Make Me Smart How the farm bill became the everything bill
Mar 17, 2026
Chris Newbert, agriculture policy expert and deputy director at the Swette Center for Sustainable Food Systems, explains how the farm bill became a sprawling, everything law. He walks through what the bill actually covers and how the farm-nutrition coalition expanded it. He discusses why reauthorization is stalled, how SNAP changes complicate tracking hunger, and what current proposals leave out.
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Farm Bill Is A Nationwide Policy Not Just For Farmers
- The farm bill covers 12 titles and affects food, conservation, rural development, and SNAP, so it impacts anyone who eats in the U.S.
- Chris Newbert explains Title IV (nutrition/SNAP) is the largest piece and reauthorizes benefits and program adjustments every five years.
Farm Bill Success Relied On An Unlikely Coalition
- The modern farm bill grew into a broad coalition linking farm groups, anti-hunger advocates, conservationists, and rural interests to secure bipartisan passage.
- Chris Newbert traces this alliance back to the 1970s as the mechanism that made large bipartisan farm bills possible.
SNAP Funding Is The Farm Bill's Financial Flashpoint
- Money is the core obstacle to passing a new farm bill because SNAP makes up roughly $1.1–$1.2 trillion of the bill's cost.
- Newbert explains farm groups wanting higher subsidies faced a tradeoff: increase farm support only by cutting SNAP, which fractured the coalition.