The Future of Farming
Though innocuously named, the farm bill guides food production and consumption in the United States. The latest version, presently stalled in Congress, would account for nearly $1 trillion in spending over the next 10 years. Negotiations on the bill will soon resume. As the problems of industrialized agriculture -- pollution, accelerated disease evolution, over-reliance on chemicals and fertilizers, vulnerability to natural disaster -- become inescapable, the farm bill offers a chance to solve those problems.
One major point of contention will likely be corn-based ethanol fuel, originally envisioned as a clean energy source but now recognized as being fossil fuel-intensive to produce and having destabilizing effects on food prices. "I would start with ethanol," said Audubon Society president David Yarnold of farm bill reform. "Its value in the fight against carbon pollution is negligible, and I think we all know that."
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