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THE “Required reading for anyone who cares about what we eat.”
— from the foreword by Marion Nestle

FARM
BILL
A CITIZEN’S GUIDE
If you eat, pay taxes,
or care about our
nation’s food supply,
this book is
for you.
DANIEL IMHOFF
WITH CHRISTINA BADARACCO
THE FARM BILL
 THE
FARM BILL
A Citizen’s Guide

Daniel Imhoff
With Christina Badaracco

Washington | Covelo | London

Copyright © 2019 Daniel Imhoff.
First Edition, Food Fight: The Citizen’s Guide to a Food and Farm Bill, Copyright
© 2007 Daniel Imhoff.
Second Edition, Food Fight: The Citizen’s Guide to the Next Food and Farm Bill,
Copyright © 2012 Daniel Imhoff.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conven-

tions. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means
without permission in writing from the publisher: Island Press, 2000 M
Street, NW, Suite 650, Washington, DC 20036.

ISLAND PRESS is a trademark of the Center for Resource Economics.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018946760

All Island Press books are printed on environmentally responsible materials.

Manufactured in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Keywords: agribusiness, Agricultural Adjustment Act, CAFO, commodity
programs, conservation title, crop insurance, crop subsidies, ethanol, food
stamps/SNAP, nutrition assistance, rural development
Contents

Foreword, Marion Nestle . ........................................................................................................................... ix

Preface, Dan Imhoff ...................................................................................................................................... xi
Acknowledgments ................................................................................................................................... xiii

PART I. Farm Bill Basics

Chapter 1.    What Is the Farm Bill? . .................................................................................................... 3
Chapter 2.   Why Does the Farm Bill Matter? ................................................................................. 7
Chapter 3.   Who Benefits from the Farm Bill? ............................................................................ 11
Chapter 4. How Does the Farm Bill Work? ................................................................................... 19

PART II. The History of Food Policy

Chapter 5.   Origins of the Farm Bill ................................................................................................. 27
Chapter 6.  The Changing Face of Agriculture ............................................................................ 33
Chapter 7.    The Changing Face of Hunger ................................................................................... 41
Chapter 8.   The Conservation Era . ................................................................................................... 49

PART III. Key Policy Issues

Chapter 9.  Crop Subsidies .................................................................................................................. 61
Chapter 10.   Nutrition, SNAP, and Healthy Eating ....................................................................... 69
Chapter 11. Agribusiness versus Family Farms . .......................................................................... 75
Chapter 12.    Job Creation ....................................................................................................................... 83
Chapter 13. Trade ..................................................................................................................................... 91
Chapter 14.    An Alternative System ................................................................................................ 103

vii
viii | Contents

PART IV. Reforming the Farm Bill

Chapter 15.    Opportunities for Change ........................................................................................ 111
Chapter 16.  Public Health . ................................................................................................................ 117
Chapter 17.    Food Security . ................................................................................................................ 129
Chapter 18.   Ethanol ............................................................................................................................. 137
Chapter 19.  Energy and Climate Change . .................................................................................. 147
Chapter 20.       Conservation .................................................................................................................. 159
Chapter 21.     National Security ......................................................................................................... 175

PART V. The Future of Food Policy

Chapter 22. Ecosystem-Based Agriculture ................................................................................. 183
Chapter 23.  Local Food . ......................................................................................................................189
Chapter 24. A Citizen’s Farm Bill . ...................................................................................................199
Chapter 25.   Twenty-Five Solutions ................................................................................................ 201
Chapter 26. A Vision of Sustainable Food . .................................................................................203
Activist Tool Kit ..........................................................................................................................................207
Notes ............................................................................................................................................................. 219
Glossary ........................................................................................................................................................243
Foreword

In 2011, I had the idea of teaching a graduate course on the Farm Bill
to food studies students at New York University. As happens every four
years or so, the bill was coming up for renewal, and I thought it would
be useful for the students—and me—to take a deep dive into what
it was about. I knew help was available. Dan Imhoff had laid out the
issues with great clarity in his first book about this bill in 2007. I used
that book as a text.
I wrote about this experience in “The Farm Bill Drove Me Insane”
(Politico, March 17, 2016), which it most definitely did. The Farm Bill is
huge, encompassing more than a hundred programs, each with its
own acronym and set of interested lobbyists. The bill is unreadable,
consisting mainly of amendments to previous bills; it is comprehen-
sible only to lobbyists, a precious few congressional staffers, and oc-
casional brave souls like Imhoff willing to take it on. It costs taxpayers
close to $100 billion a year; most weirdly, 80 percent of this money cov-
ers the costs of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP,
formerly food stamps), which is stuck in the Farm Bill for reasons of
politics. The Farm Bill represents pork-barrel, log-rolling politics at its
worst.
Imhoff explains the bill as a fully rigged system gamed by Big Ag-
riculture in collusion with government. The public pays for this system
thrice over: at the checkout counter, in subsidized insurance premiums,
and for cleaning up the damage it causes to health and the environ-
ment. Despite these scandalous costs, the mere mention of the words
farm bill makes eyes glaze over. Why? This is a forest-versus-trees prob-
lem. The bill—the forest—is far too big and complicated to grasp. We
try to understand it by looking at the programs—the trees—one by
one. Hence: insanity.

ix
x | Foreword
Imhoff’s approach to the forest is to focus on
the overriding issues that Farm Bills ought to ad-
dress. A rational agricultural policy should promote
an adequate food supply while protecting farmers
against uncertain climate and price fluctuations. It
should promote the health of people and the envi-
ronment and do so sustainably. And it should pro-
vide incentives for people to farm and ensure a de-
cent living for everyone involved. Instead, the Farm
Bills encourage an industrial agricultural system
incentivized to overproduce corn and soybeans to
feed animals and to make ethanol for automobiles,
to the great detriment of public health and environ-
mental protection.
Nowhere are these problems more obvious
than in the debates about the 2018 Farm Bill. As I
write these words, the House of Representatives
is working on a bill that seems less protective of
health and the environment than any previous ver-
sion. To cut costs while maintaining support of Big
Agriculture, the House aims to reduce SNAP enroll-
ments, eliminate conservation requirements, and
cut out even small programs that support small
farmers or promote production of fruits and vege-
tables, called “specialty crops” in US Department of
Agriculture parlance.
At this moment, the outcome of the 2018 bill
is uncertain, but The Farm Bill: A Citizen’s Guide has
a more generic purpose: to introduce readers to
the big-picture issues. Imhoff relates the history
of Farm Bills, their origins, and their subsequent
growth. Imhoff describes the system: how Big Agri-
culture works, how food stamps ended up in the bill,
what it all means for farming and food assistance,
and what kind of legislation is needed to promote a
healthier food system.
We should, Imhoff insists, rework the Farm Bill
to promote public health by supporting an agri-
cultural system that grows food for people rather
than for animals and cars. We should legislate that
crops be grown sustainably so as to reduce agricul-
ture’s contribution to greenhouse gas emissions,
soil losses, and water pollution. Imhoff suggests
twenty-five solutions to current agricultural prob-
lems. These should be required reading for anyone
who cares about what we eat, today and in the
future. It is too late to fix the 2018 Farm Bill, but
there is plenty of time and opportunity to make the
next one a true citizens’ Farm Bill. To quote Imhoff,
“It’s time to question whether the industrial mega-
farm model is the only way to feed a growing global
population or whether it’s even possible for such a
system to survive without costly government sup-
ports and unsustainable environmental practices.”
This book should inspire better, smarter solutions.
Get busy.
Marion Nestle
Preface

In the late 1990s, I was particularly moved by a National Public Radio

feature about US government programs that compensated farmers
for maintaining unplanted fields. It was part of a concerted strategy to
restore wildlife habitat across the country’s farmlands. With the help
of a lead biologist at the Natural Resources Conservation Service, I trav-
eled extensively looking for the best examples of these government
efforts. I saw grassland recovery in the Prairie Pothole Region, bayou
and black bear restoration in Texarkana, panther habitat in southern
Florida, riparian rewilding in the Sacramento Valley, and bobwhite
quail reforestation in North Carolina, to name a few. This reporting
provided a firsthand introduction to the pros and cons of US agricul-
ture policy and formed an important chapter in my book Farming with
the Wild: Enhancing Biodiversity on Farms and Ranches.
A few years later, I found myself sitting in a conference in Sacra-
mento prior to the debates around what was the forthcoming 2007
Farm Bill. Speaker after speaker gave an astonishing account of neg-
ative consequences of the tens of billions of dollars spent every year
on US agricultural and food assistance policies. It was stunning tes-
timony: impacts to Mexican corn farmers due to years of dumping, a
decade of record payouts primarily to large corporate farms that were
forcing small- and medium-sized operations out of business, the sub-
sidization of monocultures over vast areas where crops repeatedly
failed one of every two years, and a spiraling crisis of diabetes and obe-
sity fueled partially by a diet of cheap processed foods.
It was clear from this conference that the Farm Bill was perhaps
the most important legislation that most citizens had never heard
of—and one that affected them three meals a day—so I volunteered
to be its translator. It proved to be a humbling task. The scale of the bill

