Should the Farm Bill Include a Nutrition Section?

As the next farm bill is crafted, a familiar debate has begun in whether or not the nutrition section should be included for 2018.

Farm leaders like Ron Moore with the American Soybean Association said they think it would be a mistake to remove nutrition from the farm bill.

“As I look at the farm bill, it’s more of a food bill and what better place to have both the safety nets for the people who produce the food and have it also have it for people who need additional food and nutrition.”

Moore said the people who want to strip the nutrition section, “Are critics from outside the ag community whose common goal is to defeat rather than pass a new farm bill.”

This same debate raged in 2013 when the House passed a farm bill with no nutrition section, but that bill did not make it through the legislative process.