House Farm Bill a Rotten Deal for American Public, Farmers

WASHINGTON (February 13, 2026)-U.S. House Agriculture Committee Chair Glenn Thompson (R-PA) today proposed a food and farm bill that would shape food and agriculture systems for years to come. While the United States urgently needs legislation that fixes a deeply broken farm system, this proposal would move the country in the wrong direction-including by worsening nitrogen pollution and locking in a system that rewards consolidation and pollution over stewardship and fairness, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS).

"The farm bill should be a tool to support farmers, protect our air, water and soil, and safeguard public health. Instead, this proposal largely reflects the interests of corporate agribusinesses and industry lobbyists, while coming at a real cost to farmers' budgets, clean water and rural communities," said Dr. Kate Anderson, director of the Food and Environment program at UCS. "Extending the current farm bill would be less damaging than passing this rotten deal."

The Trump administration and Congress did a lot of damage to food and agriculture policy in last year's reconciliation bill, stripping out vital nutritional assistance for 40 million Americans, primarily to supply large subsidies to a small group of wealthy farmers. Since then, the Trump administration has been hard at work driving increased food prices through chaotic tariff pronouncements, anti-climate policies, and disastrous deportation regime that has heavily targeted agricultural and other food workers. This proposed bill would continue the administration's anti-farmer and anti-consumer policies and perpetuate harms.

One of the clearest examples of the damages the proposed farm bill would cause is through nitrogen pollution from synthetic fertilizer. A recent UCS report found that U.S. corn and soybean producers overapply millions of tons of synthetic nitrogen fertilizer each year-far more than crops can absorb. The excess runs off into waterways, contaminates groundwater and drinking water, and turns into climate-heating gases like nitrous oxide, creating a multi-pronged pollution crisis that farmers and communities are left to deal with.

"Four fertilizer corporations wield absolute control of the industry and have a stranglehold on farmers, and they are using aggressive marketing tactics to convince farmers that buying and using more of their products will bring them ever-greater crop yields," said Dr. Omanjana Goswami, co-author of the report and an interdisciplinary scientist with the Food and Environment program at UCS. "The farm bill needs to increase funding for U.S. Department of Agriculture programs that help farmers adopt practices that reduce fertilizer overuse. Doing so will save farmers' significant amounts of money, strengthen rural economies and cut pollution of the nation's drinking water."

Rather than tackling these issues, the proposed farm bill reinforces them by continuing to subsidize production systems that depend on heavy fertilizer use while weakening conservation programs and guardrails that help farmers reduce overapplication and pollution.

Fertilizer is often the single largest line item in farmers' budgets, costing U.S. farmers roughly $36 billion a year. The proposed farm bill would continue to incentivize overapplication, leaving farmers paying more for inputs that damage their land and their communities. As Dr. Anderson recently wrote, these same policies also incentivize overproduction, keeping crop prices low and margins thin, and pushing farmers to plant more acres and rely even more heavily on costly inputs to stay afloat, while pollution continues to mount.

The House bill also leaves in place a farm support system with rules stacked to reward size and consolidation while shutting out many farmers and communities. Public dollars continue to flow to the largest operations, while small and mid-sized farms and diverse and young farmers face barriers to land, credit, and meaningful support-and neighboring communities pay the price in polluted water and health risks.

"For generations, farm policy has worked better for corporations than for people," said DeShawn Blanding, senior Washington representative for UCS. "The next farm bill should give more farmers a fair shot and help repair the harm caused by exclusion and discrimination. Instead, this proposal preserves a system that concentrates land, power, and subsidies in fewer hands while communities are left to bear the costs."

The bill would serve to effectively funnel money to large corporations that have stifled their competition and are exploiting their workers. It also fails to offer meaningful protection from pesticides for the essential farmworkers that keep Americans fed.

UCS is urging Congress to reject a farm bill that deepens pollution and locks in a rigged system. Instead, it should move forward legislation that reduces nitrogen pollution at its source, invests in conservation and diversified farming systems, and realigns farm support so it rewards stewardship rather than harm.

"If Congress is serious about protecting farmers, public health, and the environment, it must deliver a farm bill that actually improves the system," Dr. Anderson said. "Until then, lawmakers should not rush forward with legislation that would make a bad situation worse."