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The House Appropriations Committee has released a detailed list of budget cuts as part of the deal to avoid a government shutdown, and it looks like agriculture and food programs are getting hit pretty hard. The USDA budget will be cut by $2.6 billion, down from the $108 billion the department had been expected to spend this year.

One of the largest cuts comes from nutrition and food programs — in particular WIC, the program for low-income women and children — since, as we know, rising food prices and a struggling economy mean that hunger is a thing of the past. And a good thing too, because Republicans have seen fit to cut nutrition programs by $500 million from 2010 levels (and $855 million less than what Obama wanted for 2011).

And as sustainable agriculture groups had feared, USDA conservation programs crucial to protecting agriculturally marginal and otherwise ecologically sensitive lands have been severely cut (hat tip to Phil Brasher for the heads up) with the Wetlands Reserve Program, the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, and the Conservation Stewardship Program losing a combined total of $238 million. Ouch. On the other hand, Roger Beachy, the GMO-loving head of the USDA’s research arm, the National Institute for Food and Agriculture, will also have to make do with $126 million less. The commodities programs also got hit with the government’s farm credit insurance fund cut by $433 million — although this line item may be one of those cuts that will only become “real” in the event of huge crop failures and the resulting payouts from the insurance fund.