xi
xii | Preface
is so enormous that it’s nearly impossible for one
person to understand it all. A thick web of technical
jargon and acronyms must be unraveled to break
policies down to relatable concepts. Perhaps the
short time frame was a blessing. It gave me little
time to fret about what I had signed up for.
Food Fight: The Citizen’s Guide to a Food and
Farm Bill was published in early 2007. As the policy
debates continued into 2008, I made many dozens
of appearances around the country helping audi-
ences understand how Farm Bill policies affected
their regions and communities. The book’s dy-
namic graphic approach gave readers easy access
to extremely technical information. Food Fight was
quickly adopted by university instructors and gar-
nered wide mainstream media attention. It also
directly inspired important efforts such as Whole-
some Wave’s farmers market food stamp incentives,
health impact studies within the Centers for Dis-
ease Control and Prevention, and the City of Seat-
tle’s Farm Bill Principles.
A significant revision of the book was under-
taken in anticipation of the 2012 Farm Bill reautho-
rization, which stretched into 2014. Since 1990, the
legislation has been renewed every six years, often
with significant new directions. In 2016, Island Press
approached me about reintroducing the book with
an even more direct and accessible format. Thanks
to a concerted effort by Christina Badaracco, graphic
designer Timothy Rice, and the team at Island Press,
we are pleased to introduce a completely updated
and revised primer on this most critical and timely
matter.
How can we use the Farm Bill’s precious funds
to incentivize positive outcomes related to public
health, a vibrant and regenerative agriculture, pro-
tection of wild nature, and the creation of land-
scapes resilient to climate change? We hope this
book informs and inspires you to become a policy
champion in your own life and community.
Dan Imhoff
Acknowledgments

A book like The Farm Bill is only made possible with the careful man-
agement of a very large number of details and the help of true author-
ities in many wide-ranging fields. First, we would like to offer our sin-
cere appreciation to Emily Turner and her team at Island Press. Emily
was our editor and champion of this project, and her careful atten-
tion is evident throughout every chapter. Graphic designer Timothy
Rice, a long-time collaborator, clocked long hours refining charts and
illustrations. Many thanks go to Marion Nestle for her kind introduc-
tion to the book and many decades as a mentor, thought leader, and
guiding voice for policies that promote public health, humane animal
stewardship, environmental protection, and scientific and fiscal sanity.
We would like to particularly thank the following individuals, and
we apologize in advance if we have somehow failed to acknowledge
anyone’s contributions. Ferd Hoefner from the National Sustainable
Agriculture Coalition provided data about conservation programs. Tim-
othy Wise from Tufts University offered continued support and insight
about the impacts of NAFTA and corn dumping. Mary Hendrickson
from the University of Missouri shared data and insight about con-
solidation in the livestock industry. Chris Brown and Patricia Carrillo
guided us through ALBA’s impressive farmer incubation program. Jav-
ier Zamora from JSM Organics gave a most gracious organic farm tour.
Elanor Starmer of George Washington University and Rose Hayden-
Smith from the University of California, Division of Agriculture and Nat-
ural Resources, provided key background about the KYF2 (Know Your
Farmer, Know Your Food) initiative.
Thanks go to Honor Eldridge from the Soil Association for her
sidebar and international perspective on crop insurance. Tricia Kovacs
from USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service offered information about

xiii
xiv | Acknowledgments
USDA’s Local Food Compass Map. Scott Shimmin
from USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service
(NASS) helped in acquiring data about beginning
farmers. Letitia Toomer-Jones from USDA’s NRCS
provided key information about conservation grant
applications. Claudia Hitaj from USDA’s Economic
Research Service (ERS) helped with data about ag-
ricultural energy usage, and Marc Ribaudo from
USDA’s ERS provided data on nutrient management
on croplands. Gary R. Keough and Rosemarie Philips
from USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Ser-
vice shared a map of the distribution of beginning
farmers. Brenda Carson from USDA’s Farm Service
Agency shed light on agricultural disaster designa-
tions. John-Michael Cross from the Environmental
and Energy Study Institute and Andy Olsen from
the Environmental Law and Policy Center helped
us better fathom the Farm Bill’s renewable energy
programs. Karen Hansen-Kuhn from the Institute
for Agriculture and Trade Policy contributed up-to-
date data on corn dumping as well as the sidebar
she cowrote with Sophia Murphy.
Lynn Henning shared her unique investigative
skills on Farm Bill programs and concentrated ani-
mal feeding operations in Michigan. Thanks go to
Craig Cox from the Environmental Working Group
for reviewing our chapter about ethanol and to
Dan Rubenstein from Princeton University, Garrett
Graddy-Lovelace from American University, and
Nina Ichikawa from the Berkeley Food Institute, who
facilitated this collaboration between two authors.
Martha Noble again provided her invaluable exper-
tise. Last but not least, thanks go to the supporters
of Watershed Media, who for so many years have
made this critical work possible. We could not have
done it without all of you, and for that we will be
eternally grateful.
 Part 1

Farm bill basics

1. What Is the Farm Bill?

Governments have long played a role in food systems. Thou-

The path to reform sands of years ago, the stockpiles in palace granaries were distributed
ultimately leads to during times of need. Such policies may have been more a matter of
self-preservation than altruism; passing out free bread, rice, or other
government policy.
staples goes a long way toward preempting rebellion.
As the adage says, we Today, most countries accept that governments need to be involved
in food production and hunger prevention. Just as a strong defense is
reap what we sow, and in
regarded as national security, a diverse and well-developed agriculture
that regard there may be is regarded as food security. In the United States, the Department of
nothing more important Agriculture (USDA) is charged with this dual mission: support the cre-
ation of an abundant food supply and ensure that all citizens receive
than the Farm Bill. basic nutrition. A primary mechanism for achieving this mission is fed-
eral legislation passed every five to seven years known as the Farm Bill.
Unlike during the Great Depression, when the Farm Bill was first
written, the United States is no longer a country interlaced with mil-
lions of small, diversified family farms set amid vibrant rural commu-
nities. Today the United States is the world’s leading industrial agri-
culture powerhouse, but a large share of production has shifted to
nonfamily farms and larger family farms. About 1 percent of US farms
are nonfamily farms that account for 10 percent of agricultural pro-
duction. Large-scale and mid-sized family farms made up 9 percent
of all US farms in 2016 but accounted for 60 percent of the value of
US agricultural production. Small-scale family operations (less than
$350,000 gross cash farm income) accounted for only 26 percent of
production but represented 90 percent of US farms.1
Feeding more than 320 million citizens is just one part of the con-
temporary job assignment. The American farmer is also expected to

