Every five years, law makers in Congress pass the “farm bill,” which is a set of legislation that creates nation-wide standards for agriculture and food systems. The current bill was passed in 2018 and will expire at the end of the year. Wendy Johnson and Lisa Held join host Douglas to talk about what is in the 2023 legislation, how the farm bill impacts farmers and the rest of us, and what’s at risk if congress doesn’t pass the bill.

Lisa is Civil Eats’ senior staff reporter and has been covering the Farm Bill at length. We speak to her specifically about her piece, “This Farm Bill Could Reshape the Food System. Here Are 10 Proposals at the Center of the Fight.” Wendy is a farmer based in Iowa. She joins us from her farm to talk about her recent op-ed for Civil Eats titled, “Farmers Want Climate Resilience, but GOP Lawmakers Want to Redirect Billions in Conservation Funds.”

Wendy Johnson is owner and operator of Jóia Food & Fiber Farm, a diverse perennial-based farm in northern Iowa growing perennial grains, grazing grassfed sheep and cows and humanely raising poultry and pigs. She started Counting Sheep Sleeping Company to add value to the fiber her 100 percent grass-fed sheep produce. Wendy also co-manages her family’s conventional corn and soybean farm. She often speaks and writes about the need for diverse enterprises and people on the land, the intersections of climate change and agriculture, food system inequality, ag policy, and the observations on the lands she cares for. Wendy is currently Climate Land Leaders co-policy lead and spokesperson and provides leadership on several boards and committees furthering the growth of a more diverse and resilient Iowa and Midwest.

Lisa Held is Civil Eats’ senior staff reporter. Since 2015, she has reported on agriculture and the food system with an eye toward sustainability, equality, and health, and her stories have appeared in publications including The Guardian, The Washington Post, and Mother Jones. In the past, she covered health and wellness and was an editor at Well+Good. She is based in Baltimore and has a master’s degree from Columbia University’s School of Journalism.

Image by André Rathgeber from Pixabay

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