farm-subsidies

The massive piece of legislation that is the farm bill comes with a hefty price tag — the draft just proposed by the Senate would cost a whopping $970 billion over 10 years. All of this money funds four programs — nutrition, conservation, farm commodity support and crop insurance — but where and how it's…

During today’s Iowa caucuses, Republican candidates will vie for top positions in the polls hoping to emerge as a leading candidate for a Presidential nomination from their party. Iowans will take into account each candidate’s stance on major issues, including one very close to the hearts of farmers — farm subsidies. The New Year brings…

Would you spend 12 hours in one room talking about the behemoth piece of legislation that is the U.S. farm bill? Two weekends ago, that’s exactly what 120 designers, food policy advocates, developers and marketing experts signed up to do when they joined creative forces to “hack” the farm bill. During the hackathon, organized by…

Today the four principals of the House and Senate Agriculture Committees are expected to submit a proposal to the Deficit Reduction Super Committee that will include $23 billion in cuts to the farm bill. By going straight to the Super Committee, the Agriculture Committee leaders are bypassing the established legislative process for creating a new…

The upcoming re-evaluation of the 2008 farm bill is creating heated debate among politicans. Direct payments have come under particular scrutiny, with supporters saying they are a crucial safety net for farmers and critics maintaining that they are an unecessary expense at a time when massive federal budget cuts are needed. The federal budget is…

Farm bill issues, and threatened budget cuts, are sure to be a much discussed subject in the 2012 Presidential and Congressional elections. Before the arguments for or against each component of the bill start to appear all over your favorite website or newspaper, let's take a closer look at what the farm bill is all…

Over at BrewYour Own: The how-to homebrew beer magazine the editors are tasting beer made with coffee bean that have been previously, um, digested and excreted by civets. It's not only corn for ethanol that's driving up global food prices. The New York Times looks at the growing demand for cassava. The Washington Post advocates…