Daniel Imhoff and Christina Badaracoo, The Farm Bill: A Citizen’s Guide, 3
DOI 10.5822/ 978-1-61091-975-3_1, © 2019 Daniel Imhoff.
4 | The Farm Bill
help counter the mounting trade deficit and feed
the rest of the world (or so we are told) with a steady
stream of exports. Then there’s the additional task
of supplying feedstock for ethanol, bioplastics, and
other products used as replacements for fossil fuels.
To promote this massive farm output, the
government has embedded complex subsidies in
various sections of the nearly 1,000-page Farm
Bill. Land payments, crop insurance, research assis-
tance, export marketing, and many other programs
serve to maintain an ample supply of certain foods
and commodity crops. The scale of government
intervention is such that talk of “free markets” is
merely rhetorical. Conventional farmers stay afloat
by farming the system rather than growing what
might best serve their particular tract of land for
the long term or provide for more well-rounded,
healthy diets. If the government removes all finan-
cial risks from growing corn, offers generous tax
breaks to ethanol producers, and writes six-figure
checks to feedlot operators, for example, farmers
will plant corn and lots of it—even when the real
winners are the agribusinesses and food manufac-
turers that buy it.
This scenario plays out each spring during
what’s called the fight for dirt, when American
farmers decide how much land to devote to each
commodity crop. Corn wins easily and is grown on
upward of 90 million acres of farmland, an area
roughly the size of the entire state of Montana. Fig-
ure 1 highlights many of the effects of this massive
production.
Then, because American farmers export 40
percent of the world’s corn and almost 40 percent
of the soybeans, these choices ripple across global
commodity markets.2 Farmers who grow corn, cot-
ton, wheat, rice, or soybeans in countries without
strong subsidy programs can be severely disadvan-
taged. According to Tufts University agricultural re-
searcher Timothy Wise, the dumping of subsidized
US corn on the Mexican market, for instance, cost
Mexico’s farmers as much as $200 per acre per year
from the passage of the North American Free Trade
Agreement in 1994 until 2010.3 An estimated 2.3
million small farmers in Mexico were forced to look
for other work in the burgeoning maquiladoras—
manufacturing factories and sweatshops of US cor-
porations in cities like Juarez and Matamoros—or
in fields, orchards, vineyards, slaughter plants, and
other sectors across the border to the north. At the
same time, subsidization of corn for ethanol drove
up prices of corn exports in Mexico, increasing food
prices and resulting in food insecurity. Although
Mexico grows predominantly white (“food”) corn
that is distinct from American yellow (“field”) corn,
their prices are closely correlated. 4 Rising prices pre-
vented further dumping in subsequent years, but
recent evidence suggests that low prices are again
driving US dumping in export markets.5
Massive farm worker migration is just one of
the social costs of the government subsidizing an
oversupply of corn. Others are harder to measure.
For instance, most corn that American farmers
grow isn’t eaten by people. Instead, it is fed to ani-
mals in livestock warehouses and feedlots. It is fer-
mented into ethanol (with the residual grains fed to
animals) or turned into sweeteners and hundreds
of other manufactured food ingredients. It contrib-
utes to a food system that relies heavily on farm
chemicals, processing, packaging, and fossil fuels.
The irony is that all this work conflicts with the
government’s other major tasks in overseeing the
Figure 1
Effects of Cornification
Taxpayer Subsidies. Direct payments and crop insurance total-
ing nearly $2.4 billion helped make corn the predominant crop
$$$ in 2014. Many small- and medium-sized farmers depend on sub-
sides to survive while large operators use subsidies to get bigger.
Corn Surpluses. 15.1 billion bushels were produced
on more than 86 million acres in 2016. This created
a surplus stock of 2.1 billion bushels. Very little of the corn is actually
fed directly to humans. Most goes to animal feed or is processed into
starches, corn oil, sweeteners, or ethanol for our gas tanks.
Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations. Con-
finement facilities, largely made possible and
profitable through the low costs of subsidized feed, house tens of
thousands of hogs, chickens, or cattle. Heavy concentrations of animal
wastes, odor pollution, reliance on antibiotics, and dangerous work-
places are just a few of the many health concerns.
Food Deserts. Monoculture specialization of corn
and other grains for export is the reason we see “so
much agriculture, so little food” in farming areas. Impoverished inner-
city areas, where access to supermarkets or farmers markets is limited
or nonexistent, also become food deserts.
Dead Zones. Nutrient and chemical runoff from farms in the
Corn Belt flow through the Mississippi River watershed and
have created a dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico, decimating
fish and other marine life. There are dozens of other agriculturally in-
duced hypoxic zones, including in the Chesapeake Bay.
1. What Is the Farm Bill? || 5
Food Miles. Processed foods now
travel more than 1,300 miles and
fresh produce travels more than
1,500 miles from farm to table. California, Florida, and a number of
other states (and a growing number of countries) supply the nation’s
supermarkets with fruits and vegetables. Relatively little of this spe-
cialty crop production is supported by federal programs.
Immigration. After the implementation of NAFTA in 1994, an
estimated 1 .3 to 2.3 million Mexican campesinos were forced
to leave their lands and move elsewhere in Mexico or in the US
to attain employment. Subsidized US corn, combined with the NAFTA
trade agreement, had a catastrophic effect on Mexican farmers.
Rural Exodus. The farmer replacement rate has fallen as the
number of beginning farmers replacing aging farmers has
decreased by more than 23% in the last five years. Farmers
are now 17 years older than the average American worker, and we have
more farmers over the age of 75 than between 35 and 44. Many won-
der if the United States may permanently lose the skills and productive
farmland to remain an agricultural leader.
Obesity Crisis. The proportion of Americans who are over-
weight or obese climbed to 70.7% in 2014 and the child obe-
sity rate has more than tripled since the 1970s (now at 17%).
Lack of physical activity and poor nutrition—linked to subsidized and
super-sized processed foods high in sugar, fat, and sodium—lie at the
root of the epidemic.
6 | The Farm Bill
food system: establishing healthy dietary guide-
lines and doling out nutrition assistance to those
who are hungry. It might seem that subsidizing an
industrial food system would make food inexpen-
sive and abundant for everyone. The reality, however,
is that enrollment in the Supplemental Nutrition
Assistance Program, or SNAP (formerly called food
stamps), hit an all-time high of almost 48 million
participants in 2013.6 In 2016, more than 41.2 million
people were living in “food-insecure” households,
implying that they lacked consistent and sufficient
food for active, healthy lives.7
What’s more, all the mountains of cheap food
haven’t made us healthy, either. Indeed, our epi-
demic of obesity hits the poor hardest. Fresh fruits,
vegetables, and whole grains—the foods most
recommended by USDA dietary guidelines—are
largely ignored by Farm Bill policies. We have be-
come overeaters of the wrong things, and many
critics say that Farm Bill policies are at least partially
at fault and can play a dynamic role in reversing this
crisis.
Today’s global headlines reflect crops unable to
adapt to rising temperatures, spiking health costs
due to high obesity rates, food shortages in certain
areas of the world, and disease outbreaks emanat-
ing from ever-larger meat-, milk-, and egg-producing
animal factories. The number of people affected,
and worried, about these problems is growing,
and, increasingly, they are realizing that the path to
reform ultimately leads to government policy. As the
adage says, we reap what we sow, and in that regard
there may be nothing more important than the Farm
Bill.
2. Why Does the Farm Bill
 Matter?
As a result of the Farm
Bill, citizens pay a national
food bill at least three
times: (1) at the checkout
stand, (2) in taxes that
subsidize commodity crop
production, and (3) in
environmental cleanup and
medical costs.
Daniel Imhoff and Christina Badaracoo, The Farm Bill: A Citizen’s Guide,
DOI 10.5822/ 978-1-61091-975-3_2, © 2019 Daniel Imhoff.
On one level, we could make this a very short read by simply stating
that although the Farm Bill does matter to the average US citizen, it is
a fully rigged game run by the immensely powerful farm lobbies and
monopolies that profit mightily from how our food is grown, processed,
marketed, and distributed. Concerned citizens who do want to change
an unfair and unhealthy system for the better are going to fall short of
reform. Sadly, that may be all too true. The next Farm Bill will probably
continue to prop up the industrial agriculture complex with tens of bil-
lions of taxpayer dollars annually, as it has done for decades. But our
nation’s food and farming system is far too important to us all to forgo
serious debate and the hard work needed to achieve urgent reforms.
Here’s why.
If you eat, pay taxes, care about biodiversity, worry about the qual-
ity of school lunches, or notice the loss of farmland and woodlands,
you have a personal stake in the Farm Bill. If you’re concerned about
escalating federal budget deficits, the fate of family farmers, working
conditions for immigrant farm laborers, the persistence of hunger and
poverty, or how we support local and organic and pasture-raised food,
you should pay attention to the Farm Bill. There are dozens more rea-
sons the Farm Bill, and its attendant tens of billions of dollars, is critical
to our land, our bodies, and our children’s future (figure 2 gives a full
list of problems and solutions). They include:
• The twilight of the cheap oil age;
• The onset of unpredictable climatic conditions;
• Looming water shortages;
• Increasing dead zones caused in part by agricultural runoff;
7
Figure 2

Course Correction Present Challenges

Americans deserve a Farm Bill Consolidation and concentration in the hands of a few corporate
that addresses the challenges of agribusinesses
the times. Current Farm Bill pro-
grams shovel money to the larg- Soil and biodiversity loss
est producers and don’t properly
support the small- and medium-
sized growers, otherwise known Converging national healthcare crises
as the “agriculture of the mid-
dle.” Our system is overloaded Childhood obesity at an all-time high; chronic hunger and inadequate
with animal products and pro- nutrition that affect almost 45 million Americans
cessed foods and short on fresh
Sprawl into prime farmland
fruits and vegetables.
With record budget deficits,
Record budget deficits
rising energy costs, an unpredict-
able climate, and skyrocketing World Trade Organization rulings declaring US export subsidies
illegal
health costs driven largely by
preventable diseases, we can’t Devastated farm communities
afford not to act. Future Farm
Bills must look forward to ensure Rapidly aging US farmer population
that we have a farmer popula-
tion actively engaged in growing Fluctuating energy costs
healthy foods, conservation in-
centives that protect our natural Increasing dependence on commodity exports and imports
resources from contamination of “fresh” food
and overexploitation, research
Water contamination and water shortages
that gives farmers valuable tools,
and nutrition programs that en-
sure healthy and affordable food Global warming
for all.
Increasing outbreaks of infectious diseases related to confined
livestock production

Declining honeybee and native pollinator populations

Costly ethanol program

Solutions Proposed by Farm Bill Reformers
Limit payments to individual recipients to level the playing field for all farmers; reform meat-packer
regulations to break monopoly control of livestock industry; protect small and mid-sized farmers

Include requirements for on-farm conservation for all insurance and subsidy programs; make no net soil
loss a goal of farm programs through fully enforced Sodsaver, Sodbuster, and Swampbuster provisions

