The Senate will vote on the farm bill this Monday night, an action which will set the course of U.S. food policy for the next decade. The $995 billion bill includes allocations for everything from food stamps and nutrition to conservation efforts, but how is it all broken down?
The largest percentage of the bill, $760.5 billion, is made up of food stamps and nutrition budgets, with the bulk taken up by the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. The Senate bill included amendments to eligibility and cuts spending by $3.9 billion, according to the Washington Post.
Commodity programs, efforts to shield farmers against wild fluctuations in prices, particularly corn, wheat, soybean, cotton, rice, peanut, and dairy producers, accounts for $41.3 billion. The figure is about $17.44 billion lower than the last farm bill and are arguable the largest policy change in the bill and would cut most direct payments to farmers.
Constituting $89 billion in expenditures, the crop insurance allotment in the proposed bill is intended to provide security to farmers in case their crops fail or prices decline. Currently, the federal government pays roughly $7 billion a year to help cover premiums but the new bill would add another $5 billion per year to help cover deductibles in an effort to help lessen the blow of the loss of direct payments.
Conservation efforts will take up $58 billion and include programs to help farmers protect against soil erosion and to use ecologically friendly methods like drop irrigation.
Additionally, $3.6 billion will be allocated to promote U.S. crops overseas and provide food aid abroad $1.1 billion will be devoted to enery programs, including money for biofuels as well as for energy-efficiency programs in rural areas.
The remaining $6.1 billion is allocated to miscellaneous expenditures includes everything from forestry programs to rural development to research and development
Farm Bill Report
