Contact: Nicole King, 815-964-5819, nicole@profam.org; The Howard Center for Family, Religion & Society, 815-964-5819, media@profam.org

ROCKFORD Ill., July 11, 2013 /Christian Newswire/ -- The Howard Center for Family, Religion, & Society is pleased to announce the publication of the spring 2013 issue of The Family in America: A Journal of Public Policy.  This issue takes up the U.S. Farm Bill, the mammoth piece of legislation up for debate in the House this week.  Says Dr. Allan Carlson, editor of The Family in America, "This is a timely issue on an important, and often-overlooked, piece of legislation.  It is good to see our nation's leaders debating the Farm Bill, and they would do well to look to something more original than the usual paltry reforms."

Paramount in the House discussion are whether the agricultural portion of the Farm Bill should be split from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and other food programs -- which account for some 80% of the bill's whopping $972 billion budget -- and whether our nation's leaders will continue to support agribusiness and thus stifle the family farm.

• In his Introduction to the issue, Carlson recommends "The Honesty in Farm Policy Act," which would encourage young couples to move to the country, farm their land, and bear children.
   
• In "Families, Farmers, and the Mexican Frontera: The Irrationality of American Food Policy," Dr. Ryan C. MacPherson, Senior Editor of The Family in America and professor of history at Bethany Lutheran College in Mankato, Minnesota, argues that although the "family farm ranks near baseball and apple pie on the scale of quintessential American emblems," the Farm Bill's budget overwhelmingly supports not local families but agribusiness.  Economic and nutritional reform, he believes, begins with the Farm Bill.
   
• Tackling the heated topic of food stamps is Family in America Managing Editor Nicole King, who argues that the real crime of SNAP is that it encourages intergenerational family dependency.  "Instead of relying on the earnings of a head of household, coupled with thrift and ingenuity and perhaps even a family garden, families are turning in vast numbers to government handouts," King comments.  She points out that over half (56%) of SNAP households are headed by a single parent, and that less than 10% of SNAP households are headed by a married adult.

Each piece in this spring issue concludes with timely, original recommendations for true agricultural reform.

The Family in America: A Journal of Public Policy is published by The Howard Center for Family, Religion & Society, parent organization of World Congress of Families.  To schedule an interview with Allan Carlson, Ryan MacPherson, or Nicole King, contact Larry Jacobs at (815) 964-5819 or media@profam.org.