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Framing the Farm Bill: Interests, Ideology, and Agricultural Act of 2014
In January 2014, for the first time in the history of federal farm legislation going back to the Great Depression, all four members of the US House of Representatives from Kansas voted against the Farm Bill, despite pleas by the state's agricultural leaders to support it. Why? The story of the Agricultural Act of 2014, as it unfolds in Framing the Farm Bill , has much to tell us about the complex nature of farm legislation, food policy, and partisan politics in present-day America.
The Farm Bill is essential to the continuation of the many programs that structure agriculture in this country, from farm loans, commodity subsidies, and price supports for farmers to food support for the poor, notably food stamps. It was in the 1970s, with urbanization increasingly undermining political interest in farm programs, that rural legislators added the food stamp program to the Farm Bill to build support among urban and suburban legislators. Christopher Bosso offers a deft account of how this strategy, which over time led to the food stamp program becoming the largest expenditure in the Farm Bill, ran into the wave of conservative Republicans swept into Congress in 2010. With many of these new members objecting to the very existence of the food stamp program—and in many cases to government’s involvement in agriculture, period—and with Democrats vehemently opposing reductions, especially in light of the 2008 recession, the stage was set for a battle involving some of the most crucial issues in American life.
Framing the Farm Bill is an enlightening look at federal agricultural policy—its workings, its history, and its present state—as well as the effect federal legislation has on farming practices, the environment, and our diet, in a thoroughly readable primer on the politics of food in America.
The Farm Bill is essential to the continuation of the many programs that structure agriculture in this country, from farm loans, commodity subsidies, and price supports for farmers to food support for the poor, notably food stamps. It was in the 1970s, with urbanization increasingly undermining political interest in farm programs, that rural legislators added the food stamp program to the Farm Bill to build support among urban and suburban legislators. Christopher Bosso offers a deft account of how this strategy, which over time led to the food stamp program becoming the largest expenditure in the Farm Bill, ran into the wave of conservative Republicans swept into Congress in 2010. With many of these new members objecting to the very existence of the food stamp program—and in many cases to government’s involvement in agriculture, period—and with Democrats vehemently opposing reductions, especially in light of the 2008 recession, the stage was set for a battle involving some of the most crucial issues in American life.
Framing the Farm Bill is an enlightening look at federal agricultural policy—its workings, its history, and its present state—as well as the effect federal legislation has on farming practices, the environment, and our diet, in a thoroughly readable primer on the politics of food in America.
208 pages, Paperback
Published March 17, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
January 14, 2018
As I write this, Congress has just begun discussing the next iteration of the Farm Bill. If this Farm Bill battle is anything like the last Farm Bill battle, I want to be sure I am informed and have some sense of what is at stake. Overall, Mr. Bosso's book is informative, but it does not much tell me what is at stake.
Since this is the book's first review, I will do my best to be instructive and balanced. This is not an academic book; rather, it seems written for widespread consumption. At its heart, it is a fast-paced story with political intrigue, high stakes, winners and losers, and plenty of internal and external strife. That said, I have read many books about the food system and a handful specifically about food and agricultural legislation, including several mentioned in this book.
Mr. Bosso is a political scientist. As such, he is primarily concerned with the politics of the Farm Bill. Since "agriculture seems to be overlooked in political science," Mr. Bosso felt compelled to tell the political story of the Agricultural Act of 2014 (a/k/a the 2014 Farm Bill). For him, its path to becoming law "tells us a lot about the politics of food, and possibly a great deal more about contemporary American politics."
Framing the Farm Bill is arranged into about three parts: (1) contents of the Farm Bill, (2) history of the Farm Bill, and (3) the politics of the 2014 Farm Bill.
If you are looking for a simple overview of the law's vast programs, Chapter 2 can satisfy. It covers its twelve titles and provides paragraph summaries of their contents. But if you're looking for a more in-depth review of each title, I would turn to Google. Chapter 2 gives you just enough information to know about the playable pieces of the game.
