Finally Finished With the Farm Bill

摘要

On Friday, February 7, at Michigan State University, President Obama signed the Agricultural Act of 2014, also known as the Farm Bill, marking the end of two or three years (depending on how you want to count it) of intensive negotiations. Congress had passed this bill two days earlier, and it contained a mix of reforms to commodity programs and the food stamp program, as well as addressed several other agricultural issues (Politico, 2014a). You might ask, why should water systems be concerned with a farm bill addressing issues such as farm-raised fish, industrial hemp, food labels, and food stamps? Well, I can think of four reasons for systems to understand how this legislation might affect them (admittedly, indirect impacts compared with other legislation such as the Safe Drinking Water Act [SDWA]).