The new US farm bill, just passed the House and moving through the Senate, is criticized for missing the elephant in the room: America’s agricultural industry is systematically failing.

The US, the third-largest agricultural producer globally, relies heavily on cash crops—corn and soyabeans—used for fuel, cattle feed, and exports. While domestic grain production has risen, fruit and vegetable production has fallen. Americans import 59% of fresh fruit and 35% of vegetables. Former Biden agricultural adviser Andy Green calls the system’s metrics for success ‘off,’ urging a shift beyond short-term yields. Farm bankruptcies rose 46% between 2024 and 2025, hitting levels last seen in the 1980s Farm Aid era. The Trump administration’s $12 billion bailout, following a $30 billion first-term plan, failed to stem pain from trade wars, climate disasters, and soaring fertiliser costs—further fueled by the Ukraine and Iran wars.

The crisis stems from decades-long ‘get big or get out’ policies under former Agriculture Secretary Earl Butz, who dismantled New Deal-era export support for smaller farmers and crop diversity. This led to a highly concentrated system focused on cheap calories and free-market dynamics. The system’s reliance on single cash crops creates vulnerabilities: input costs like energy and fertiliser strain highly industrial farming that depletes soil nutrients, requiring more chemicals for yields. Farmers want to grow diverse crops, but insurance and bailout subsidies rise with insured acreage, disincentivizing smaller, sustainable agriculture. Retail concentration—big grocery chains favoring large processors—exacerbates this. Cheap cash crop exports carry economic risk, as seen with China’s plummeting US soyabeans purchases amid trade wars. China, moving toward food independence, no longer buys US soyabeans.

The new bill’s proposed prohibition on states setting their own pork production rules—like California’s Proposition 12—will likely favor giants like Smithfield, a Chinese-owned company that’s the US’s largest pork producer. This clashes with bipartisan support for reducing US dependence on China. The article argues the system’s focus on single crops and cheap exports makes little sense for a country where agriculture is a $1.7 trillion industry. The summary concludes: ‘Like so much about the American food system, it is a situation that makes little sense.’