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Today, President Barack Obama signed into law the nearly $1 trillion farm bill, H.R. 2642, the Agriculture Act of 2014, which extends, expands, or modifies federal agriculture and nutrition programs, including farm income support, crop insurance, conservation, credit assistance, trade, research, international food assistance, rural development, and other programs through the fiscal year 2018 crop year.

The 2014 Farm Bill reduces the deficit by $23 billion and represents the most significant reform of American agriculture policy in decades, said the bill’s author, U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow, a Michigan Democrat who chairs the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry.

Stabenow pointed out that the bill eliminates a much-criticized $5 billion-a-year crop subsidy to farmers who received the payments whether they grew crops or not. “Instead of getting a government check even in good times, farmers will pay an insurance bill every year and will only receive support from that insurance in years when they take a loss,” Stabenow said.

The bill also expands crop insurance for farmers by $7 billion over a decade and creates new subsidies for rice and peanut growers that will begin when prices drop.

Its most controversial provision is the $8 billion cut to the Food Stamp program. The measure cuts funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, SNAP, the food stamp program, by about $900 million a year. SNAP and other nutrition programs consume some 75 percent of the farm bill’s spending.

Anti-hunger advocates warn the bill will harm 850,000 American households, about 1.7 million people in 15 states, who will lose an average of $90 a month in benefits because of the SNAP cuts.

Even so, farmers, conservationists and land managers were pleased with the bill.

The farm bill consolidates 23 existing conservation programs into 13 – while maintaining existing tools to protect and conserve land, water and wildlife, saving $6 billion.

The bill authorizes $40 million in grants to states to continue to encourage private landowners to allow public access to their land for recreational uses, such as hunting and fishing, a $10 million annual decrease from the 2008 Farm Bill.

The measure retains the Country of Origin Labeling requirement that pork, chicken or beef sold in the United States include details on where the animal was born, slaughtered and processed. The provision divides the meat industry, with one side saying it protects against contamination of meat from mad cow disease, while the other side calls it a bookkeeping nightmare.

The bill authorizes $35 million over five years for “research and development of surveillance methods, vaccines, vaccination delivery systems, or diagnostic tests for covered diseases.”