The Farm Bill: How Energy Concerns, Trade Disputes, and Budget Woes Are Changing a Sector That Impacts Every Facet of the Environment

摘要

About twice every decade, Congress spends a year or so doing heavy maintenance on the machinery of national farm policy. To insiders, the menagerie of price support, trade, insurance, credit, and conservation programs is known simply as "the farm bill." This year is one of those years. The Bush administration has released its farm bill proposal, and the chairmen of both the House and Senate agriculture committees have begun holding hearings, with the goal of having a revised farm bill sent to President Bush's desk by fall. Farmers and rural communities will follow the goings-on closely, but what do they matter to the nation's city dwellers? Food prices and quality may be the most immediately relevant concerns. But the farm bill also has much broader implications for key environmental management issues, including water, soil, and wildlife.