Six Food System Takeaways From The ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’

Food & DrinkSix Food System Takeaways From The ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ByDanielle Nierenberg, Contributor

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights

Danielle Nierenberg is a reer and writer on global food systems

President Donald Trump, joined by Republican lawmakers, signs the

President Donald Trump signed the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” (OBBBA) into law

The Act, which is essentially a massive budget bill, calls for major changes in federal spending that could ultimately reshape food and health systems, our apach to climate change, and the well-being of hardworking rural and urban communities

Let’s break down six of the many immediate impacts this Act will have on our food system: 1

Cuts to food and health assistance will make more people hungrier and sicker

The nutrition education gram SNAP-Ed has been defunded entirely

Parts of the food industry could feel a pinch

SNAP accounts for 9 percent of grocery spending, so large corporations could see sales dip especially among packaged food ducts, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis

That said, the Act keeps income taxes low for corporate retailers, which could help their bottom lines amid high food prices

Immigrants, both documented and undocumented, remain at greater risk

Visions in the OBBBA that target immigration will ly have disportionate impacts within the food system

The Act more than triples the budget of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), with a focus on ramping up detention and deportation of non-citizens

Plus, it revokes SNAP eligibility for some lawful immigrants and levies new taxes on sending money to families abroad, both of which impact immigrants’ access to self-sufficiency through food and restaurateurship

Restaurant workers get a boost—but only some of them, and with conditions

The Act could help industrial farms—but benefits for rural families are less

Aimed at farmers, the OBBBA calls for tax reductions and increased funding for agriculture commodity support grams and crop insurance subsidies

However, these ag grams tend to support large-scale ducers over independent family farms

Now, hundreds of struggling rural hospitals that previously relied on Medicaid dollars to stay open are at even greater risk of closing

Additionally, farmers’ incomes are in jeopardy: Data shows that, out of every dollar spent on food at around the country, 25 percent flows back to rural communities—but if SNAP cuts diminish purchasing power, farmers would see less money

Climate-smart initiatives are either on hold, cancelled, or reversed entirely

Meanwhile, industries coal, oil and gas will receive tax breaks and access to drill for fossil fuels on previously tected lands

The outcomes of the OBBBA are already reverberating across food and agriculture systems—but so are community-grounded efforts to keep one another nourished and to stand up for our collective well-being

And even more than ever, every food system victory matters

Every successful unionization vote— one recently at Abundance Food Co-op in Rochester, New York—matters

Every gram that connects schoolchildren to farm-grown foods— those in Michigan—matters

Every innovative idea— rethinking corner stores in Pennsylvania or modular hydroponics in Singapore and Boston—matters

These victories are local, but that doesn’t mean they’re small

They all can result in mass change across our food and agriculture systems

It's change that comes incrementally—but this means we can work together to ensure that it's sustainable, long-lasting, deeply rooted change that can't easily be undone

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