[slideshare title=”A Clean Farm Bill Of Health” id=10521550&doc=cleanbillofhealth111208-111208154501-phpapp01]

How will America eat over the next decade? How SHOULD America eat?

These are the issues, essentially, surrounding the 2012 Farm Bill, which many advocates expect to be updated this year. Don’t let the wildly misleading name fool you — “farm bill” may sound quaint and dull and even somewhat vague, but it represents nearly $300 billion of the federal budget and controls everything from how expensive fruit and vegetables are to how much money the federal food stamp program gets. As my editor Sue McCrory puts it — it’s not just a farm bill. It’s a food bill. And if you plan on eating in the next five years, you should care what goes in it.

Sound dramatic? Consider this quick slideshow from last December’s Farm Bill Hackathon, in which designers and farm bill experts worked to clarify various controversies of the bill. It’s a good primer for a public event at the Museum of Science slated for January 29: a Farm Bill Teach-in organized by Boston-based Let’s Talk About Food. Acclaimed food writer/NYU Prof. Marion Nestle, Maine Rep. Chellie Pingree and others will talk about how this food bill will affect New England.