Legislating Agriculture

The farm bill was first created during the Great Depression era because of how farmers were struggling with excess crops, and the low prices being created by this excess. The farm bill was made to help cover farmers to make sure they were able to supply enough food for all. This bill largely helped farmers by making sure that the government would help buy excess grains from farmers just in case there were unforeseen accidents in the future like bad weather. 

Nowadays, the farm bill is now used to help distribute money to food stamps, child nutrition, commodity programs, conservation, crops insurance, and other places. Funds are distributed by a small 6.2% going to crop insurance, while the highest amount 51.9% goes to food stamps. While only a small amount goes to crops insurance, it can be seen that food stamps takes first priority. 

It can be thought that crop insurance would be top priority but this is not the case. To put most of the funds toward this area can be quite risky and not always worth the payoff. The USDA claims that, "This Farm Bill strengthens crop insurance by providing more risk management options for farmers and ranchers and by making crop insurance more affordable for beginning farmers. It continues the growth of the crop insurance program, and provides avenues to expand farm safety net options for organic producers and specialty crop producers" (USDA). This statement refers back to how the government covers farmers from natural disasters that may occur such as extreme weather conditions. They want to help farmers succeed by giving them a affordable insurance for their crops. The USDA explains, “The amount of insurance available to a farmer is based on the farmer's average historical yields. In the past, a year of particularly low yields that occurred due to severe weather beyond the farmer's control would reduce the amount of insurance available to the farmer in future years” (USDA). It can be inferred that although the farm bill does what it can to insure for good crops, it does not want to distribute most of its funds to this area because of natural disasters that can occur. These disasters can not always be predicted, and therefore would be risky for the farm bill to devote all of its funds to.

The Farm Bill is very necessary for our lives. It helps devote a spot where government funds go to in order to help our communities be fed properly, and helps insure the farmers to grow the crops we need. The Farm Bill proves to be beneficial for our way of life. 

Work Cited:

"Farm Bill 2014." Farm Bill 2014. Web. 20 Mar. 2016. <http://www.rma.usda.gov/news/currentissues/farmbill/>.