Public policy is a law designed to tackle a problem manifested in the society. The US Farm bill (Agricultural adjustment Act) was introduced in 1933 by President Roosevelt who had the idea of increasing the value of agricultural commodities. The law was implemented through payment to farmers not to practice agriculture on part of their land.
- The first agricultural act was later developed to what is known as the US Farm bills, these are laws enacted to foster agricultural growth in the United States. The motivation that led to the development of this law is the fact that farmers who support the American economy had to be well taken care of. These public policies have been used in protecting farmers and consumers of agricultural produce being the major stakeholders benefitting from these policies.
- The major stakeholders in these policies include farmers, consumers and the American government. Farmers being the main producers in the United States are affected by these laws and the consumers of these food produce are also affected by these laws. The farmers and consumers being constitute of the American population are also major stakeholders.
- These laws are very good and in special reference to the recent US Farm Bill of 2008, this law is among the best. This law is good in the essence that the law focuses on supporting farmers so that they did not feel the effect of high energy and farm supplies. This law is very good in that it considers the health of the nation, the bill will a continuation of the 2002 Farm Bill (Harwood, 2009, p. 32). The bill seeks to offer crop insurance and improve the quality of foods produced and thus improving nutrition.
Overview
The Farm Bill of 2008 was enacted to look into a public policy after the government saw it fit to improve the lives of Americans. The rise of health related diseases necessitated the production of healthy foods. As a result the government enacted the Food, Conservation and Energy Act popularly known as Farm Bill of 2008. The rise of unhealthy lifestyles brought about by unhealthy diet through eating of fast foods. For that reason, the government decided to pass a law that encourages farmers to grow more of healthy foods such as fruits, vegetables to encourage healthy lifestyles. Several legalisations passed initially under other Farm Bills show that the government did not support the production of food crops. Stakeholders in agriculture felt that the necessary steps needed to be taken to ensure that crop farmers are supported adequately (Good, 2011).
A report by the Farmers’ Legal Action Group (FLAG) showed that several initiatives by the government created barriers to the production of healthy food crops. Some of the barriers encountered by farmers included the lack of safety programs in times of disasters to cater for farmers. This was in comparable to farmers producing commodity crops such as wheat, corn of soybeans. Other barriers included the lack of enough data on the knowledge of production of fruits and crops and therefore leading to lack of clear and tangent policies on food production. Lack of crop insurance and low spending on nutrition also affected the implementation of healthy eating in the nation (Paulson, 2008, p. 43). The government as a result pledged to spend US $ 284 billion in the implementation of the 2008 Farm Bill which led the precedent in the adoption of the 2012 Farm Bill.
Public Policy Description
The 2012 Farm bill is not a new law the agricultural reforms programs initiated by the American government. The farm bill of 2012 is a law that was developed after a considerable number of farm bills had been passed since the year 1933. The farm bills are used to ensure better agricultural produce is produced by farmers and that the consumer consumes the best in terms of farm produce (Ball, 2010, p.85).
History of the development of the farm bills have been necessitated by changes in agriculture and growth in population. However it was not until 1965, when the first set of the farm bill was introduced to the United States. The farm bill usually comprises of a bill that lasts for five years and it looks into the issues of commodity trade, rural development conservation and many other activities. Although, there were other agricultural laws enacted before 1965, these laws were not so specific for them to be considered as farm bills. The farm bills ran from 1965 to 2002 and they focussed on trade, rural development, farm credit, conservation, food and nutrition programs.
The first farm bill was passed in 1965 and it mainly dealt with commodity programs that included wheat, feed grains and upland cotton. The policy was aimed at improving the crops such as feed grains and cotton, the policy also aimed at providing marketing certificates for the sale of these grains. In 1970, another farm bill was initiated with significant changes in the earlier bill. The new bill replaced some of the restrictive and mandatory features of the earlier law.
This new bill introduced a new cropland and marketing certificates were issued under a new payment that ensured parity among farmers. Farmers were also afforded the opportunity of marketing their milk produce outside of the set areas in the earlier bill. The next farm bill to be adopted was the 1973 farm bill which advanced the idea of target prices and deficiency payments. The bill went beyond farm commodity prices and adopted the disaster payments and the reverse of inventories in case of a disaster. The 1977 farm bill marked a major milestone in agriculture since it increased price and income supports while at same time establishing a farmer owned reserve for grain (Ball, 2010, p. 44).
