With the state of the next farm bill in crisis, FERN and Mother Jones are launching a series of articles that analyze the nature of that crisis and explore the emerging issues—from racial equity to climate change—that are changing the mandate of the nation’s most important agricultural legislation.
Today we deliver the first two pieces. Lee Drutman and Dustin Wahl show how the doom loop of extreme partisan politics shattered the bipartisan compromise that has long made the farm bill work. And Tom Philpott makes the case for tying environmental stewardship to farm subsidies as a way to force Big Ag to act on climate change and biodiversity loss. Look for new pieces each Wednesday through February.