“The Needs of the Many Outweigh the Needs of the Few”: A Plan for a New Farm Bill That Promotes the Health and Welfare of Humans and Nonhuman Animals, and Protects the Planet on Which We Live.

Authors

John Lieberman

Abstract

The Farm Bill was created in 1933, with the passage of the Agricultural Adjustment Act. The Bill was part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, designed to assist farmers struggling with low prices during the Great Depression and Dust Bowl era. Thus the era of the farm subsidy was born. Crafted in a different time, with technology, knowledge, science and an economy that today would be considered obsolete, the basic mechanisms, and financial support, have nevertheless lived on.

The myriad of problems that have arisen since that time within an agriculture industry that has flourished on the taxpayer dime could not have been imagined when the Agricultural Adjustment Act passed nearly 100 years ago. The consequences of the current system for turning animals into our food are broad, encompassing human health, animal health, and the livability of our environment.

The initial Farm Bill was created to help feed an economically depressed public by supporting the farmers necessary to feed them. The current Farm Bill has strayed very far from this mission, and now supports a massive agribusiness sector at the expense of the public. This paper will argue the Farm Bill needs to be updated for the current times we live in, to address the needs of Americans living in 2026.

Recommended Citation

John Lieberman, “The Needs of the Many Outweigh the Needs of the Few”: A Plan for a New Farm Bill That Promotes the Health and Welfare of Humans and Nonhuman Animals, and Protects the Planet on Which We Live., 37 Fordham Envtl. L. Rev. 189 (2026).
Available at: https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/elr/vol37/iss1/2