Congress Has Three Choices on the Farm Bill: Pass, Renew, or Flake

By Twilight Greenaway
As members of Congress return from their August recess, they have three options when it comes to the farm bill, the multi-billion-dollar bill that shapes everything from food assistance to farm subsidies to farm conservation. They can pass, renew, or flake.

Congress may still pass a new farm bill before the current bill runs out in September, but, frankly, the odds of this happening are awfully low. Though highly flawed, the Senate version of the bill - with its significant but fairly equal cuts to farm subsidies, food stamps, and conservation programs - has begun to look like an impossible dream. And, in the eyes of most sustainable food advocates at least, the version written by the GOP-controlled House is a straight-up nightmare.

As the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) - the organization whose job it is to track every detail of this now-comically cumbersome process.