How Farm Policy Affects Us All

(Page 5 of 5)

June/July 2007, Issue 222
By Tom Philpott 
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MOVING FORWARD

RELATED CONTENT

Given the depth of these dysfunctions, the Bush administration’s agenda for the 2007 farm bill is weak medicine indeed. It offers nothing substantial to remedy agriculture’s structural supply/demand imbalance, nor does it seriously address the gaping public health and environmental damage wrought by the food production system. The Bush proposal, for all its claims of fiscal restraint, would still cost taxpayers $87.8 billion over the next five years, USDA chief Mike Johanns acknowledged.

Rather than paying out cash directly to farmers, what if we invested it in rebuilding local food infrastructure, helping farmers transition to organic production, and research into increasing the productivity of sustainable agriculture?

The time has come to reject old models and demand policies that align the needs of farmers with those of consumers (including those with low incomes), and with public health and environmental protection.

— Tom Philpott regularly writes about the eco-politics of food. Read his review of an informative new book about farm policy, Food Fight: The Citizen’s Guide to a Food and Farm Bill.

RESOURCES

Dig further into the development of the 2007 farm bill: www.farmpolicy.com 

Read “Seeking Balance,” an outline for a new direction in U.S. farm policy: www.farmandfoodproject.org  

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  • Sam 6/21/2007 7:26:19 PM

    If you want a better perspective of the damage the Food/Farm Bill
    causes, read "FoodFight - A Citizen's Guide to a Food and Farm
    Bill" by Dan Imhoff

  • T. 6/1/2007 10:30:29 AM

    I really like the magazine and plan to continue to subscribe,
    however after reading Tom Philpott's article on Farm Policy I
    didn't know whether to laugh of throw up over the absurdity and one
    sidedness of the comments. He spent the entire article damning farm
    policies for the past 70 years and offers only one small paragraph
    of not very clear solutions. You can do better than that.

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