brown livestock cows on a farm field next to a barbed wire fence

The House’s Draft 2018 Farm Bill Fails Farmers and Everyone Else

On Thursday, House Agriculture Committee Chairman Mike Conaway introduced a draft Farm Bill that runs counter to what farmers and eaters across the country need. Among other disappointments, the bill would eliminate the country's largest conservation program, allow concentrated animal feeding operations to claim limited conservation dollars, place no meaningful limitations on subsidy payments to large farms, and remove all mandatory funding for Energy Title programs.

April 16, 2018 | Source: Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy | by

On Thursday, House Agriculture Committee Chairman Mike Conaway (R-TX) introduced a draft Farm Bill that runs counter to what farmers and eaters across the country need. Among other disappointments, the bill would eliminate the country’s largest conservation program, allow concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) to claim limited conservation dollars, place no meaningful limitations on subsidy payments to large farms, and remove all mandatory funding for Energy Title programs. The proposed nutrition title is just as egregious; the bill would impose more stringent work requirements for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients, which would likely reduce SNAP enrollment by about a million recipients. 

“This draft Farm Bill insults all the work farmers and advocates have been undertaking to advance sustainable agriculture. Funding is proposed to be cut or completely eliminated for many programs that small farmers, organic farmers, and business owners need to thrive,” said Tara Ritter, Senior Program Associate at IATP.