Farm bill not evil, what?

As a planet first kind of guy, I’ve always had my suspicions about the Farm Bill. I figured that Congress was using the bill as a tool to hand out transfer payments which disproportionately favored the lobbying powerhouses. I thought factory farms were making out like bandits at the expense of everyone else.

The truth is, that’s not really the case. When the 2008 farm bill expires next September, it will have doled out only 15 percent of its total appropriations to support growers of select commodities, and less than 1 percent on livestock or poultry (of which may be morally dubious).

The big ticket item of the 2008 farm bill, was the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), or Food Stamps, which will have consumed around 67 percent of the total appropriations included in the bill.

Despite the stigma and the harsh criticism about the Farm Bill propping up the undesirables of agriculture, appropriations numbers seem to portray a far less dramatic picture. If you’re interested in the numbers, check out this pdf (scroll to page 6).

The plight of the next farm bill is underway as of Friday and it may take about two weeks according to Environmental Blog Ecocentric.  The upcoming farm bill will offer $23 billion less in appropriations as the federal government tightens it belt to save $1.2 trillion over the next 10 years.