This article is part of Food Tank’s primer series, “Food Tank Explains.” Each installment unpacks the ideas, innovations, and challenges shaping today’s food and agriculture systems, offering clear insights into complex topics. To explore more articles in the series, click here.
The farm bill is a package of legislation governing topics including U.S. agriculture, nutrition, and conservation policy. Renewed about every 5 years for the past century, the legislation provides lawmakers with periodic opportunities to address national food and farming issues.
Over time, the farm bill has steadily expanded to reflect shifting political, economic, and agricultural priorities. It has evolved from an act providing immediate economic relief into an omnibus compendium of laws shaping everything from food access and land management to rural economies and agricultural innovation.
The first farm bill, the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933, was prompted by a drop in crop prices following World War I and the Great Depression. The legislation was a part of the New Deal and sought to reduce surplus crops and raise farm income. Farmer support and agricultural price controls have been core functions of the 17 farm bills that followed.
After the 1933 farm bill, in an era that came to be known as the Dust Bowl, large areas of the U.S. faced severe, multi-year droughts that caused soil erosion, dust storms, and distress migration on scales not previously seen. To address the devastation, the 1938 farm bill included soil conservation measures, introducing programs that paid farmers to adopt practices aimed at reducing soil erosion and improving soil health.
Farm bills during the 1950s primarily focused on stabilizing the agricultural sector after years of war. World War II-era farm policy had offered farmers high-value fixed-rate loans to boost production levels and protect farmer income. After World War II and the Korean War, wartime demand fell and technological advances sharply increased agricultural output.
Despite rising supply levels, the government maintained many of its wartime loan policies. The result was massive agricultural surpluses. To stabilize supply and demand, the Agricultural Trade Development and Assistance Act of 1954 authorized the use of surplus crops for foreign aid, creating the program now known as Food for Peace.
In the 1960s, Great Society reforms leveraged U.S. agriculture to combat domestic hunger, linking food assistance programs with farmer subsidies. Mirroring this approach, the Agricultural and Consumer Protection Act of 1973 became the first farm bill to include a nutrition title and food assistance programs. Later legislation continued to modify farm bill nutrition programs, including changes to food stamp eligibility in the Food and Agriculture Act of 1977 and the program’s rebranding as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in 2008. All farm bills since have reauthorized funding for food assistance.
By including a nutrition title, the 1973 bill became the first omnibus farm bill. The subsequent farm bills covered a wider set of topics and involved a broader range of stakeholders in the negotiation process. The 1985 bill incorporated new conservation laws, protecting highly erodible land and wetlands. The 1990 bill included the Global Climate Change Prevention Act and the first forestry title.
The first energy title was enacted in the 2002 farm bill, which created programs to support the research, development, and adoption of bioenergy and renewable energy systems. The 2008 bill enacted the first horticulture title, laying the foundation for federal support of local food systems and specialty crops.
The most recent farm bill, the Agriculture Improvement Act of in December 2018, is structured across 12 titles including commodities, trade, nutrition, and energy. The law largely preserved the framework of the prior bill while expanding support for issues including conservation, organic agriculture, local and regional food systems, and new, socially disadvantaged, and veteran farmers and ranchers.
The 2018 farm bill expired in October 2023, but Congress has not finalized a replacement. “They typically are on an every five year timeline,” Kathleen Merrigan, Executive Director of the Swette Center for Sustainable Food Systems at Arizona State University, tells Food Tank. “We’re very much overdue at this point.”
Negotiations have repeatedly stalled over politically contentious issues including SNAP funding, conservation spending, and farm subsidies. Instead, lawmakers have enacted three consecutive one-year extensions to keep some farm bill programs operating. Other programs have lost funding or legal authorization to operate.
After the 2024 election, lawmakers shifted portions of farm policy into the budget reconciliation process through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (H.R.1). The legislation included historically deep cuts to SNAP and conservation programs, and major changes to farmer support programs like disaster assistance, crop insurance, and access to land and farm credit.
The next farm bill is expected to cover issues including SNAP, the H-2A program, pesticides, animal welfare for livestock, and commodity subsidies. It will have substantial implications for food assistance recipients at a time when food insecurity is rising, and for farmers, who are facing falling commodity prices and high input costs compounded by tariffs and war.
Before it can become law, the bill needs to pass both the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate. The House recently passed the Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2026, bringing the country one step closer to a new farm bill. The House’s bill removes a provision designed to shield pesticide manufacturers from health-related lawsuits tied to their products, which Merrigan describes as a victory.
But the organization Farm Aid, along with 300 other non-profit and farmers organizations, say the legislation fails to meet the moment or the needs of communities and farmers. Anti-hunger advocates had hoped the House would revisit changes to the SNAP seen in H.R.1, but those have remained in place. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates that one in eight participants will lose access to some food relief as a result.
Veronica Mazariegos-Anastassiou, a young farmer at Brisa Ranch in California, tells Food Tank that she hopes the next farm bill will embrace approaches that connect environmental protections with agricultural policy. And according to Marion Nestle, author, nutritionist, and Professor Emerita at NYU, the current policy lacks an overarching framework centered on health and environmental protection, allowing the legislation to become a mess.
“There are voices missing from this farm bill,” Adrian Lipscombe, Founder of the 40 Acres Project, tells Food Tank. Lipscome explains that many of the people most affected by the bill, including immigrant workers and Black, Brown, and small-scale farmers, continue to be excluded from the conversation shaping the legislation.
The Senate expects to release its version of the bill in about a month.
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Photo courtesy of Scott Goodwill
