Transforming the Farm Bill: The Local Food Movement and Political Change

Submission Type

Event

Expected Graduation Date

2013

Location

Room E104, Center for Natural Sciences, Illinois Wesleyan University

Start Date

4-20-2013 11:00 AM

End Date

4-20-2013 12:00 PM

Disciplines

Political Science

Comments

An extended treatment of this topic was awarded University Honors and may be found at in the Environmental Studies Honors Projects collection.

Abstract

Given the fairly rapid rise to prominence of local food, it is important to measure its success as a social movement to assess the nature and extent of its transformative capacity in the political realm. Academics have already recognized local food utilizing New Social Movement (NSM) theory. However, this paper draws from Political Process theory to assess the impact of the local food movement on national food and farm policy, as measured by changes in the 2008 Farm Bill to the 2012 bills proposed by the House and Senate for a new Farm Bill. Support for conventional agriculture has traditionally outweighed the programs encouraging local food, presenting a significant policy challenge that has restrained the local food movement. Through an analysis of policies and spending within the Farm Bill, this study determines if local food has yet to challenge the dominance of industrial farming within our national agricultural paradigm.

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Apr 20th, 11:00 AM Apr 20th, 12:00 PM

Transforming the Farm Bill: The Local Food Movement and Political Change

Room E104, Center for Natural Sciences, Illinois Wesleyan University

Given the fairly rapid rise to prominence of local food, it is important to measure its success as a social movement to assess the nature and extent of its transformative capacity in the political realm. Academics have already recognized local food utilizing New Social Movement (NSM) theory. However, this paper draws from Political Process theory to assess the impact of the local food movement on national food and farm policy, as measured by changes in the 2008 Farm Bill to the 2012 bills proposed by the House and Senate for a new Farm Bill. Support for conventional agriculture has traditionally outweighed the programs encouraging local food, presenting a significant policy challenge that has restrained the local food movement. Through an analysis of policies and spending within the Farm Bill, this study determines if local food has yet to challenge the dominance of industrial farming within our national agricultural paradigm.