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Farm Bill Pros And Cons

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The United States Farm Bill is an omnibus piece of legislation passed every few years that includes provisions for crop insurance, conservation, food and nutrition assistance, and other agriculture programs. The most recent farm bill was passed in February 2014, after two years of debate in the House of Representatives and the Senate (Hamilton, 2014). The topic of the Farm Bill is largely debated in Congress because of the vast impact it has on our community. It impacts everyone from a family farmer to an industrial family. It becomes difficult to find a balance between all of these measures that everyone can agree on and remains effective for both sides. The US Farm Bill inadequately supports local farmers by putting emphasis on the consumer …show more content…

Of the two million farms in the United States, 1,828,946 of them are family or individual farms, 87% of the total farms in the nation (2014, n.p.). The average size of a farm was 434 acres. However, most farms were between 50 to 179 acres (2014, n.p.). Roughly half of these farms are operated by someone whose primary occupation is farming, the other half have other primary occupations outside of their farming operation. The average amount of government payments per farm in the United States is 9,925 dollars (2014, n.p.). This is only a slight increase from the national average in 2007, which was 9,523 dollars per farm (2014, n.p.). The average total income from farm-related sources before taxes and expenses is only 22,840 dollars per farm, a 7,707 dollar increase from 2007 (2014, n.p.). The graph below, from the Agricultural Economics Department at the University of Nebraska, represents the government payments to net farm income ratios from years prior to the 2007 Farm Bill.
The amount of individuals applying to and being granted the use of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) has increased immensely in previous years. This is a new era of welfare recipients who misuse the program rather than simply as a nutrition supplement during a rough time. “The cost of food stamps has grown to almost eighty percent of the cost of the farm bill (Hamilton, 2014).” With welfare recipients increasing 80% since the recession in 2008, there is plenty of discussion regarding the separation of farm and nutrition in the US Farm Bill (Hamilton,

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