Farm Bill Seminar

In Spring 2018, BFI offered an interdisciplinary graduate seminar on the Farm Bill. This seminar brought experts on the Farm Bill to campus with the goals of understanding the general framework of this important legislation and identifying areas of particular interest for further study. Students critically analyzed the Farm Bill’s history, structure and implementation and contributed to real-time discussions of the bill through mini-projects that focused on critical issues, and built skills in policy analysis, debate, communications, and coalition-building.

Class Syllabus: ESPM 226, Spring 2018

Publications

The following publications resulted from student work in the class.

Policy Briefs

• Supporting Local Foods in the 2018 Farm Bill
• In Defense on a Dignified SNAP: The 2018 Farm Bill
• What Beginning Farmers Need Most in the Next Farm Bill: Land

Op-eds

• What Congress Does Next on the Farm Bill Could Cost Farmers and Taxpayers Billions
• Why Entrepreneurial MBAs Should Look for Opportunities in the $500 Billion US Farm Bill
• Valley congressmen should speak up for farmers of color in the 2018 Farm Bill
• This farm bill deregulates the rich and polices the poor

Selected student presentations on marker bills, Farm Bill proposals, and members of the House and Senate Agriculture Committees.