This week, we're joined by Dan Imhoff to talk about his book, The Farm Bill — and how Imhoff became interested in eponymous legislation, and how he got pulled down a rabbit hole of subsidies and perverse incentives that oddly make it harder to protect wild habitat. Imhoff also talks about how the farm bill as a reflection of our broken legislative system and how we incentivize farmers that get bigger and produce more while smaller farmers suffer.
But how does this relate to transportation and/or cities? Ultimately, 70 percent of the bill’s funding is aimed at the supplemental nutrition assistance program and food stamps, which is important for a lot of nutrition policy in cities. And to look into the future of what cities can do to help, we only have to look as far as what Seattle has done to think outside the usual policy silos.
