Farm Bill History and Why It's Stuck with Brad Lubben

In this episode, Brad Lubben, extension ag policy specialist with the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, walks through the key legislative turning points that shaped today’s farm bill. Drawing from his latest Policy Report column in Nebraska Farmer, Lubben explains how farm policy evolved from New Deal–era supply controls, to income support in the 1970s, to the risk-management framework producers know today.The conversation looks closely at why the 2018 farm bill was largely a status quo bill and the last one to make it across the finish line, and how the difficulty of passing recent farm bills set the stage for short-term extensions and partial fixes like the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Lubben also highlights lesser-known programs that depend on full farm bill reauthorization and discusses what signals producers should watch as lawmakers look toward 2026.Read more: https://cap.unl.edu/news/intricate-evolution-farm-bill/