The history of the Farm Bill, as told in Chapter 3, is what originally drew me to the book, and it was my favorite chapter. Beginning with summarizing how policy comes into being, the chapter segues into into a succinct historical tale of federal agriculture policy. This development reveals why the Farm Bill has become such a screwy hodgepodge of disconnected, value-laden laws. Mr. Bosso easily weaves otherwise disparate stories together into a plain and, at times, exciting narrative.
If Chapter 2 introduces the characters and Chapter 3 sets the stage, the next five chapters unleash the conflict. Much to his credit, Mr. Bosso has done a superb job at making the often drab legislative craft come alive. Dare I say, it is occasionally riveting.
Adamant that it is not a thorough "day-by-day, blow-by-blow description" of the Farm Bill's reinvigoration, Mr. Bosso still manages to get into the trenches of both House and Senate agricultural committees, to open the shutters on intraparty Republican turmoil, and to expose the backstage conflict among individual politicians.
Much of the drama centers around Title I and Title IV: Commodities (a/k/a crop subsidies) and Nutrition (a/k/a food stamps), respectively. This is the drama that cleaves the nations and cleaves the parties, yet does not cleave the bill itself.
Outside of these two issues, though, Mr. Bosso spends little time framing Capitol's drama against the rest of the nation. One notable exception involves the milk factions: small-scale New England producers vs. large Midwest producers. For former Speaker of the House John Boehner, this becomes his make-or-break issue.
When at last, after two years, Congress passes the bill and then-President Obama signs it into law, Mr. Bosso has a chance to review and analyze what just happened. Chapter 10, no doubt, includes some of this. For example, he sees similarities between this iteration of the Farm Bill and that of the 1996 Farm Bill. For a moment—a brief moment—he opines on what our current Congress must be up against. Ultimately, though, Chapter 10 reads more like a Where Are They Now? sequence at the end of a coming-of-age 80s movie. True, it resolves questions left open in Chapter 9, which is satisfying in itself, but I wanted to know more about what was at stake today.
By the end, I am glad to have learned about how the Farm Bill gets legislated. The media coverage of it can become exhausting and the process confusing. After reading Mr. Bosso's book, I feel much more prepared to follow along. I wish Mr. Bosso had dedicated more time to the influence of the four interest-group coalitions he introduced in Chapter 4—the Farm Bloc, the Hunger Lobby, the Food Movement, and the Radical Reformers. As the Farm Bill continues to diversify, I suspect the pressure to legislate will, too, and those coalitions will be as much a part of the narrative as the media.
So, did Mr. Bosso tell us a great deal about the politics of our food and our politics more broadly? Not a great deal, I believe, but quite a bit. With such concentration on the legislative process, Mr. Bosso was often bogged down by the back-and-forth. The motivations of political acts are complex, especially in food policy (as any reader of Marion Nestle appreciates). Yet, after each chapter, I felt like some part of the story was always lingering in the background, waiting to be brought forward. Perhaps, though, those are the "blow-by-blow" details Mr. Bosso wished to avoid.
Nevertheless, for anyone looking to learn more about the 2014 Farm Bill and how it came into being, there is, I believe, no better book than this.
Since this is the book's first review, I will do my best to be instructive and balanced. This is not an academic book; rather, it seems written for widespread consumption. At its heart, it is a fast-paced story with political intrigue, high stakes, winners and losers, and plenty of internal and external strife. That said, I have read many books about the food system and a handful specifically about food and agricultural legislation, including several mentioned in this book.
Mr. Bosso is a political scientist. As such, he is primarily concerned with the politics of the Farm Bill. Since "agriculture seems to be overlooked in political science," Mr. Bosso felt compelled to tell the political story of the Agricultural Act of 2014 (a/k/a the 2014 Farm Bill). For him, its path to becoming law "tells us a lot about the politics of food, and possibly a great deal more about contemporary American politics."
