In today’s Huffington Post, Public Health Institute’s Michael Dimock, president of Roots of Change, offers his read on the recently passed federal Farm Bill.
“I see a Farm Bill that supports increased spending on research, specialty crops, healthy food access, small farmers, farmers markets and organic transition,” says Dimock, who thinks that perhaps “Congress is beginning to hear the message that public funds should be focused on growing health-promoting foods and programs that stimulate more diverse, regionally-oriented, ecologically sensitive farming systems.”
Dimock notes that “Funds for the Bill’s primary Research Title rose by $1.1 billion, a critical improvement in this age of climate change and resource depletion.”
“The Agricultural Act of 2014 contains the seeds of a new kind of Farm Bill,” that is “heading in the right direction,” Dimock concludes. “It offers conditional incentives to guide farmers and consumers to make choices that support health and resilience.”
Read Dimock’s piece, Progress but Not Yet Perfection: A Californian’s Perspective on the New Farm Bill
Michael Dimock, MA is president of Roots of Change, and former chair of Slow Food USA.