Keeping It Local: The Farm Bill, What's In It and Why We Care

The video is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEXzfU4XMnA

The current Farm Bill expired on September 30. The final decision about whether to reauthorize the bill or not will have a significant impact on our local community, not only for consumers through its food assistance program but 

for farmers who depend on its crop insurance, commodity subsidies, and rural development funding. Given the prospect of the first trillion-dollar Farm Bill in U.S. history, its reauthorization is expected to be highly contentious.

Many local citizens, including our always well-informed League members, feel uninformed and uneducated about the Farm Bill and its full impact and importance to our community.  

We are fortunate to have a local, highly sought, national expert on the Farm Bill join us for this month’s Keeping It Local program. Jonathan Coppess, associate professor of Agricultural Policy and Law at the University of Illinois and director of the Gardner Agriculture Policy Program, will discuss the history and key components of the Farm Bill, how coalition-building across party lines has provided strength, and what is at stake if the bill is diminished or broken apart. 

Jonathan is the author of The Fault Lines of Farm Policy: A Legislative and Political History of the Farm Bill. He previously served as Chief Counsel for the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry and Administrator of the USDA Farm Service Agency. Jonathan earned his Juris Doctor from George Washington University Law School. ​

This program is part of LWVCC’s Keeping It Local series, featuring topics of interest with a local or regional presenter, followed by discussion.