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Food Localization: Empowering Community Food Systemsthrough The Farm Bill, Brian Albert Fink, Alexandra Oakley Schluntz, Joshua Ulan Galperin

Journal of Food Law & Policy

More diverse and value-driven public engagement has transformed the American food system. This engagement has changed the behavior of industries, consumers, policymakers, and communities. At the heart of this change is the drive among countless individuals and organizations to promote a wider variety of food choices and shape the food system in harmony with their values. Despite the local and sovereign nature of this engagement, federal food and agricultural policies have contributed substantially to this transformation of the American food system. In isolation, many of these policies support discrete programs and individuals. In the aggregate, these policies strengthen different facets …

The End Of The Ramen Diet:Higher Education Students And Snap Benefits, Erika M. Dunyak

Journal of Food Law & Policy

Americans joke that college students have so little money that they subsist on 10 cent packs of ramen. Statistically, college students face much higher rates of food insecurity than the general population and the situation is particularly dire for students of color. Much has been written on this area in recent months and years and many commentators are seeking to denormalize poverty, hunger, and the “freshman 15” on campuses. This article will look to a solution for this hungry and often neglected population. In 2010, the Health, Hunger-Free Kids Act (HHFKA) reauthorized the Federal School Lunch Program. HHFKA contained several …

Strengthening The National Organic Program With Stateorganic Programs, Kelly Damewood

Journal of Food Law & Policy

With an increasing amount of organic imports and steady growth in the organic sector, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Organic Program (NOP) needs additional enforcement resources to oversee a growing and evolving organic marketplace. California has the most efficient, robust organic enforcement in the U.S. because it has a state-administered organic enforcement program, the California State Organic Program (SOP). Based on the costs and benefits of the SOP, additional state organic programs are a viable means to increasing NOP enforcement resources when they are established in states where additional enforcement adds value to the state’s organic sector, organic …

The Snap Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Debate: Restrictingpurchases To Improve Health Outcomes Of Low-Incomeamericans, Nicole E. Negowetti

Journal of Food Law & Policy

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is a highly effective government program that reduces poverty and improves food security for millions of our country’s most vulnerable families. Amid threats of budget cuts to this critical program in the 2018 Farm Bill, advocates representing various interests have banded together in support of this vital program. However, the issue of restricting the purchase of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB) with SNAP benefits has divided anti-hunger and public health advocates. While public health and medical officials support the idea of restrictions on junk food, arguing that SNAP should improve health and nutrition, not contribute to …

Proactive Policies: Building The Farm Bill Of The Futurethrough New Collaborations And Perspectives, Jennifer Zwagerman

Journal of Food Law & Policy

The Farm Bill highlights both one of the great divides in our political process, as well as one of the most beneficial partnerships in politics. Historically, partnerships between rural and urban have been key to successful passage of the Farm Bill. However, calls to divide nutrition support and agricultural support programs continue, and there are increasingly diverse viewpoints regarding agricultural programs. To build the Farm Bill of the future, one that is comprehensive and addresses the needs of not just producers, but ultimately everyone impacted by this Bill, there needs to be a broader coalition of partnerships and voices involved …

Insuring A Future For Small Farms, Mary Beth Miller, D. Lee Miller

Journal of Food Law & Policy

Congress created Whole Farm Revenue Protection (WFRP) in the 2014 Farm Bill to provide small, diversified, and organic operations with an insurance product tailored to their unique needs. The program stands out from other federal crop insurance programs with its blend of features that, inter alia, incentivize risk management through crop/animal diversification, increase premium subsidies for beginning producers, allow organic price elections, and recognize on-farm processing expenses. For the farmers who use it, WFRP provides more than peace of mind in the face of unpredictable weather and prices. It provides a revenue guarantee that opens up critical financing channels otherwise …

A Farm Bill To Help Farmers Weather Climate Change, Peter H. Lehner, Nathan A. Rosenberg

Journal of Food Law & Policy

The Farm Bill has an enormous impact on climate change. Greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture account for almost 10 percent of total U.S. emissions and up to a quarter of all emissions globally. The Farm Bill encourages the use of carbon-intensive agricultural practices and products responsible for these emissions, but nonetheless offers several opportunities to quickly expand carbon sequestration, making it a critical piece of climate legislation. This essay will examine the climate impact of the Farm Bill, focusing on the commodity, conservation, and crop insurance programs. It then proposes politically feasible changes to these programs aimed at minimizing agricultural …

Building Indian Country’S Future Through Food, Agriculture,Infrastructure, And Economic Development In The 2018 Farmbill, Janie Simms Hipp, Colby D. Duren, Erin Parker

Journal of Food Law & Policy

With the potential of approximately $1 trillion in spending over 10 years in rural America, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) programs authorized by the Farm Bill have the ability to build and support thriving economies in rural America. Nowhere is this potential greater, or needed, than in rural Tribal communities. This paper will examine why the unique circumstances of Tribal governments, individual Native American food producers, and Tribal citizens necessitate changes in several USDA programs to serve Indian Country. Further, it will review several policy changes in various titles of the next Farm Bill reauthorization that will help empower …

The Fate Of Industrial Hemp In The 2018 Farm Bill – Will Our Collective Ambivalence Finally Be Resolved?, Marne Coit

Journal of Food Law & Policy

We are at a crossroads in the regulation of industrial hemp, and the 2018 Farm Bill is the time to decide which path we will choose. Congress has an opportunity to clear the path for farmers in the US to participate in this burgeoning market. With an estimated 25,000 uses, industrial hemp is one of those rare crops that has both food and agricultural uses. There is undoubtedly a market for hemp products. The Hemp Industries Association (HIA) estimates that US retail sales of hemp-based products was $688 million in 2016 – up from $573 million in 2015. Under the …

Cooperation Or Compromise? Understanding The Farm Billas Omnibus Legislation, Margaret Sova Mccabe

Journal of Food Law & Policy

The Farm Bill (the Bill) is the principal driver of U.S. food law and policy. Its substance spans the food system including commodities, conservation, trade, nutrition, credit, rural development, forestry, and energy. These substantive titles command much scholarly analysis yet there is comparatively little review of the law-making process that yields the Bill. Given increased focus on Congress’s ability to use its legislative powers effectively, this essay questions whether the Bill’s traditional treatment as omnibus legislation leads to beneficial coherence or too much compromise in food system policy. Interestingly, disparate stakeholders prioritize maintaining the Bill as omnibus legislation. Some scholars …

The Vermonter's Guide To The Farm Bill, Olivia A. Peña

Food Systems Master's Project Reports

The Farm Bill is a comprehensive set of laws and programs that dictates United States policies across the food system. While it may seem that a farm bill is only related to agriculture, this legislation, in reality, includes a broad set of policies on food production, nutrition assistance, rural community development, research, the environment, international trade, and more. Often known as a farm and food bill, the legislation impacts food systems stakeholders, including those who farm, live in a rural community, and even those who eat food—so that is everyone.

Considering the widespread impacts of the Farm Bill, it is …

Antitrust In Food And Farming Under President Trump, Leah Douglas

Journal of Food Law & Policy

Corporate powers are proposing mega mergers in almost every sector of agriculture. This essay explores how President Trump can keep his campaign promises to protect rural voters by strengthening the weakening enforcement of antitrust doctrines; specifically through the Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA) and reinstating the Country of Origin Labeling (CoOL) of meat products.