This week the House and Senate Agriculture Committees are working on the 2013 Farm Bill!
Things are really picking up with the new Farm Bill. After the painful slowness of last year, it’s surprising to see Congress actually building real momentum into writing the new five-year bill. Here is the latest news from Washington: Last week, the House and Senate Agriculture Committees released draft farm bills. Now, members of the […]
Get the inside scoop on the Farm Bill with farmbillprimer.org
Congressional voting records. Appropriation amounts. More acronyms than you can shake a scuffle hoe at. Starting to feel overwhelmed already by the massive amount of data surrounding the Farm Bill? Sometimes when we’re feeling swamped, we turn to FarmBillPrimer.org, a great resource for data, maps, and analysis. This week we scored an interview with Marjorie Roswell, […]
Act now for beginning farmers – support the Opportunity Act!
It’s not too late to speak up for beginning farmers! Last month, we announced that Republicans and Democrats in both houses of Congress introduced a new bill to give young and beginning farmers the support they deserve. Despite all the partisan bickering in Washington these days, the bill, called the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Opportunity […]
Young Farmers Take to Washington!
The halls of Congress heard ringing of cowboy boots and the stomping of mud-stained muck boots this past week as farmers from across the country descended on our nation’s capitol. On Monday and Tuesday, the Young Farmers Coalition brought five beginning farmers from California, South Dakota, Colorado, and New York to Washington, DC to meet […]
Action Alert – Fund Beginning Farmer Programs in the new C.R.
Hey all-We want to give out a huge Thank You! to the intrepid young farmers who came from the four corners of the country to speak with Senators and Representatives earlier this week about the importance of beginning farmer programs in the USDA budget. (Stay tuned to the blog for a reportback on that adventure […]
A Brief History of the 2012 Farm Bill
We get a lot of questions about exactly what went down with the Farm Bill last year. (Honestly, it was head-spinning confusion even for seasoned policy experts.) To help shed a little light, here’s a play-by-play recap: For starters, what is the Farm Bill and how does it affect me? The Farm Bill is an […]
For Better or Worse, a Farm Bill – A Quick Wrap-up
At long last, the Farm Bill race of 2012 is over. The past week has been a flurry of activity in Congress, as the looming fiscal cliff spurred Washington to action. Despite the public attention on the Farm Bill over the past year, the conclusion to the long drama came not in a fiery showdown […]
On New Years Day, an End to the 2012 Farm Bill Season
Well, the Farm Bill race of 2012 is over, although the new bill is only a nine-month extension tacked onto the far larger fiscal cliff bill. The final vote last night in the house was 257-167, with support from a large majority of Democrats and 36% support from Republicans. In the end, the landslide of […]
A Sharp Twist in Farm Bill 2012/2013
The great Farm Bill saga of 2012/2013 took a major turn for the worse last night as the Senate passed a new Farm Bill extension. In a rapid about-face, the Senate passed a nine-month Farm Bill extension that continues prominently wasteful policies from the last bill and ignores a slew of conservation and beginning farmer […]
Stabenow and Cantor Express Support for a Farm Bill this Fall
Last week, Senator Debbie Stabenow, head of the US Senate Agriculture Committee, and House Majority Leader Rep. Eric Cantor both firmly expressed that a Farm Bill would be passed in the lame-duck session after the election. During a campaign stop on Boise, ID, Cantor said that he had delayed action before the recess, which began […]