from the founding of Virginia in 1607 to about 1890. Although farming declined rapidly in relative economic importance in the twentieth century, U.S. agriculture continued to be the most efficient and productive in the world. Its success rested on abundant fertile soil, a moderate climate, the ease of private land ownership, growing markets for farm produce at home and abroad, and the application of science and technology to farm operations.

I woke up before my alarm. A distant square of eerie half-twilight from the window held the familiar outline of the locust tree. In the dark, I fumbled to dress without waking my parents. I slipped outside.