What’s the Farm Bill?
The Agriculture Improvement Act, or “Farm Bill,” is the most important legislation shaping United States food systems. Passed only twice per decade, the bill determines how we grow, distribute, and dispose of food in the U.S.

Over the next five years, the U.S. federal government will spend more than $700 billion through the Farm Bill, including in critical nutrition that supports more than 40 million people in the United States. If the 2023 Farm Bill looks like 2018 Farm Bill, it will also reinvest in the factory food system model that perpetuates needless suffering, largely through animal agriculture.

Traditional Farm Bill spending hurts nearly all of us, including:

10-billion-plus farmed animals in the U.S.
90-plus-percent of people in the U.S. who are, by fruit and vegetable consumption, nutritionally insecure
Farmers and farm communities suffering from social, economic, and environmental injustice
Our local rivers and streams, our global climate, and all who rely on our shared environment to flourish
To build a food system that works for everyone, we need to shift the Farm Bill: from Big Ag bailout to “building the good” for animals, people, and the planet.

What’s Farm Sanctuary Doing?
We’re working to “Shift the Farm Bill” through three key strategies:

Connecting policymakers with community leaders and advocacy organizations to identify shared priorities, such as through our Capitol Hill roundtable on universal nutritional security and sustainable farmer opportunity, the Eva Clayton Rural Food Forum, and our Congressional Food System Staffer Appreciation Day. Together, these events brought together more than 300 advocates, activists, and decision-makers, including more than 100 federal staff and policymakers.

Supporting alternatives to the Farm Bill, like Representative Earl Blumenauer’s (OR-03) Food and Farm Act. On March 29th, we hosted a Shift the Farm Bill: A Call for Reform kickoff to introduce the 2023 Food and Farm Act, including a panel discussion with Gene Baur, national food advocates, and Rep. Blumenauer. The event will be followed by 14 satellite events to “Shift the Farm Bill” across the country, including at 11 colleges and universities.