Let’s Get Down to Business, Farm Bill Business

Unfortunately my blog posts have been a little dry lately because I’ve been pretty busy at work, but that’s good because I have learnt a whole heck of a lot. I think an important thing this job taught me about policy is that you shouldn’t always be interested in JUST the “sexy” political topics. By this I mean that, though gay marriage, gun control, and abortion all very important topics, sometimes they keep us distracted from other pressing political issues, and in fact divide us more than help us when it comes to getting things done in Washington.

For example, I bet most of you haven’t even heard of the Farm Bill, though it is a huge and important piece of legislation that essentially dictates what food looks like in America. Nor did many people hear about how, just last week, food assistance and food stamps were taken out of the farm bill after 40 years of being a main component in keeping both parties accountable. Without food stamps, which is majorly backed by democrats, consensus over farming practices in the new Farm Bill will be hard to come by, creating more stasis in our already slow legislature.

I think it is these kinds of topics that I would like to continue researching and working on because they don’t get the most attention but that almost makes them more important. If they continue to be ignored, the American public could remain oblivious to legislation that is hugely impacting their lives, but its just behind the scenes.

If you want to read more about how the Farm Bill has changed and what the Farm Bill is all about, here are a few links:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=201200468

(a pretty liberal op-ed by Paul Krugman that I find entertaining) http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/15/opinion/krugman-hunger-games-usa.html?ref=farmbillus&_r=0

http://www.npr.org/2012/06/13/154862017/why-the-farm-bills-provisions-will-matter-to-you

And finally a few pictures from exploring: