Listed below are some useful links from our partners that relate to the work of HFHP. If you are looking for a specific resource, please use the search bar to the right.
Agriculture Reform, Food and Jobs Act of 2012
United States Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition & Forestry
Every five years, Congress passes a bundle of legislation, commonly called the “Farm Bill” that sets national agriculture, nutrition, conservation, and forestry policy. The last Farm Bill was passed in 2008, and expires in 2012.
The Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry passed the bill by a vote of 16-5.
Click here to read the Summary, Committee Print, Manager’s Amendment, Markup and Amendments on the Senate Agriculture Committee’s website.
IATP Farm Bill Web Page
Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
For the past 75 years, ever since the New Deal programs of the Roosevelt administration, federal policy makers have taken an active role in agriculture. Every five to seven years, agricultural policies are evaluated and reauthorized through the federal Farm Bill. The last bill was passed in 2007; the next is expected in 2012. The larger public is discovering that policies in the Farm Bill affect not just farmers here and around the world, but rural communities, the environment, health, hunger and even immigration. Literally everyone has a stake in the Farm Bill.
Click here for the IATP Farm Bill Web Page.
Healthy Food Action
Health professionals are on the front lines of the American epidemics of obesity and related chronic diseases, such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes and cancer. Healthy Food Action, an initiative of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, makes it simple for to them to engage in policy reform by providing both vital information and a mechanism for action. Like successful policy changes to curb tobacco use, public action by health professionals is urgently needed to support a healthier food system for all Americans. Through Healthy Food Action, health professionals can lend their unique, collective voice to public policy debates about food and farming – a voice to ensure that these policies are consistent with better health.
The Farm Bill Budget Visualizer,
a project of the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future, uses interactive “treemap” technology to share information about the budget of the Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008: the 2008 Farm Bill.
On April 26, the S
enate voted out of committee its proposed Farm Bill for 2012, titled the Agriculture Reform, Food and Jobs Act. This bill will be debated on the Senate floor in the first or second week of June, and the full Senate will soon after vote on a version of it. We examined the Manager’s Amendment to the Committee Print (and related amendments) plus the Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) Cost Estimatefor this bill, and have updated the Visualizer to reflect the new data (averaged across 10 or 5 years when available, otherwise the budget for 2013). This update allows users to compare budgets for programs included in the Senate Committee Bill against the 2008 Farm Bill, and to identify which programs are proposed to be cut, expanded, introduced or changed in the Bill.
We hope this timely information will be used as a tool by concerned citizens and groups, including advocates, the media and researchers, to help them both to understand the proposed changes in this complex bill and to respond. The Visualizer will also be updated to reflect the contents of the House Committee Bill when it is released, as well as the full Farm Bill that will be voted on by both chambers of Congress.