Better align crop supports with the most recent Dietary Guidelines for Americans; launch nationwide
farm-to-school, farm-to-college, and other fresh food distribution programs that also include a strong
educational and fitness component
Maintain food assistance programs including improved access to healthy foods; expand funding for SNAP-
Ed and SNAP at farmers markets; ensure that every American has access to affordable, healthy food
Increase funding to keep farmland and ranchland in agricultural use and open space rather than
subdivisions and sprawl
Make spending serve as true public investment with targeted results; combine funding sources
Shift subsidies toward green payments, such as the Conservation Stewardship Program, which rewards
farmers for environmental caretaking rather than overproducing export crops
Invest and offer loans to revitalize and diversify the rural sector; rebuild livestock processing
infrastructure
Add 100,000 new farmers and ranchers over the course of the next Farm Bill
Expand research into energy-effective farming systems and increase support for on-farm energy
conservation and renewable energy infrastructure
Invest in value-added processing and flexible supports for more diversified local and regional “specialty
crops”; increase funding for efforts like the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program in schools
Increase incentives for farming systems that protect watersheds; research alternatives to synthetic
fertilizers
Incentivize energy conservation, carbon sequestration, and pasture-based agriculture; implement cap-
and-trade
Expand grass-pastured livestock operations; place a moratorium on new CAFO creation; eliminate EQIP
funding for CAFO waste management; phase out nonveterinary, preventative antibiotic use in livestock

Expand wild habitat for native pollinators in and around farms; adapt new programs for beekeepers

End Renewable Fuel Standard that mandates corn ethanol use; evaluate role for advanced biofuels;
increase fuel efficiency
10 | The Farm Bill
• An aging farm population and lack of op-
portunity for young farmers;
• Expansion of corn ethanol production;
• Escalating medical costs related to obe-
sity with a food system deficient in nu-
trition education and access to healthy
foods;
• Taxpayer subsidies to corporate farms re-
gardless of economic need;
• 44 million Americans, including 15 million
children, who don’t get enough to eat.1
The Farm Bill matters because it makes some
big mega-farms scandalously rich while it drives
family farmers out of business. It makes us fat, yet
at the same time it produces a fragile (rather than
a resilient) food system. It supports destructive
monoculture farming practices and then spends
billions trying to put bandages on the damage. It
artificially sets prices while officials tout the virtues
of “free markets” and “fair trade.” Its consequences
contribute to poverty, rural exodus, and famine.2
Subsidies, now predominantly in the form of
insurance, do provide a critical safety net in some
years to family farms that continue to grow com-
modity crops, helping them survive in unpredict-
able weather conditions and a competitive global
economy. But the biggest beneficiaries are absentee
landlords, tractor dealers, and banks and insurance
companies that service farmers as well as the corpo-
rate agribusinesses, grain distributors, animal feed-
ing operations, and ethanol producers that purchase
subsidized crops. What started as an ambitious tem-
porary effort to lift millions of Americans out of eco-
nomic and ecological desperation during the Great
Depression and Dust Bowl (supported initially by a
tax on food processors) devolved over decades into
a corporate boondoggle. As a result of the Farm Bill,
citizens pay a national food bill at least three times:
(1) at the checkout stand, (2) in taxes that subsidize
commodity crop production, and (3) in environmen-
tal cleanup and medical costs related to the conse-
quences of industrial commodity-based agriculture.
Most analysts, most legislators, and even many
farmers agree that our present course leaves the
United States unprepared to meet many of the
urgent twenty-first-century challenges outlined
above. The silver lining is that Americans actually
have a substantial food and farm policy to debate.
Conditions for change are ripe, but a national move-
ment with the political power to demand progres-
sive reforms has been slow to materialize.
Our challenge is not to abolish
government support; rather, it is to make
certain we are investing in a viable future
for our food system.
The Farm Bill matters because much-needed
funds can drive small-scale entrepreneurship, on-farm
research, species protection, nutritional assistance,
healthy school lunches, job creation, and habitat res-
toration. Our challenge is not to abolish government
support; rather, it is to make certain we are investing
in a viable future for our food system. That responsi-
bility now rests primarily with the parties who con-
trol the House and Senate Agriculture Committees
that write the Farm Bill. Will they continue massive
giveaways to corporations and surplus commodity
producers, or will they reward stewardship, promote
healthy diets, enhance regional food production, sup-
port family farms, address climate change, and make
it easier for hungry families to eat healthy foods?
3. Who Benefits from the Farm
 Bill?
Omnibus legislation: a law
that addresses multiple
issues simultaneously.
Daniel Imhoff and Christina Badaracoo, The Farm Bill: A Citizen’s Guide,
DOI 10.5822/ 978-1-61091-975-3_3, © 2019 Daniel Imhoff.
The Farm Bill is deceptively simple shorthand for the gargan-
tuan package of legislation about food and farming that the US Con-
gress drafts, debates, and ultimately passes every five to seven years.
Each bill, as well as the drafts now under consideration, actually has a
formal name—such as the Food and Agriculture Act of 1977; the Fed-
eral Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996; the Farm Se-
curity and Rural Investment Act of 2002; the Food, Conservation, and
Energy Act of 2008; the Agricultural Act of 2014—but people gener-
ally refer to each as simply “the Farm Bill.” Since its origins in 1933 as
the Agricultural Adjustment Act, the bill has snowballed into one of
the most—if not the most—significant legislative measures affecting
land use in the United States.
The Farm Bill is an omnibus legislation because it simultaneously
addresses multiple issues. However, modern Farm Bills traditionally
have three primary thrusts: (1) food nutrition programs (now about 80
percent of gross outlays), (2) income and price supports for commod-
ity crops and other forms of crop insurance (about 13 percent), and (3)
conservation incentives (about 6 percent). In addition, the Farm Bill or-
ganizes its spending categories into “titles.” These categories include
trade and foreign food aid, forestry (because forests and woodlots are
important components of farms), agricultural credit, rural develop-
ment, research and education, nutrition, conservation, commodity pro-
grams, energy, horticulture, crop insurance, and miscellaneous (such
as disease monitoring in aquaculture)1 (figure 3). A number of policies,
such as food assistance, conservation, agricultural trade, credit, rural
development, and research, are actually governed by both the Farm
Bill and a variety of separate laws, which are sometimes renewed or
11
Farm Bill Titles

The order and total number of Farm Bill titles vary from bill to bill. In the 2014 Farm Bill, the titles run as
follows:

Title 1: Commodities Title 7: Research, Extension, and Related Matters

Title 2: Conservation Title 8: Forestry
Title 3: Trade Title 9: Energy
Title 4: Nutrition Title 10: Horticulture
Title 5: Credit Title 11: Crop Insurance
Title 6: Rural Development Title 12: Miscellaneous

Mandatory Spending

Programs with mandatory funding are generally assured, whereas programs with discretionary funding
survive and perish at the hands of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees. Certain program cat-
egories have achieved baseline levels of funding over the decades.

Commodity Programs (1930s) Rural Development, Research, and Horticulture (late

Nutrition Assistance Programs (1960s) 1990s)
Conservation (1980s) Crop Insurance (2000)

Farm Bill Names

Each Farm Bill is actually a reauthorization of the programs dating back to the 1930s as well as an authori-
zation of new programs.

Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933 Food and Agriculture Act of 1977

Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938 Agriculture and Food Act of 1981
Agricultural Act of 1948 Food Security Act of 1985
Agricultural Act of 1949 Food, Agriculture, Conservation, and Trade Act
Agricultural Act of 1954 of 1990
Agricultural Act of 1956 Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act
Food and Agricultural Act of 1965 of 1996
Agricultural Act of 1970 Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002
Agricultural and Consumer Protection Act Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008
of 1973 Agricultural Act of 2014

