Little City Gardens

The Farm Bill is being debated this week in Congress.  The Farm bill is a huge package of legislation….”a 700-page hodgepodge of laws, regulations, guidelines and payouts covering all manners of U.S. agriculture, conservation and nutrition programs”. -according to Dan Imhoff the author of “Food Fight”.  U.S. ag policy, specifically subsidies and insurance for overproduction of commodity crops, also ends up making a huge impact on agricultural practices and food systems around the world.  I once heard Daniel Imhoff speak at a Food Justice Conference.  I remember him saying that the Farm Bill is a tangled confusing string that seemed only to relate to the farmers of America  (who make up less than one percent of the U.S. population) but that when you tug the string of the Farm Bill it becomes clear that it is attached directly or indirectly to almost every political, economic, health social and environmental issue in the world.   Land-use, air and water pollution, ecosystem management, energy use, food security and insecurity, food prices in the U.S. and abroad, immigration trends,  public health, rural economy,  animal treatment, biological patents and GMO technology and urban farming to name a few.  So its a really good time to weigh in on a really influential package of legislation!

photo from the Library of Congress