When members of the 112th Congress take office, they will be served a banquet of food issues to digest. First on the menu: the 2012 Farm Bill. This major legislation authorizes a range of programs from government farm support, conservation, energy and trade to marketing, nutrition and food assistance. If it is anything like the 2008 Farm Bill, the new version will run nearly $300 billion—a big ticket item likely to draw scrutiny in the new era of federal fiscal conservatism.
