July 13, 2026
In late June, Senate Agriculture Committee Chair John Boozman (R-AR) released what is being called a "discussion draft" of the Farm Bill. The release of the Senate draft follows House passage of its version of the Farm Bill in April, which we opposed along with hundreds of other organizations working for food, land, and climate justice.
Unfortunately, the Senate's draft replicates many of the failures in the House version and falls far short of the Farm Bill our farms and communities need to thrive.
The Senate draft includes a few provisions we're glad to see, but they do not, on balance, make up for the bill's vast shortcomings. These include:
- Increased funding for the Dairy Business Innovation Centers, which benefit organic dairy farmers and businesses in Vermont and across the region.
- Authorization of (but no funding for) a program called Strengthening Local Food Security, which largely replicates the popular and impactful Local Food Purchase Assistance Program (LFPA) that was dismantled by the Trump administration earlier this year.
- Reduced matching requirements, though only on a limited basis, for the Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program (GusNIP), which provides funding for Crop Cash.
- Unlike the House legislation, the Senate draft does not include language that would override state agricultural production laws such as California's Proposition 12. It also does not include proposals that would broadly preempt state pesticide warning labels or use restrictions.
These modest improvements are far overshadowed by the bill's many failures when it comes to food, land, and climate justice. Instead of investing in food security, climate resilience, and local food systems, the Senate bill:
- Fails to restore cuts to SNAP or reverse harmful policy changes enacted through H.R. 1 last year.
- Does not provide meaningful relief from rising certification costs, increase mandatory funding for organic research, improve organic dairy data collection, or make the investments needed to help farmers transition to organic production and expand domestic organic markets.
- Cuts funding for and makes harmful policy changes to important conservation programs like the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) and Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP). In addition to reducing funding, the bill would make "precision agriculture" eligible for a range of conservation programs intended to support lower-tech, lower-cost, evidence-based practices like cover cropping and rotational grazing.
- Fails to make deeply needed improvements to the farm safety net—including disaster assistance and crop insurance programs—for smaller-scale, organic, and diversified farmers.
- Fails to invest in or expand land and credit access for new, beginning, and historically underserved farmers, or rein in corporate ownership of farmland.
Fails to address the massive staffing losses at local USDA offices in Vermont and across the country.
Take Action Today!
Tell our Senators: We need a Farm Bill that invests in food, land, and climate justice for all.