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What is the Farm Bill, and why should you care?
The Big Picture
The Farm Bill is a crucial piece of legislation that influences everything from crop insurance to nutrition programs, agricultural research, and conservation. It's a comprehensive bill that reappears approximately every five years and can significantly affect food prices, the value of nutritional support, and America's status in international agricultural trade.
Zooming In
The Farm Bill is an omnibus bill, a bill made of multiple other bills, that currently affects 12 titles. The Farm Bill's most significant category of expenditures is the nutrition program section. Second are the crop insurance and commodity programs. While it may seem like these two categories of government programs are not remarkably similar, one feeding people and one providing cash support to farmers, they are placed together in the Farm Bill to ensure that the bill receives support from both parties. Suppose either one of these two programs were split off into individual bills. Partisanship will likely take over in that case, and a necessary program may not be reauthorized or receive appropriations.
We are currently operating on the 2018 Farm Bill. It has been extended without any real modifications to make up for a lack of progress in Congress for a new 2023 Farm Bill.
Let's break down the different parts of the farm bill.
In no particular order we'll start with the Commodities and Crop Insurance Titles. These two titles authorize programs to support farmers to mitigate the effects of market volatility, poor yields, and natural disasters. These programs generally apply to commodity crops like corn, rice, soybeans, wheat, dairy, and sugar. Crop insurance allows producers of various food crops, livestock, and forage crops to have an insurance policy through the Federal Crop Insurance Company to manage risk against loss and market volatility. Commodity programs currently do not apply to specialty crops like peaches and blueberries.
The Horticulture Title authorizes programs to support specialty crops - fruits, vegetables, tree nuts, and nursery products. This title also includes block grants, a stack of cash to support a broad program, to states to support farmer's markets, data and information collection, education on food safety and biotechnology, and organic certification. Finally, there is support for local and urban agriculture programs.
The Nutrition Title authorizes the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, SNAP, also known as food stamps, The Emergency Food Assistance Program, and The Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations. Each program is designed to assist various groups needing assistance with food and nutrition.
The Conservation Title authorizes programs to help farmers be better stewards of the land. This includes the Environmental Quality Incentives Program and the Conservation Stewardship Program. Additionally, this title contains the agricultural land easement program to ensure that agricultural land remains farmland and isn't developed into something different. A corollary is also authorized to ensure that wetlands are maintained as wetlands.
The Trade Title manages how the U.S. handles international food aid, mainly through Food for Peace and the McGovern-Dole program. Additionally, this section helps farmers market their products abroad.
The Credit and Rural Development Titles authorize programs providing loan support and guarantees for farmers/ranchers looking to buy land, equipment/machinery. There are also programs to support the rural communities surrounding farms and ranches. These include rural broadband deployment, distance learning, telehealth, and off-grid energy production and storage.
The Research Title is an undervalued aspect of the Farm Bill. This title supports cooperative extension and education programs. The Cooperative Extension Service is how the federal government helps spread new scientific knowledge with practical farmers. It even works for home gardeners, too. This title also helps develop conventional and organic farming methods to increase yield, mitigate environmental impacts, produce more with less input, improve nutritional content, and increase disease and pest resistance.
The Forestry and Energy Titles authorize funding for the US Forest Service to manage U.S. forest lands. This includes managing the biomas (plant material) on forest floors and wildfires. For energy, there is support for programs to increase the development of biofuels like sustainable aviation fuel or biodiesel and bio-based products like the plant-based plastics that make up your Coke bottle. In addition, there is support for the growth of farm and community renewable energy systems.
Lastly, there is the Miscellaneous Title, which is where everything else goes. While a lot of agriculture policy revolves around row and plant-based crops, the miscellaneous title includes most livestock programs, including disease prevention, veterinary medicine, and marketing programs for various animals. The most famous provision of the 2018 Farm Bill was in the miscellaneous titles to remove industrial/agricultural hemp from the Controlled Substances Act. This title also includes support for socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers, created a new support category for military veteran farmers and ranchers, and created a new office within USDA to coordinate with Native American Tribes.
Data Snapshot
Farm Bill Titles with Mandatory Baseline
(billions of dollars, 10-year projected outlays, FY2025-FY2034)
Source: Created by CRS using the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) June 2024 baseline for the five largest titles and amounts indicated in law for programs in other titles.
Titles in Recent Farm Bills
Title I, Commodities
Title II, Conservation
Title III, Trade
Title IV, Nutrition
Title V, Credit
Title VI, Rural Development
Title VII, Research, Extension, and Related Matters
Title VIII, Forestry
Title IX, Energy
Title X, Horticulture
Title XI, Crop Insurance
Title XII, Miscellaneous
Independent Lens
Independents should care about the farm bill for several reasons. First and foremost, the policies in the farm bill aim to ensure domestic agricultural sufficiency. A country that cannot feed itself is in a precarious position, making agriculture a national security issue.
Secondly, there is significant opportunity to reform many of these programs to help alleviate some of the pressure on the national debt and deficit. It is valuable to discuss how protectionist the U.S. should be regarding certain crops, such as sugar and dairy, how much insurance should be subsidized, and whether other commodity food crops should be diverted to non-food uses. All of these policy questions directly impact the cost of food as well as the national debt and deficit.
The crops we subsidize – through insurance, market lending programs, and direct cash payments - are the ones that get cultivated. Additionally, research funding also contributes to improving the amount of food produced per acre. Without research support, it will take considerably longer to enhance productivity per acre.
Finally, it's important to note that the Farm Bill influences housing, as there are USDA-backed loans for homes in rural areas, making it easier for first-time homebuyers and novice farmers or ranchers to establish a home in these regions.
Additional Resources
Congressional Research Service: What Is the Farm Bill?, Next Farm Bill Primer Series, Farm Bill Primer: Background and Status, Expiration of the 2018 Farm Bill and Extension for 2024
