As I mentioned at the end of my prior post, there is very real cause for concern for America's small farmers right now. It isn't all bad news, because a lot of amazing people are advocating at federal, state and local levels to ease the burdens of farm families. Ag-vocacy (yes, it is a real thing) is a growing grassroots movement that is making good use of social media. But there is a long way to go - unfortunately, it is still very difficult in this country to make a living producing real food on a scale that's manageable for one family.
Farmers' livelihoods are affected by many kinds of laws (food safety, environmental, immigration, education) made at every level of government. I'll try not to get overly political, because that's not the point of this blog. But how these laws are framed - who gets over- or under-regulated, who gets the money, who gets the laws in their favor - they all affect American industry in a very big way. And of course, those decisions are very partisan, because in this country right now, every decision is very partisan.
The top level of farmers' "rules to live by" comes courtesy of the federal Farm Bill. It is an omnibus bill, which basically means it's a bunch of laws rolled into one bill that all get passed together, and it happens every 5 years. State and local laws affect farmers, too - in your daily life, you're far more likely to encounter a city, county or state mandate than a federal one - but the tone of the big guy trickles down to the little guys. Even if economics don't always trickle down, other stuff does.
Luckily for us, Oklahoma's Department of Agriculture has a very good ag-vocate in Sec. of Ag. Jim Reese. I've had the pleasure of meeting him twice - the second time at the state capitol this week - and he is very engaged with the needs of small farmers in this state. He even wants to come to our Salsa Party in September!
The current federal farm bill, the Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008, expires in September of this year. The prior farm bill expired in 2007 and it took 8 months of wrangling to pass it. Considering the political environment in this country right now, we won't see the next version until the dust settles after the election, because nobody's touching energy during a lame duck session.
And honestly, that's about as much as I know about the Farm Bill. I am not a policy expert, so I couldn't tell you what the thing says, or what any of it means. But as a news junkie, I CAN tell you that it means the ag sector is going to be in flux for awhile. I can also tell you that as far as what's going to be in the next Farm Bill, which will likely come out sometime in mid-to-late 2013, all bets are off. I'm sure there are analysts who have a pretty good idea of what it will look like, but until after the election, we won't know who's voting on it.
I predict that next summer, every pundit in this country will be solemnly spouting polls and digestible factoids about food and energy policy. With absolutely nothing electoral to talk about, unless something crazy happens, we'll hear about the Farm Bill. Because it really does affect a lot, considering that you're talking about little topics like Food, Conservation and Energy.
The question is - how far can the ag-vocates get in spreading information about the need for the Farm Bill to support small farmers in America? Or will the huge corporations like Syngenta and Monsanto use their huge lobbying power to write the bill in their favor, sacrificing programs like "Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food" to pay for their subsidies?
I guess you could say I'm a newly minted ag-vocate.
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