Food and farming are not high on list of issues voters consider important this election season. In fact, neither issue even registers on the most recent Pew poll. Agricultural policy, however, is strongly connected to a number of significant voter concerns like healthcare, immigration, and the economy.
"I haven’t heard really anything explicitly said about food and farming, at least at the presidential level," says Bruce Babcock, a professor of economics at Iowa State University. "But there are a number of policies that they’ve talked about that directly affect agriculture like immigration, trade policy and climate change."
During this half of River to River, host Ben Kieffer talks with Babcock and Ricardo Salvador, a director and senior scientist for the food and environment program for the Union of Concerned Scientists, about where the candidates stand on issues relevant to food and farm policy.