agriculture definition

The New York Times   reported today about the consequences of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) for the cost of farm labor and, in turn, the cost of food.  Sarah Varney's story is set in California, where farm laborers are typically employed year round rather than seasonally, as the case in many other places.  (Another post about year-round ag workers is here ).  This means farm labor contractors cannot easily put the "workers on a 28-hour workweek like Starbucks, Denny's and Walmart are considering" doing to avoid the ACA mandate.  It also means that the contractors, who operate on very small margins--around 2%--will have to raise the prices they charge farms, which will in turn push up food prices. Varney writes:   Insurance brokers and health providers familiar with California's $43.5 billion agricultural industry estimate that meeting the law's minimum health plan requirement will cost about $1 per hour employee worked in the field.    ...

I published this post last Sunday on Legal Ruralism , but am only now getting it up on Agricultural Law, prompted in part by Susan Schneider's excellent post  on the same topic a few days ago.  Here's my post:  A trough that overflows is the image Robert Semple, Jr., conjures in  his editorial  (by the same name) in [the June 3, 2012 issue of the]  New York Times.   In it, Semple argues that the current version of the next generation farm bill replicates the problems long associated with the farm bill:  it supports fat cat farmers while doing too little to help small-scale farmers.  Semple makes references to "rural" and "small town" in the opening paragraph, but does not return to these concerns expressly later in the piece.  He makes no mention of rural development funds, which have always been a proverbial drop in the farm bill/USDA bucket. [ Some sources I have since read indicate no provision has been made for rural developme...