Farm Bill... could've been so much better

The 5-year, $307 billion Farm Bill was passed on May 22nd (vetoed and overridden). Here's what Ecosystem Marketplace says about the bill:

The action has direct and indirect effects on environmental markets – for not only does the new Farm Bill govern large swathes of the ecosystem marketplace, but the relatively small portion of its funding earmarked for conservation [$4 billion] still represents the federal government's largest environmental outlay...

The new Act calls for the agricultural secretary to: "establish technical guidelines that outline science-based methods to measure the environmental services benefits from conservation and land management activities."

The guidelines are to be used to develop procedures for measuring environmental services benefits, a protocol for reporting them, and a registry. Guidelines to help farmers, ranchers, and forest landowners participate in carbon markets are a priority – but the bill provides no funding for the initiative. [emphasis added]

Both Ecosystem Marketplace and The Economist note that the real loss in this Farm Bill is the lack of reform of commodity subsidies. The Economist slams the Bill as one giant income distribution mechanism, funneling tax dollars to rich farmers (average income: $230,000)

Here'a a summary of the conservation title, courtesy of American Farmland Trust