Revitalizing American agriculture through sustainable subsidies

Close your eyes and imagine a farm. What did you see? Rows of vibrant vegetables, joyful animals, lush trees and buzzing bees? Did you see animals dying from habitat loss, cows and chickens cramped in tiny cages, or waterways polluted by pesticides? My guess is probably not. Unfortunately, this is the reality for many farms in the U.S. The list of environmental consequences of our current farming system seem to go on forever — loss of biodiversity, water and air pollution, deforestation, soil erosion, carbon emissions, etc. The U.S. government has played a key role in this by historically promoting large-scale, industrial, unsustainable agriculture. I am calling upon Congress to fix the mess they created by updating the Farm Bill and reallocating subsidy money to support sustainable agriculture.

The Farm Bill is a package of legislation that is rewritten every five years and encompasses all things farming and food. Within the Farm Bill is a subsidy program that determines what farms are eligible to receive subsidy money, how much money a farm can receive, etc.

The U.S. government has historically promoted industrial, large-scale agriculture through subsidy programs starting during the Great Depression. These programs were created to ensure that farmers earn a living wage despite shifts in the open market and to protect farmers from disease or natural disasters. These subsidy programs have zero sustainability requirements attached to them and have enabled farmers to cause environmental harm. According to the USDA, farmers received $424.4 billion of taxpayer money in subsidies between 1995 and 2020. Seventy-eight percent of these subsidies were received by only 10% of America’s largest farms, according to the Environmental Working Group.

Currently, organic farms account for less than 1% of farmland in America, according to Pew Research Center. The government has the power to change this. We are due for a new Farm Bill. I strongly believe that this new bill should consider the environment more than any bill has. By reallocating the money used for subsidies, America can adopt a more sustainable way of farming.

I propose a three-step plan for how the government can incentivize farmers to support the environment with subsidy programs. First, the government should lower the subsidy eligibility cap for farms. Currently, any farmer who has an annual income that doesn’t exceed $900,000 is eligible to receive subsidies. This number should be lowered so that large farms are not further encouraged to harm the environment, and this would create more money in the subsidy program without having to increase taxpayer dollars.

Second, the government should create a list of environmental regulations for farmers to follow to receive this subsidy money. These could include limiting pesticide use, growing a diversity of crops as opposed to monocropping or practicing other techniques of agroecology, for example.

Lastly, farmers who would like to qualify for these subsidies would have to obtain a certification proving they follow these regulations. Once their farm became certified, they could receive these extra subsidies. This plan wouldn’t require any additional money, rather it would reallocate money from large-scale, environmentally harmful farms to farmers who want to incorporate sustainable practices into their farming methods.

Over time, this would incentivize more and more farmers to farm more sustainably. Doing so can help ensure that we will be able to produce food for generations to come without compromising nature and human health.

You may be wondering what you can do as an individual to help tackle this major issue. The biggest thing we can do as individuals is vote. Vote for people who will fight for a more sustainable future. If you want to go even further, consider writing to your member of Congress, demanding a change in the

Farm Bill. And talk! Start conversations about farming and the environment. You may just be the person to make someone aware of an issue they had never thought of before.

Kiera Fisher lives in Boulder.