12

modified as stand-alone bills. (The Child Nutrition
Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Food Safety Mod-
ernization Act are recent examples of stand-alone
legislation that addresses food and agriculture
issues.) Increasingly, though, Congress prefers to
combine many of these laws into a single, mam-
moth reauthorization of multiple statutes at the
same time it renews the farm commodity pro-
grams.2 This omnibus nature of the Farm Bill keeps
the public in the dark: it’s nearly impossible for any
one person to understand the full extent of every-
thing that’s covered.
Although more than three-fourths of the Farm
Bill budget is currently devoted to safety net nutri-
tion programs, it is commodity subsidies, crop insur-
ance, and price supports that most people equate
with the heart of the legislation.3 At their noblest,
subsidy payments to farmers are intended to pro-
vide an income safety net in this economically and
meteorologically volatile profession, thereby pro-
tecting the food supply and strengthening rural
communities. Some programs genuinely invest in
the long-term stability of the food supply and stew-
ardship of the land. That was particularly true in
the 1930s and 1940s, when the bill’s defining goals
involved idling land to prevent oversupply of crops
and installing contour strips to protect the soil in
exchange for loans and price supports for storable
foods.
Along the way, though, the Farm Bill became
an engine driving surplus production of commodity
crops and a gravy train for powerful corporations
that purchased and traded them. The bill’s original
focus on the public good was derailed. After mod-
est reforms over five decades, political realities and
global economics collided in the 1980s. Increased
3. Who Benefits from the Farm Bill? | 13
global trade, the call for less government spending,
the concentration of food distribution and process-
ing centers, and low commodity prices took a toll on
the farm sector and rural communities. Corporate
agribusinesses and mega-farms then succeeded in
tilting subsidies completely in their favor. Although
control of today’s agriculture is concentrated in a
small number of corporate operations, the public
perception of US agriculture is still rooted in nos-
talgic notions like the father and daughter in Grant
Wood’s classic painting American Gothic, the illus-
trations of Norman Rockwell, and the iconic images
of the Western cowboy.
Many Americans believe, for example, that the
tens of billions of dollars the government spends
on agriculture primarily support farms where a
husband and wife work from dawn to dusk grow-
ing crops, with roosters crowing from fence posts
and cows grazing on rolling pastures. The real pic-
ture is not so idyllic. Commodity payments primarily
go to large monoculture operators who grow corn
and other feed grains, wheat and other food grains,
rice, peanuts, sugar, cotton, soy, and oilseeds as well
as to dairy producers. Three in four farmers get no
commodity payments at all. Meanwhile, the top 5
percent of subsidy recipients (often producer coop-
eratives, Native American tribes, and large corporate
entities) averaged more than $700,000 each be-
tween 1995 and 2016. 4,5 Another common perception
is that Farm Bill subsidies that pay farmers not to
grow crops have made soil erosion a relic of the Dust
Bowl. Less than 10 percent of the US Department of
Agriculture (USDA) budget is linked to conservation
practices, however. According to the USDA’s Natural
Resources Conservation Service, nearly 2 billion tons
of cropland soil—our most valuable nonrenewable
Figure 3

How the Farm Bill

Nutrition, Farm, and Conservation Spending

Gross Outlays Averaged Over Twelve Distinct Appropriations 2014–2018

od llion .5 b lion
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5

llio

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bi

bi

4
m .8 b s $1
s*

1.

bi
6

.2
3.

$4
tle

.7
28
$2

90
Ti

e
$
ne

nc
es

$3
n
er

tio
la

ra
iti
th

n
el

su
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io
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$1
isc

In

rit
er
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de

ns

ut
op
31

a
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32

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76
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*Includes titles for horticulture, research, energy, rural development, forestry, and credit.

14
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no related content on Scribd:
and at a mile’s distance. The weavers allege, in excuse of their retreat, that the
butcher squadron had been ordered up to assist the tailors, and that they did not
incline to engage with these men of blood.’—C. M.
A circumstance somewhat like the Tain 1733. Oct. 30.
entertainment, in honour of Governor Macrae, took
place in Edinburgh, on this king’s birthday, which was observed with unusual
rejoicings, on account of the recent stimulus to loyalty from the marriage of the
Princess Royal to the Prince of Orange. ‘David Campbell, his Majesty’s Tailor for
Scotland, came to this kingdom from Jamaica, purely on design to solemnise the
day. He accordingly entertained at his lodgings in the Abbey his Majesty’s Blue
Gowns [a set of licensed beggars, corresponding in number to the king’s years,
which were now fifty], and at night he kept open table, where several gentlemen
were entertained, all the royal healths were drunk, and those of every remarkable
person of the illustrious name of Campbell, with the sound of trumpet and other
music.’—C. M.
The Caledonian Mercury gives a droll, chirping Oct.
account of an association which, it is easy to see, had
in view the prevention of an over-severe excise system for Scotland. Yesternight,
says the paragraph, ‘there came on, at the Parrot’s Nest in this city, the annual
election of office-bearers in the ancient and venerable Assembly of Birds; when the
Game-cock was elected preses; the Blackbird, treasurer; the Gled, principal clerk;
the Crow, his depute; and the Duck, officer; all birds duly qualified to our happy
establishment, and no less enemies to the excise scheme. After which an elegant
entertainment was served up; all the royal and loyal healths were plentifully drunk
in the richest wines; the glorious 205; all the bonny birds, &c. On this joyful
occasion nothing was heard but harmonious music, each bird striving to excel in
chanting and warbling their respective melodious notes.’ The glorious 205, it may
be remarked, were those members of the House of Commons who had recently
thrown out a bill for increasing the tax on tobacco.
‘John Park, some time dempster to the Court of 1734. Mar. 6.
Justiciary, and who lately stood a trial there for
horse-stealing, was whipped through the city, pursuant to his sentence; by which
also he stands condemned to transport himself, 1734.
never again to return to Scotland, on pain of being
whipped quarterly till he is again transported. He is a very old man, with a
graceless gray head, gray beard, and but one hand, having left the other in some
scrape.’—C. M.
‘When Mr Adam Fergusson, minister of Killin, Apr. 19.
came to Perth to intimate the sentence of the
commission (which looses Mr William Wilson’s pastoral relation in that burgh),
Mr Fergusson was met in the suburbs by several of the inhabitants, who fell upon
the gentleman, though vested with supreme authority, and attended by several
armed men; yet they were all severely cudgelled, and obliged to retire, re infectâ.’—
C. M.
 ‘Died here, the Rev. Mr John Maclaren, one of the July 12.
ministers of the city; esteemed a well-meaning man,
and void of hypocrisy.’—C. M.
‘On Saturday was se’nnight [Dec. 28, 1734], died at 1735. Jan. 9.
Balquhidder, in Perthshire, the famous Highland
partisan, Rob Roy.’—C. M.
‘Died, in the 12th year of her age, the Lady Jane Jan. 24.
Campbell, fourth daughter to his Grace the Duke of
Argyle.... His Grace has no male issue, but several daughters living, and it is the
peculiar right of this family, that when they marry any daughters, their vassals are
obliged to pay their portions, and are taxed in order to it, according to the number
of their cattle.’—C. M.
We find at this time a beginning to that system of Aug. 18.
emigration to America by which the Highlands were
so much depopulated during the eighteenth century. ‘The trustees for the colony of
Georgia have projected a settlement of Highlanders from this country, and have
actually sent round for Inverness and Cromarty a ship commanded by Captain
Dunbar, to take in 160 men, women, and children, who are to be settled on the far
boundary of the river Alatamaha, who will be a gallant barrier in case of a war with
France and Spain. And Mr Oglethorpe, with the other trustees, are applying to the
society in Scotland for Propagating Christian Knowledge to send a minister along
with them who speaks Irish, with proper encouragement; and we are assured the
society are so well satisfied with the project, that they have amply instructed their
committee of directors to close in with it.’—C. M.
‘The annual friendly meeting of the gentlemen of 1736. Jan. 19.
the name of Wilson, was held at the house of Jean
Wilson, spouse to Arthur Cumming, periwig-maker, opposite to the City Guard;
the Right Hon. Alexander Wilson, Lord Provost of the city, preses. There were
present about forty gentlemen and others of that clan, who were served at supper
by persons of the name. The entertainment was sumptuous, and choice wines went
merrily round.’—C. M.
‘A very uncommon chain of events happened here Jan. 21.
[Lanark] t’other week. Elizabeth Fairy was
proclaimed in order to marriage on Sunday, was accordingly married on Monday,
bore a child on Tuesday; her husband went and stole a horse on Wednesday, for
which he was banished on Thursday; the heir of this marriage died on Friday, and
was decently interred on Saturday; all in one week.’—C. M.
‘The 4th inst., several young gentlemen of this Feb. 9.
place [Montrose] acted Mr Allan Ramsay’s
celebrated Pastoral Comedy, for the diversion of the gentlemen and ladies of and
about this town, with all the dresses suitable, and performed it with so much spirit
and humour, as agreeably surprised the whole audience; to oblige whom they re-
enacted it and the farce of the Mock Doctor two succeeding nights. The money
taken, after deducting the necessary charges, being very considerable, was
distributed among the poor.’—C. M.
‘This week, several gentlemen laid a wager that a Mar. 13.
horse, twenty-six years old, belonging to Mr. Pillans,
brewer, should not draw 101 stone-weight up the West Bow to the Weigh-house;
and yesterday it was surprisingly performed, one of the wagerers riding on the top
of all.’—C. M.
Nine unfortunate young women—‘very naked and July 9.
meagre beings’—‘made an amende honorable
through the several streets of the city [of Edinburgh], 1736.
the hangman attending them, and drums beating to
the tune of Cuckolds-come-dig.’—C. M.
While Allan Ramsay was preparing his playhouse, an Italian female rope-dancer,
named Signora Violante, performed in Edinburgh and some other Scottish towns.
It was announced that she danced a minuet on the rope, as well as it could be done
on the floor—danced on a board placed loosely on the rope—danced on the rope
with two boys fastened to her feet—danced with two swords at her feet—the rope
being no thicker than penny whip-cord. In Edinburgh, the scene of her
performances was the ‘Old Assembly Hall.’—C. M.
‘A grand convention was held of the adherents to 1738. Mar. 22.
the seceding ministers of the Church of Scotland, in
a square plain on Braid Hills, two miles south of this city. About 10 before noon,
Mr Thomas Mair, minister of Orwel, in Kinross-shire, opened the service of the day
(standing in a pulpit reared up within a tent), with a sermon from Jeremiah i. 5. At
noon, Mr William Wilson, one of the ministers of Perth, preached from Ezekiel
xxii. 24, and afterwards baptized ten children, brought thither some 20, some 30
miles off. At four afternoon, Mr Ralph Erskine, one of the ministers of
Dunfermline, preached from Hosea xxiii. 9, &c. The apparent tendency of these
sermons was to excite devotion and fervour, a renewal of solemn engagements, to
deprecate sin in general, and those of this corrupt age in particular: and it was
observed that it was no proper expedient either to wash away sin, or indemnify the
sinner, to purchase indulgences at the hand of the kirk-treasurer, and some other
tenets that savoured of a popish tincture were soundly lashed. There were about
5000 hearers at each sermon (I mean of the household of faith), some of whom
from South Britain and Ireland, besides the ungodly audience, consisting of many
thousands, some of whom set fire to furze; others hunted the hare around ’em to
create disturbance, a certain huntsman having laid a plot to carry off the collection.
The convention dispersed at 7 at night.’—C. M.
In consequence of a butcher’s dog going mad, and Apr. 7.
biting some others of her species, the magistrates of
Edinburgh ordered the slaughter of all the butchers’ dogs in the city, and,
commanding the seclusion of all other dogs whatsoever, put a shilling on the head
of every one which should be found abroad. There then took place a crusade
against the canine species, which seems to have been nearly the sole Scottish
incident reported in London for the year. ‘The street cadies went very early into
obedience to this edict; for the drum had scarce gone round to intimate the same,
when they fell a-knocking on the head all suspicious or ill-affected curs, some of
which they hanged on sign-posts, &c.; and with difficulty could they be restrained
from killing the dogs that lead the blind about the streets, or attacking the ladies
with their lap-dogs. A detachment of the City Guard was ordered down to the
butcher-market, when they made very clean havoc of all the dogs there. Saturday,
at noon, the town-officers being provided with large oaken clubs, went a dog-
hunting, and killed every cur they could see or hear of; so that nothing was to be
seen but chasing, hacking, and slashing, or heard other than the lamentation of
butchers’ wives, &c., for the loss of Credit, Honesty, Turk, Twopenny, Cæsar, &c.’
Three days later, the magistrates of Leith ordered all the dogs of their town to be
put to death. Accordingly, the curs were driven into the harbour, and drowned, or
else knocked on the head. ‘Several gentlemen and others,’ it is reported, ‘have sent
off their dogs to the country, and a certain writer has despatched his favourite
Tipsy to Haddington in a cloak-bag. Patrick Kier in Multries-hill having tied up his
dog, the beast gnawed the rope, and getting loose, rushed into the room on his
master, and bit him severely. The dog was immediately killed, and Mr Kier carried
to the sea and dipped.’—C. M.
Lord Lovat having occasion at this time to travel 1740. July 30.
from his house of Beaufort, in Inverness-shire, to
Edinburgh, with his two daughters, made an effort to get his coach ready, and,
after two or three days spent in its repair, set out on 1740.
his journey. Passing through Inverness without
stopping, he came the first night to Corriebrough. To pursue his own narrative, as
given in a letter to a friend:[772] ‘I brought my wheel-wright with me the length of
Aviemore, in case of accidents, and there I parted with him, because he declared
that my chariot would go safe enough to London; but I was not eight miles from
the place, when on the plain road, the axle-tree of the hind-wheels broke in two, so
that my girls were forced to go on bare horses behind footmen, and I was obliged to
ride myself, though I was very tender, and the day very cold. I came with that
equipage to Ruthven late at night, and my chariot was pulled there by force of men,
where I got an English wheel-wright and a smith, who wrought two days mending
my chariot; and after paying very dear for their work, and for my quarters two
nights, I was not gone four miles from Ruthven, when it broke again, so that I was
in a miserable condition till I came to Dalnakeardach, where my honest landlord,
Charles M‘Glassian, told me that the Duke of Athole had two as good workmen at
Blaire as were in the kingdom, and that I would get my chariot as well mended
there as at London. Accordingly, I went there and stayed a night, and got my
chariot very well mended by a good wright and a good smith. I thought then that I
was pretty secure till I came to this place. I was storm-stayed two days at Castle
Drummond by the most tempestuous weather of wind and rain that I ever
remember to see. The Dutches of Perth and Lady Mary Drummond were
excessively kind and civil to my daughters and to me, and sent their chamberlain to
conduct me to Dumblain, who happened to be very useful to us that day; for I was
not three miles gone from Castle Drummond, when the axle-tree of my fore-wheels
broke in two, in the midst of the hill, betwixt Drummond and the bridge of Erdoch,
and we were forced to sit in the hill, with a boisterous day, till Chamberlain
Drummond was so kind as to go down to Strath, and bring wrights, and carts, and
smiths to our assistance, who dragged us to the plain, where we were forced to stay
five or six hours till there was a new axle-tree made, be that it was dark night
before we came to Dumblain, which is but eight miles from Castle Drummond, and
we were all much fatigued. The next day, we came to Lithgow, and the day after
that we arrived here, so that we were twelve days on our journey by our
misfortunes, which was seven days more than ordinary.’
‘Friday [Jan. 7], died William Mackintosh of 1743. Jan. 10.
Borlum, Esq., aged upwards of 80 years of age. He
has been prisoner in the Castle these 15 years for his accession to the Rebellion
1715.’—E. E. C.
‘On Thursday last [Jan. 13], died the Honourable Jan. 17.
Colonel John Erskine of Carnock. He was a True Old
Whig.’—E. E. C.
‘Friday, the place of one of the Principal Clerks of Jan. 17.
this city was conferred on Mr William Forbes, writer,
he paying, as a consideration for the same, in room of Mr Home deceased, £1410
sterling.’—E. E. C.
Apr. 14.
‘Thursday last, died at Sanquhar, William Kelloch, aged 111 years. He served the
town as one of their common officers 96 years, and his son, now living, has served
in the same station 70 years. He was a very honest man, had his senses to the last,
and never made use of spectacles.’—E. E. C.
‘Notwithstanding the late execution of Margaret May 9.
Stewart for child-murder, yet we are told that two
more new-born children have since been found dead, with marks of violence on
them.’—E. E. C.
 INDEX.

