Source: NATINAL SUSTAINABLE AGRICLTURE COALITION, 4/13/18

At a price tag of well over $800 billion dollars, the farm bill wouldn’t be considered by many to be a lean legislative package. There are, however, nearly a dozen programs in the bill that are increasingly becoming known as the “tiny but mighty” – programs that receive relatively small funding allocations but have historically provided outsize benefits for American family farmers and food producing communities. Despite the penchant on Capitol Hill to celebrate programs that “do more with less,” the draft farm bill released yesterday by House Agriculture Committee Chairman Mike Conaway (R-TX) proposes to slash over $350 million from these twelve hard-working programs. The draft bill would also completely eliminate six of the twelve programs, which have for years served as crucial support to regional food economies and rural conservation and renewable energy efforts.

Many of the tiny but mighty programs are targeted toward strengthening local and regional food systems and ensuring that rural and food producing communities have the tools and resources to capitalize on farm-to-fork economic opportunities. Because most of these programs do not have permanent funding as commodity and crop insurance subsidies do, Congress must actively choose to refund them in each farm bill cycle in order for the programs to continue.

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