Framing the Farm Bill is arranged into about three parts: (1) contents of the Farm Bill, (2) history of the Farm Bill, and (3) the politics of the 2014 Farm Bill.
If you are looking for a simple overview of the law's vast programs, Chapter 2 can satisfy. It covers its twelve titles and provides paragraph summaries of their contents. But if you're looking for a more in-depth review of each title, I would turn to Google. Chapter 2 gives you just enough information to know about the playable pieces of the game.
The history of the Farm Bill, as told in Chapter 3, is what originally drew me to the book, and it was my favorite chapter. Beginning with summarizing how policy comes into being, the chapter segues into into a succinct historical tale of federal agriculture policy. This development reveals why the Farm Bill has become such a screwy hodgepodge of disconnected, value-laden laws. Mr. Bosso easily weaves otherwise disparate stories together into a plain and, at times, exciting narrative.
If Chapter 2 introduces the characters and Chapter 3 sets the stage, the next five chapters unleash the conflict. Much to his credit, Mr. Bosso has done a superb job at making the often drab legislative craft come alive. Dare I say, it is occasionally riveting.
Adamant that it is not a thorough "day-by-day, blow-by-blow description" of the Farm Bill's reinvigoration, Mr. Bosso still manages to get into the trenches of both House and Senate agricultural committees, to open the shutters on intraparty Republican turmoil, and to expose the backstage conflict among individual politicians.
Much of the drama centers around Title I and Title IV: Commodities (a/k/a crop subsidies) and Nutrition (a/k/a food stamps), respectively. This is the drama that cleaves the nations and cleaves the parties, yet does not cleave the bill itself.
Outside of these two issues, though, Mr. Bosso spends little time framing Capitol's drama against the rest of the nation. One notable exception involves the milk factions: small-scale New England producers vs. large Midwest producers. For former Speaker of the House John Boehner, this becomes his make-or-break issue.
When at last, after two years, Congress passes the bill and then-President Obama signs it into law, Mr. Bosso has a chance to review and analyze what just happened. Chapter 10, no doubt, includes some of this. For example, he sees similarities between this iteration of the Farm Bill and that of the 1996 Farm Bill. For a moment—a brief moment—he opines on what our current Congress must be up against. Ultimately, though, Chapter 10 reads more like a Where Are They Now? sequence at the end of a coming-of-age 80s movie. True, it resolves questions left open in Chapter 9, which is satisfying in itself, but I wanted to know more about what was at stake today.
By the end, I am glad to have learned about how the Farm Bill gets legislated. The media coverage of it can become exhausting and the process confusing. After reading Mr. Bosso's book, I feel much more prepared to follow along. I wish Mr. Bosso had dedicated more time to the influence of the four interest-group coalitions he introduced in Chapter 4—the Farm Bloc, the Hunger Lobby, the Food Movement, and the Radical Reformers. As the Farm Bill continues to diversify, I suspect the pressure to legislate will, too, and those coalitions will be as much a part of the narrative as the media.
So, did Mr. Bosso tell us a great deal about the politics of our food and our politics more broadly? Not a great deal, I believe, but quite a bit. With such concentration on the legislative process, Mr. Bosso was often bogged down by the back-and-forth. The motivations of political acts are complex, especially in food policy (as any reader of Marion Nestle appreciates). Yet, after each chapter, I felt like some part of the story was always lingering in the background, waiting to be brought forward. Perhaps, though, those are the "blow-by-blow" details Mr. Bosso wished to avoid.
Nevertheless, for anyone looking to learn more about the 2014 Farm Bill and how it came into being, there is, I believe, no better book than this.
May 5, 2018
Thoroughly enjoyed the book. Can't wait to see this play out again.
April 5, 2022
Did I read this book for a college course? Yes. Did I still enjoy it somewhat? Also yes.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews