Farm Policy Already Favors Big Business. Will It Get Worse Under Trump?

"President Obama has compared the farm bill to a Swiss Army knife. Renewed every five years, this complex law includes everything from farm loans to crop insurance, on-farm conservation, and nutrition assistance, like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as the Food Stamp program).

As New York University nutrition professor and author Marion Nestle wrote in Politico earlier this year, the multi-billion dollar piece of legislation “is crucial to practically everything about our food system: what crops get subsidized, how much foods cost, how land is used, and whether low-income Americans have enough to eat.” And, she added, “Whether you are rich or poor, much about your food choices is shaped by what’s in this bill.”

The current farm bill went into effect in 2014. The next one is due to be passed by September 30, 2018. This means that it will likely be negotiated and finalized under the Trump administration and the new Republican-controlled House and Senate. And this will be the first that a farm bill has been written under an entirely Republican federal government since 1954."

Elizabeth Grossman reports for Civil Eats December 19, 2016.