Aa-na-Mullich, skirmish at, between the government troops and the

Mackenzies, 463.
Aberdeen, King’s College, grants a diploma to a quack doctor, 262.
Aberdeen, pope burned in effigy at, 4;
disturbances at Church of, on account of doxology, 103;
woollen manufactures at, 156;
popish meeting dispersed at, 203.
Abernethy forest, cutting of, superintended by Aaron Hill, 547.
Adair, John, mathematician, engaged in making maps of Scotland,
42.
Advertisements, curious, in Edinburgh Gazette in 1707, 325.
Advocates’ Library, established under Parliament House, 245.
African Company, established, 121;
expedition to Darien, 206;
restitution of its losses, 259.
Agricultural improvements, introduced into Scotland by Elizabeth
Mordaunt, an English lady, 419;
promoted by a society, 484.
Agricultural Improvers, Society of, 484;
implements invented, 503.
Aikenhead, Thomas, tried and executed for blasphemy, 160.
Allardice, Catharine, a misspelled letter by, 595.
Anatomy first proposed to be taught in Edinburgh, 105.
Ancrum Bridge rebuilt by kirk collection, 134.
Anderson, James, editor of Diplomata Scotiæ, encouraged in his
work, 318;
appointed postmaster for Scotland, 400;
lets a house to Sir R. Steele, 418.
Anderson, Mrs, printer of the Bible, 364.
Angus, an Episcopal clergyman, deposed, 78.
Apostasy from Protestant faith punished, 214.
Apparel, act of parliament for restraining expenses of, 149;
old fashions of dress enumerated, 148;
extravagances of, denounced, 448, 482;
cost of various articles, 571.
Arbuthnot, Lady, her jointure, 57.
Archbishop of Glasgow imprisoned, 12;
permitted to live at certain places, 167.
Archers, Royal Company of, 495.
Argyle, John, Duke of, takes command of government troops (1715),
389.
Argyle, seventh Earl, and first Duke of, 1;
his debauched life, 191;
befriends the Master of Lovat, 187.
Arithmetic, a mechanical invention for, 210.
Arms being got from abroad, James Donaldson proposes to
manufacture them at home, 311;
edict against carrying arms, 497.
Arnot, Sir David, assault by, 157.
Assembly, General, clergy of, at first plainly dressed, 148.
Assembly in Edinburgh for dancing purposes, 480.
Aston’s company of players, 518, 544, 550.
Astrology practised by John Stobo, 85.
Atheistical books imported into Edinburgh, 160.
Atmospherical phenomena, 366, 442, 480.
Auchensaugh, covenant renewed at, in 1712, 376.
Auchterarder, riot at, on reading of funeral-service, 366.