The omnibus farm bill of 1981 changed a lot of agricultural policies since it continued and modified commodity programs through to 1985. The bill set target prices while at the same time eliminating rice allotments and marketing quotas. The bill also lowered diary supports and making other changes in the USDA. However in 1984 target prices were froze. The next bill to come was the food and security act of 1985; this bill allowed lower commodity prices, income support and it also required advanced deficiency payments for wheat and grain farmers. Loan rates were also introduced for program and non-program crops. The major change in farm bill came in the 1990 when the RDA (Rural development Authority) was set, in addition the food stamp program was enhanced while establishing more bodies to look into forestry.
The bill aimed at slashing US $ 3 billion and reduces acreage of grain land and wetland/conservation areas. In 1996, a new farm bill by the name of Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform (FAIR), this bill revised and simplified direct payment for crops and eliminated milk supports. The bill specified the amount of money to be paid out. The program reauthorized the food stamp program while establishing a fund for rural America. In 2002, the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act came up with policies to reflect on issues of agriculture, ecology, energy, trade and nutrition. The bill appropriatated $ 17 billion into agricultural subsidies, this caused a storm with WTO which saw the move as undermining world trade and food production globally. The bill further emphasised on conservation though many opposed to the bill being used for conservation (World Trade Organization, 2009, p. 4012).
Analysis of policy‘s efficacy
The impact of the farm bills has been enormous to the agricultural and economic sectors of the United States. The bill has been instrumental in fostering growth in the agricultural sector and thus sustained agricultural growth in the United States. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has been monitoring agricultural activities in the US for a long period of time and thus they are the implementers of this law. Due to the effectiveness of the 2008 Farm bill, the government through the USDA has decided to implement the 2012 farm bill (Lehrer, 2010, p. 61).
The 2008 Farm bill was successful in implementing of a farmers training program to train farmers on how best to utilize their lands in the production of food crops. The bill emphasised on the production of healthy organic foods which were safer compared to other food stuffs. The similarity of the 2007, 2008 and 2012 farm bills is the fact that these policies were implemented to fight poverty that contributed to hunger and improper distribution of food in the United States (Ball, 2010, p. 28). Food justice is a program under this policy that aimed at reducing hunger through proper distribution of food.
The 2008 farm bill seeks to offer farmers a safety net when it comes to the production of food. This will be implemented by offering insurance services to farmers to mitigate losses encountered either by drought or other resources. The policy has seen agriculture thrive and thus it has offered a boost to young and upcoming farmers in many regions in the United States. Crop production and animal keeping has been on the increase since the introduction of the policy. The efficiency of the policy mainly mirrors on the factor of trade as the bill affects the trade in that it increases the spending on non-emergency food assistance. The bill removes the requirement that considers commercial development potential in choosing recipient countries to receive aid (Zulauf, 2010, p. 54).
As a result, other countries have been able to receive aid for agricultural assistance which has led to better food security in the world. The implementation of early warning systems in response to drought and use of better technologies in IT has helped in the prevention of famine and improvement in food production. This led to the implementation of best practices in agriculture and increased production of food across the United States.
Though a sum of close to US $ 284 billion were pledged for the implementation of the farm bill of 2008. Most of the funds were directed into three implementation phases of the bill. On the conservation front the farm bill of 2008 achieved a lot in terms of land under conservation. The bill enhanced the conservation of land and it increased the acreage of land under agriculture to levels of around 32 million acres and recognises that conservation land is one which was not been cropped 4 to 6 yrs before implementation of the bill (Harwood, 2009, p. 51). Land improvements and conserve the environment since the bill requires has stringent conservation requirements.
The farm bill of 2008 has been efficient in ensuring that wetlands are protected and this has been done through a program to increase the land under wetlands to conserve the environment and that land under wetlands must not be used for commercial purposes. The bill has provided a basis for which food production and conservation can be maintained at the same time. Therefore food security has been ensured by the bill as well as increased food production has been bolstered and thus boosting farmers as well as feeding the American people (Good, 2011).
Implementation
The implementation of the 2008 farm bill will take the course of the operation plan underlined by the government. Implementation will be done through various state organs and state governments. Several projects will be initiated in different states with an aim of being implemented within a period of a year or two. The major implementers of this policy will be the state governments, since they are not new to implementing these policies and they have done so successfully in the past. Finances have been set aside for the implementation of the 2008 farm bill and as much as $ 240 billion has been set aside for this policy implementation.
