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Last week, we wrote about the likelihood that the $300 billion 2012 Farm Bill would take shape weeks before 2012 even begins, in the form of a dashed-off bill swept into the larger “super committee”-driven deficit-cutting process. As this week starts, that troubling prognosis remains.

In fact, last week, several congressional aides told agriculture trade publication Agweek that lawmakers planned to “work through the weekend to try to complete a Farm Bill proposal for the super committee in charge of deficit reduction by November 1.” But so far, nothing decisive has been announced.

This might explain why the food and farming advocacy site Food Democracy Now sent out an email this morning with the subject line “24 hours to stop the Secret Farm Bill.” The site asked subscribers to call a short list of senators and congressmen and tell them to say “‘No’ to the Secret Farm Bill,” because “rushing this vital piece of legislation behind closed doors is unfair and undemocratic.”

Sustainable food advocates have been struggling to adjust to this new reality. As the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) described it last week:

 No hearings, no amendments, no debate. Under this scenario, we may have very little idea about what is in the Farm Bill until after it has passed … It’s hard to overstate how messed up this is. We now have an environment where highly paid lobbyists thrive and citizen’s voices, along with real reforms, evaporate.