Transforming the Farm Bill: The Local Food Movement and Political Change

This study uses the political opportunity structure to measure the success of the local food movement in America. Drawing from the Political Process theory of social movements, I analyze the ability of the local food movement to leverage its transformative capacity into political gain, most notably through the Farm Bill. The current agricultural regime consists of a directed political opportunity structure and political setting, and I find that although the local food movement has made some gains in food and farm policy, the agricultural political landscape continues to be dominated by the interests of industrial agriculture