The implementation of this policy will focus on a range of programs which include training, outreach, subsidies and interventions. However, the policy will mainly feature young beginning farmers with an aim of boosting their awareness and encouraging them to take up the challenge and role of being farmers (Ball, 2010, p. 77). The 2012 farm bill implementation will extend the programs dealing with credit, research and conservation programs as it early been initiated in the 2008 farm bill.
The Beginning Farmer and Rancher (BFR) program is an outreach program aimed at encouraging young adults to take up farming. Under the 2008 farm bill, the government will provide low interest rate loans to new famers under the BFR and the government will also increase loan funding under this program. This will be an improvement from the past whereby farmers were granted loans based on three year experience as a farmer. An additional program would be the offering of grants to farmers as a value addition program to encourage farmers to conduct marketing.
This will encourage farmers to market their products locally within their home states and as a result locally produced foods will get into the market. For better production of farm products there needs to be research to be conducted on better methods to be used in food production (Harwood, 2009, p. 35). Research is important in that it helps finding better solutions on the best methods to be implemented in the production of food. Research will be undertaken by institutions like the National Institute of Food and Agriculture and funds have been availed to enable cutting edge to be employed in the research.
The farm bill of 2008 major provision was to boost food production and achieve food independence for the United States. The bill seeks to have all states in the US produce at least 10 percent of their food on their own. The 2008 farm bill does not only seek to boost farm production but also to conserve the environment (Harwood, 2009, p. 37). Under the conservation of the environment, there was a program known as the conservation reserve program which was introduced. Within this program the beginner farmers are prepared for a land transition program whereby the retiring farmer gives an opportunity to the beginner farmer to take over the land (Sulak, 2007, p. 108).
The 2008 farm bill had also the plans under which rural areas in America could be improved. This bill seeks to improve farming in the rural areas, using this system people in the rural areas were to be funded to a tune of around 10% of the funds set aside. For farmers to benefit under the farm bill of 2008, the government designed an outreach program for farmers whereby farmers could be advised on advocacy, creation of new opportunities and advice on new methods of farming to be undertaken by the USDA or the NIFA (Johnson, 2009, p. 82).
Evaluation
Evaluation involves the process of undertaking research to establish the effect of the established policy in general. The 2008 farm which is the current agricultural policy in the United States will be undertaken until the year 2012 when a new farm bill will be published. The implementation of the 2008 farm bill cost the American a lot and affected the lives of Americans in positive and negative ways. In overall the policy was a success and it agriculture, food and nutrition in a positive way. In the food and nutrition front the policy helped in improving quality nutrition to be served in schools across the country and consequently health lifestyles were improved.
In the agricultural sector, every state benefitted with assistance of the government in the implementation of increased food production leading to self sustenance by each state. The farm bill of 2008 enacted strict provisions which led to improved food production and nutrition improvement measures were taken seriously.
The 2008 farm bill’s strict measures on conservation have been taken positively by environmentalists who have hailed the policy as instrumental in conserving the environment. The policy’s implementation stance on conservation, forestry and land preservation is in tune with other environmental policies implemented by the government thus it has been instrumental in upholding environmental preservation (Lehrer, 2010, p. 96).
The implementation phase of the 2008 farm bill that had been slated to take five years shows the willingness of the government to provide assistance to famers to boost agricultural production in the United States. However, the implementation of the policy has also affected trade balance in the globe with the United States support of agriculture since it the policy has made agricultural produce to be very cheap. This has been in violation of the fair trade practices advocated by the World Trade Organization (WTO) and thus it has created an imbalance in trade especially in the agricultural commodity trade (World Trade Organization, 2009, p. 4118).
The implementation of this policy has led to increased agricultural activities and in the United States. Due to the economic crisis that faced the United States, many industries suffered from lack of market for their goods. Owing to this reason many entrepreneurs opted for agriculture and therefore the farm bill benefited them tremendously and this has helped agriculture to make a major contribution to the American economy. The farm bill of 2008 also increased trade and caused a stir in the world business circles due to subsidies handed out to farmers to improve agriculture since subsidies end up causing an imbalance of trade (Lehrer, 2010, p. 103).
Evaluation of the farm bill of 2008 indicates that rural development programs benefitted remote states in the United States. These programs helped a lot of farmers in these regions and it boosted the income levels in these states, the economic crisis though it affected many states, the states practising agriculture were not affected so much.
Recommendations
The farm bill of 2008 is a good agricultural policy that supports farmers and consumers of food in the United States. The policy has been successful in spurring growth in agricultural sector in the US that had been long neglected. Moreover, the government should continue with its efforts by increasing funding to the agricultural sector to enhance the 2008 farm bill and have it have a positive impact in the country.
The US government should encourage stakeholders interested in agriculture to invest in the United States and this should include foreigners interested in farming in the country. Another recommendation that can be made to the US government is to make available to farmers cheap credit and loans especially to food and vegetable producers to discourage importation of food. Farmers need encouragement for them to produce food cheaply and therefore the government should reduce taxes on farm inputs and farm produce for them to be cheaply accessible to consumers (Sulak, 2007, p. 93).
Due to the changes in the global climate, agriculture has faced a lot of challenges and thus conservation as been the new front to save agriculture. The farm bill of 2008 has tackled conservation through implementation of various conservation programs. These programs should not be abandoned but be funded more to conserve the environment and prevent major climate changes that agriculture heavily depends on (Stubbs, 2009, p. 43).
Conservation should be integrated with research to enable scientists to find better means for conservation of forest and lands and ensure better crop husbandry is practiced in a manner that doesn’t destroy the environment. Funding to research should be increased tremendously under the new 2012 farm bill for young and upcoming farmers to take advantage of this and improve agriculture in their states. The farm bill has also implemented programs to protect and increase forests and forest cover in the United States. Forest cover helps in the US help affect climate change and therefore it is important for the government to protect forests and help in the protection of the environment.
Agriculture and trade go hand in hand in the promotion of economy in the US; the government through public reforms such as the farm bill of 2008 initiated and fostered trade. The government through the USDA should encourage insurance firms to offer crop insurance for farmers to be cushioned against bad climate or volatile food prices in their activities. Through measures such as offering crop insurance, farmers will be more encouraged to practice farming and thus this will boost their earnings and make agriculture more sustainable (Johnson, 2009, p. 66).
The government should also extend research to agriculture through the next 2012 farm bill so that farmers can produce more and the surplus of their produce to be bought by the government. Such a program or mechanism would help to boost agriculture and help mitigate famine in the US and worldwide. Research should be conducted to help farmers in the US to boost nutrition by helping farmers grow food crops and vegetables which are in the end beneficial to the well being of everybody in the society.
Conclusion
Public policy enactment should be conducted for the interest and benefit of the society. In the preparation of the public a lot of research and consultations have to be undertaken and consensus building is very important. The 2008 farm bill is a public policy that was initiated for the benefit of the farmers and consumers of agricultural produce and the general population in the United States. The provisions contained in the farm bill of 2008, show that the government through the senate enacted a bill seeks to benefit farmers as well as consumers. The implementation of the bill was to cost the taxpayer US $ 240 billion and the programs spurred growth in the agricultural sector and this had a general growth effect to the US economy.
This policy has been successful in changing the agriculture sector in the United States and it has also boosted health and nutrition in the country by affording young children healthy diets in schools. Health and nutrition of the American society has improved through the farm bill of 2008. The bill has also afforded the American farmers improved income levels through enhanced crop yields and prices. All these benefits have been accrued due to proper enactment and implementation of a public policy act/law.
References
Ball, E. (2010). The Economic Impact of Public Support to Agriculture: An International Perspective. Chicago, IL: Springer. Web.
Good, K. (2011). Farm Bill; Ag Economy; and Trade. Web.
Harwood, J. (2009). An Overview of the U.S. Agricultural Economy and the 2008 Farm Bill. Agricultural and Resource Economics Review, 38, 33-39. Web.
Johnson, R. (2009). Climate Change: The Role of the U. S. Agriculture Sector and Congressional Action. Boston, MA: DIANE Publishing. Web.
Lehrer, N. (2010). U.S. farm bills and policy reforms: ideological conflicts over world trade, renewable energy, and sustainable agriculture. San Francisco, CA: Cambria Press. Web.
Paulson, N. & Babcock B. (2008). Get a Grip: Should Area Revenue Coverage Be Offered through the Farm Bill or as a Crop Insurance Program? Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, 33, 44-46. Web.
Stubbs, M. (2009). Renewable Energy Programs in the 2008 Farm Bill. Lowell, MA: DIANE Publishing. Web.
Sulak, M. (2007). Land conservation and environmental policy: Public land grazing for private land conservation? Atlanta, GA: ProQuest. Web.
World Trade Organization (2009). Dispute Settlement Reports 2009: Volume 9. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Web.
Zulauf, C. & Orden, D. (2010). The Revenue Program Option in the 2008 U.S. Farm Bill: Evaluating Performance Characteristics of the Acre Program. Agricultural and Resource Economics Review, 39, 52-55. Web.