Baillie, Captain William, imprisoned debtor, liberated by Privy

Council, 28.
Baird, Archibald, imprisoned for housebreaking, 64.
Balcarres, Earl of, imprisoned at Revolution, 11;
replaced in confinement, 19;
story of Dundee’s ghost having appeared to, 19.
Baldoon park for rearing cattle, 152.
Balfour of Denmill, mysterious disappearance of, 346.
Bane, Donald, a prize-fighter, 522.
‘Bangstrie’ at Earlshall, Croshlachie, Ellieston, &c., 157–159.
Banishment petitioned for by various culprits, 116.
Bank-notes for twenty shillings commenced, 212.
Bank of Scotland established, 128;
temporarily suspends payment in 1704, 306;
run upon in 1715, 402;
last stoppage in 1728, 544;
sets up four branches, 577.
Bank, Royal, of Scotland, established, 537;
causes a stoppage in the Bank of Scotland, 544.
Banking, primitive style of, by a shopkeeper in Glasgow, 577.
Baptism, inconsistencies regarding, 370.
Barbreck’s Bone, for cure of madness, 262.
Bargarran’s daughter (Christian Shaw), her case, 167;
thread spun by her, 510.
Barrisdale, Macdonell of, 615.
Bass, siege of, 95.
Bath of hot air (a hummum) established at Perth, 260.
Bayne, James, wright, ruined by his concern in rebuilding Holyrood
Palace, 29.
Beardie [Walter Scott]‘s marriage, 37;
attends a funeral at Glasgow, 387.
Bell, Sir John, of Glasgow, episcopal worship at his house disturbed,
273.
Bible in Irish language, first printed, 39.
——, printing of, in Scotland (1712), 364.
Bills of Exchange, treatise upon, printed, 278.
Births, ceremonies at, 572.
Bishops expelled from the Convention in 1689, 5.
Black-foot, a, litigation by one for remuneration, 191.
Black Mail in the Highlands, 498, 612, 614.
—— Watch, the, 498, 581, 610.
Blackwell, a preceptor, libels Lady Inglis of Cramond, 89.
Blair of Balthayock and Carnegie of Finhaven, 190.
‘Bloody Baillie,’ a witness on Porteous Mob, 601.
Blythswood, Campbell of, cousinred with Sir Walter Scott, 37.
Boig, Adam, starts the Edinburgh Courant, 314.
Books burnt at Cross, 276.
——, licenses for printing, 52, 220.
Boswell of Balmouto, a rash Jacobite, 84.
Botanic Garden established in Edinburgh, 81;
extension of, 142.
Brand, Alexander, in trouble for making ‘donatives’ to Privy Council,
176;
proposes scavengering of Edinburgh, 592.
Brewers of Edinburgh in rebellion, 509.
Bride’s clothes, their cost, 240.
Bridge, William, an English coppersmith, 33.
Bridgman, or Evory, a pirate, seizes a man-of-war, 150.
Broich, James, sad tale of his ship taken by a privateer, 22.
Brown, Dr Andrew (Dolphington), is licensed to print a treatise of
his own on fevers, 52.
Brown, Jean, of Potterrow, a religious visionary, 430.
Brown, Rev. George, his Rotula Arithmetica, 210.
Browny, a spirit, 284.
Bruce, Captain Henry, imprisoned for defending Holyroodhouse, 13.
Bruce, David, and other boys, carried out to sea in an open boat,
355.
Bruce, Peter, confined at the Revolution, 12;
transfers right of making playing-cards, 34.
Buchanan, David, servant of Lord Dundee, 15.
Bugs in Glasgow, 542.
Bullock, fat, at Dalkeith, 479.
Burghs, royal, convention of, curious details, 51.
Burleigh, Master of, murders Stenhouse, a schoolmaster, 326.
Burnet, Captain, of Barns, his unscrupulous recruiting, 43.
Bute, Earl of, his law-case against his stepmother, 375.

Cairns, a boy, murdered, 547.

Caldron, a copper, law-case about, 77.
Callender, John, master-smith, his account against exchequer, 47
note.
Cambuslang, religious demonstrations at, 607.
Cameron, Sir Evan, of Locheil, 288.
Cameronian regiment raised in 1689, 8.
Cameronians, the, proceedings of, 376, 532.
Campbell of Cessnock’s parks for rearing cattle, 153;
his plan for shot-casting, 155.
Campbell of Lawers, murdered at Greenock, 473.
Campbell of Lochnell’s funeral, 387.
Canongate, duels in, 466.
—— Tolbooth, mutiny of prisoners in, 71;
petition from keeper of, 80;
mutinies of recruits in, 182, 601.
Card-playing, law against, 296.
Cards, playing, manufacture of, a monopoly, 34.
Cardross, Lord, and Sir John Cochrane, case between, 191.
Carmichael of Bonnyton, his quarrel with opposite neighbours, 73.
Carstares, William, the king’s adviser, 107;
his death, 403.
Catarrh, infection of, at St Kilda, 181.
Catholics, troubles of, after the Revolution, 25;
severe treatment of priests, 82;
act against in 1700, 205;
worship interrupted in Edinburgh, 108;
at Aberdeen, 203;
again in Edinburgh, 204, 466;
Catholic priest banished, 362;
gentlemen troubled, 295;
priests numerous and bold, 383;
seminary for priests at Scalan, 205;
Catholic books seized and burned, 146.
Cattle, breeds of, efforts to improve, at Baldoon and elsewhere, 152.
Cattle fair of Crieff, 338.
—— ‘lifting’ in the Highlands, 30, 420, 486, 498, 610, 614.
Cayley, Captain John, shot by Mrs M‘Farlane, 412.
Cess, evasion of, in the Highlands, 91.
Chancellor of Shieldhill fined for a riot, 73.
Charteris, Colonel Francis, gambling anecdote of, 296;
his death, 579.
Child-murder, imputed, cases of, 19, 27, 625.
Children of the upper classes, provision for, in various instances, 55.
Choille Van, skirmish at, 468.
Christian Knowledge, Society for Propagation of, 252.
Claim of Right, some articles violated, 10.
Claret, &c., price of in Scotland, at beginning of 18th century, 183,
270.
Cleland, William, appointed lieutenant-colonel of Cameronian
regiment, 9.
Clerical uniform recommended, 147.
Cloth-manufacture, woollen, 155.
Clubs of a censurable character, 521, 543.
Cluny Macpherson establishes a guard in lieu of ‘Black Watch,’ 611.
Coal-pits at Tranent, mode of draining, 472.
—— -works, railway at Prestonpans, 472.
Cockburn, Andrew, post-boy, robbed, 32.
—— ——, an Episcopalian minister at Glasgow, his chapel destroyed
by a mob, 367.
Cockburn, Justice-clerk, quarrels with Earl of Ilay and Sir David
Dalrymple, 402.
Cockburn, Mr, of Ormiston, an improver of agriculture, 485.
Cock-fighting introduced, 266.
Coin of Scotland at the Union, 330.
Coldingham, kirk discipline of, 92;
episcopal meeting-house, 93;
 witches of Coldingham, 94.
Collegium Butterense at Aberdeen, 230.
Colliers in Fife and Lothian, as slaves, 248.
Combats with swords in public, 522.
Commerce as affected by the Union, 336, 338.
—— and Manufactures in Scotland, subsequent to Revolution, 336,
416.
Common Prayer, Book of, two clergymen maltreated for using, at
Dumfries, 65;
Rev. James Greenshields prosecuted for using, 350.
Companies formed for manufactures, 88.
Concert of music in Edinburgh in 1695, 89;
by Edinburgh amateurs, 432.
Condition and habits of Scottish people, change for the better, 568;
hospitality, 570;
dress, &c., 571.
Copyrights of books, granted by Privy Council to printers and
booksellers, 220.
Cornwell, Christopher, servitor, imprisoned, 15.
Coronation of George I., rejoicings at, 414.
Corporation privileges, troubles arising from, 75.
Correction-houses for mendicants built, 219.
Courant, Edinburgh, commenced, 314.
Courant, Edinburgh Evening, newspaper started (1718), 438.
Covenant sworn at Auchensaugh, 376.
Covenanters’ heads, re-interment of, 532.
Cowbin, estate of, ruined by drifted sand, 119;
Kinnaird of Culbin petitions for exemption from cess, 119;
inscription on family tombstone, 120.
Craig, Margaret, a poor girl, drowns her infant, 19.
Craigcrook, romantic story of a murder connected with, 333.
Crawford, Earl of, president of parliament, 1;
superintends torture of a prisoner, 40.
Crawford, John, Morer’s account of, 271.
Crieff, cattle-fair of, described, 338.
Crighton, Captain John, his restraint relaxed and renewed, 67;
liberated, 68.
Criminalities connected with the sexual affections, 59.
Criminals condemned to become soldiers, 64.
—— banished without trial, 115, 211.
Cromdale, dispersion of Highlanders at, 2.
Culloden, Lady, the body forgotten at her funeral, 309.
Culreach, system of in Scotland, 236.
Curiosities, House of, at Grange Park, 99.
Customs, attacks on officers of, 215, 589, 594.

Dalnaspidal, fête at, by General Wade, 561.

Dalrymple, Sir John, his enmity against Highland Jacobites, 61;
his concern in massacre of Glencoe, 62.
Dalyell, Sir Thomas, of Binns, treated for lunacy, 297.
Dancing Assembly established, 479;
meetings for in provincial towns, 590.
Darien Expedition, 107, 206.
Davidson, Robert, of Ellon, Aberdeenshire, petitions Council in
consequence of having had his house destroyed, 108.
Davidson, William, ‘writer,’ incarcerated for false news, 72.
Dearth in Scotland, 136, 195, 348, 606.
Debauchery in Edinburgh, 312.
Dee, bridge over at Black Ford, erected, 277.
Defoe visits Scotland (1706), 322;
conducts the Courant newspaper, 324, 325;
his account of the Equivalent, 328;
quoted regarding trade of Scotland, 336;
his illiberal remark on Greenshields’s case, 351.
Deportment, Rules of Good, by Petrie, 455.
Dickson, Margaret, her trial, execution, and subsequent recovery,
500.
Dickson, Sir R., of Sorn-beg, refuses to pay for wines to gratify the
officers of state, 188.
Dies and punches for coining, 141.
Dingwall, poverty-stricken in 1704, 52;
deputation from Inverness visits the town to report on its trade,
52;
effect of cheap whisky at, 133.
Dirty Luggies in Edinburgh, 593.
Disarming of the Highlanders, 497;
General Wade’s letter to Lord Townsend, 528.
Dogs, mad, 624.
Don river dried up in several places, 442.
Don, Sir James, of Newton, receives permission to travel into
England with horses and arms, 50.
Donaldson, James, commences Edinburgh Gazette (1699), 313;
which stops (1707), but is recommenced, 324;
his invention for manufacture of arms, 311.
Donatives to Privy Council, custom of giving, 177.
Douglas, Cameronian regiment formed at, 8.
Douglas, Captain, convicted of assault, 60.
Douglas, Duchess of, her style of speech, 507.
Douglas, Duke of, murders Mr Ker, 506.
Dow Loch, story of the, 263.
Doxology attempted to be introduced in church, 103.
Dress, old, articles of, enumerated, 148;
a constant fashion of, proposed in parliament, 149;
description of, 269;
changes of, 571.
Drove-road for cattle at New Galloway, 153.
Drum, Lady of, petitions to be left unmolested by Irvine of Murtle,
144.
Drum, Laird of, taken in care for weakness of mind, 22.
Drummond, George, founds the Royal Infirmary, 557.
Drummond, Lord, popish baptism of his child, 383.
Drummond, May, a preaching Quaker lady, affecting case of, 559.
Dudds, Dr, a quack mediciner, 261.
Duel between Matthew M‘Kail and William Trent in King’s Park,
Edinburgh, 149;
other duels, 543, 566.
Duels, military, their prevalence, 405.
Duff, Laird of Braco, checks lawless proceedings of the gipsies of
Moray, 234.
Dumfries, riot at, from reading Book of Common Prayer, 65.
Dun, Lord, a judge, anecdote of, 293.
Dunbar, Sir David, of Baldoon, his breeds of cattle, 152.
Dundee, Jacobitism in, 415;
grain riots at, 452;
dancing assembly at, 590.
Dundee, Lady, 97.
——, Viscount of, 1, 16, 19.
Dundonald, Countess of, her death, 356.
Dunkeld, Bishop of, speaks pathetically of James VII., 5.
Dupin, Nicolas, engaged in the linen-manufacture and paper-
making, 86;
his inventions, 102.
Dutch Guards’ officer, wounded in duel, 543.
Dysart, Rev. John, of Coldingham, his rigorous discipline, 92.

Earlshall, violences at, 157.

Earthenware manufacture, 156.
Earthquake at Selkirk, 543;
at Glasgow, 581.
East Indiaman, loss of, near island of Lewis, 551.
Echo, a literary paper proposed, 621.
Eclipse of the sun, April 22, 1715, 399.
Edie, David, apostate from Protestant faith, 214.
Edinburgh, dirty state of, 593.
——, great fire in (1700), 225.
——, Lord Provost of, inflicts capital punishment, 568.
Edinburgh; see the entire volume passim.
Edmondstone of Newton, banished for concern in murder of the
Master of Rollo, 119.
Edmondstone, William, comes into collision with Row of Inverallan,
49.
Education in practical arts recommended (1726), 530.
Eglintoun, Earl of, beggars at his funeral, 555.
Egyptians, or gipsies, 233.
Election for Ross-shire, on a Saturday, 341;
one at Fortrose, strange proceedings at, 465.
Election of Peers at Holyrood, incident at one, 403.
Elphinstone, Alexander, fights a duel with Lieutenant Swift, 566.
Episcopal clergy, rabbled out at the Revolution, 6;
persecuted, 78, 229, 273, 350, 366, 405;
two relieved by Principal Carstares, 404.
Episcopal meeting-houses at Eyemouth, &c., suppressed, 229;
one at Glasgow destroyed by a mob, 368;
remarkable number of, in Edinburgh, in 1715, 405;
increase of, in the North, 480.
Episcopalians, their troubles regarding Book of Common Prayer, 65,
366.
‘Equivalent Money,’ at the Union, 259, 328;
its disposal, 444.
Equivocating prayers, 78.
Erskine, disgraceful scenes at parish-church of, 69.
Erskine, Mrs, widow of minister of Chirnside, petitions for relief,
181.
Erskine, Thomas, a Quaker brewer, 467.
Exchange Coffee-house (Edinburgh) circulates ‘seditious news,’ and
is shut up in consequence, 72.
Exchequer, Scottish, extreme poverty of, 45.
Excise and Customs, small amount of before Union, 339;
curious anecdote of the transmission of excise revenue to London,
341.
Excise law victims revenge themselves, 594.

Fae, Sergeant, undertakes to catch robbers, 83.

Fairfoul, David, a Catholic priest, confined, 25.
‘Fair Intellectual Club,’ 574.
Fallowing first introduced into Scotland, 419.
Famines in Scotland, 136, 195, 348, 606.
Fast on account of sickness and scarcity, 160;
in apprehension of renewed scarcity, 233.
Fea of Clestran takes Gow, a pirate, 505.
Fearn church roof falls in, 608.
Ferintosh, whisky distilled at, free of duty, 133.
Fife, sickness in, 363.
Fire in Edinburgh, of 1700, 225.
—— Insurance Company first started, 446.
—— raising in Lanarkshire, 578.
Flaikfield, Mary, a poor woman, prosecuted by Merchant
Company, 76.
Fletcher of Salton’s statements and proposals regarding vagrant
poor, 218.
Flogging in schools (1700), boy whipped to death, 222.
Flood in west of Scotland (1712), 381.
Forbes, Duncan, Lord Advocate, suppresses a riot at Glasgow, 509.
Forbes, John, of Culloden, his convivial practices, 184.
Forbes of Culloden obtains permission to distil usquebaugh duty-
free, 133.
Foreigners prohibited from transporting labourers, 211;
distinguished foreigners visiting Edinburgh, 581.
Forfeited estates, commissioners of, meet in Edinburgh, 408;
further proceedings of commissioners, 443.
Forfeited estates in inaccessible situations, difficulty of dealing with,
458.
Forgery on Bank of Scotland by Thomas M‘Gie, 229;
by Robert Fleming, 356.
Forglen, Lord, his eccentric bequest, 533.
Forsyth, Matthew, cook, his miserable imprisonment, 90.
Fortrose, election at, and riot, 465.
Foulis, Messrs, of Glasgow, their elegant printing, 516.
France, gentlemen returned from, objects of suspicion, 216.
Fraser, Captain Simon (afterwards Lord Lovat), his wild
proceedings in Inverness-shire, 186, 254.
See Lovat.
Fraser, John, imprisoned for ridiculing the divine authority of the
Scriptures, 147.
Freebairn, the bookseller, 379.
Freemasonry, 600.
Free-trade hinted at, 243.
French fleet appears in Firth of Forth, 332.
—— Protestants, succour for in Scotland, 9.
French taught by a native, in Edinburgh, 449.
Friendly Society, the, for fire-insurance, 446.
Frost of 1740, 605.
Funeral at Glasgow, described by Walter Scott (‘Beardie’), 387;
of Campbell of Lochnell (1713), 387;
of Robertson of Struan, 526;
convivialities at one, 309,
give rise to a murder, 545.
Funerals conducted on a superb scale, 307;
Lord Whitelaw’s, 308;
Sir Hugh Campbell of Calder’s, 309;
Sir R. Monro’s, 560.

Galloway, Levellers of, 492;

state of tenantry of, 494.
Gambling in Scotland, act regarding, and notable instances of, 296.
Gambling Society, 543.
Gardiner, Colonel James, his pious character, 487.
Gardner, John, minister of Elgin, falls into a trance, 422.