Bill W. A spiritual program for recovery how did the program help Bll W. He then had the sensation of a bright light, a feeling of ecstasy, and a new serenity. He never drank again for the remainder of his life. how long ws he in the program? I don't know.
what did Bill accomplish while in the spirtual program?
what did Bll W. accomplish while in the spiritual program for recovery?
In November 1934, Wilson was visited by old drinking companion Ebby Thacher. Wilson was astounded to find that Thacher had been sober for several weeks under the guidance of the evangelical Christian Oxford Group. Wilson took some interest in the group, but shortly after Thacher's visit, he was again admitted to Towns Hospital to recover from a bout of drinking. This was his fourth and last stay at Towns hospital under Doctor Silkworth's care and he showed signs of delirium tremens. It was while undergoing treatment with The Belladonna Cure that Wilson experienced his "Hot Flash" spiritual conversion and quit drinking. Earlier that evening, Thacher had visited and tried to persuade him to turn himself over to the care of a Christian deity who would liberate him from alcohol. According to Wilson, while lying in bed depressed and despairing, he cried out, "I'll do anything! Anything at all! If there be a God, let Him show Himself!" He then had the sensation of a bright light, a feeling of ecstasy, and a new serenity. He never drank again for the remainder of his life. Wilson described his experience to Dr. Silkworth, who told him, "Something has happened to you I don't understand. But you had better hang on to it".  Wilson joined the Oxford Group and tried to help other alcoholics, but succeeded only in keeping sober himself. During a failed business trip to Akron, Ohio, Wilson was tempted to drink again and decided that to remain sober he needed to help another alcoholic. He called phone numbers in a church directory and eventually secured an introduction to Dr. Bob Smith, an alcoholic Oxford Group member. Wilson explained Doctor Silkworth's theory that alcoholics suffer from a physical allergy and a mental obsession. Wilson shared that the only way he was able to stay sober was through having had a spiritual experience. Smith was familiar with the tenets of the Oxford Group and upon hearing Wilson's experience, "began to pursue the spiritual remedy for his malady with a willingness that he had never before been able to muster. After a brief relapse, he sobered, never to drink again up to the moment of his death in 1950". Wilson and Smith began working with other alcoholics. After that summer in Akron, Wilson returned to New York where he began having success helping alcoholics in what they called "a nameless squad of drunks" in an Oxford Group there.  In 1938, after about 100 alcoholics in Akron and New York had become sober, the fellowship decided to promote its program of recovery through the publication of a book, for which Wilson was chosen as primary author. The book was given the title Alcoholics Anonymous and included the list of suggested activities for spiritual growth known as the Twelve Steps. The movement itself took on the name of the book. Later Wilson also wrote the Twelve Traditions, a set of spiritual guidelines to ensure the survival of individual AA groups. The AA general service conference of 1955 was a landmark event for Wilson in which he turned over the leadership of the maturing organization to an elected board. CANNOTANSWER
Wilson returned to New York where he began having success helping alcoholics in what they called "a nameless squad of drunks" in an Oxford Group there.
William Griffith Wilson (November 26, 1895 – January 24, 1971), also known as Bill Wilson or Bill W., was the co-founder of  Alcoholics Anonymous (AA).

AA is an international  mutual aid fellowship with about two million members worldwide belonging to approximately 10,000 groups, associations, organizations, cooperatives, and fellowships of alcoholics helping other alcoholics achieve and maintain sobriety.  Following  AA's Twelfth Tradition of anonymity, Wilson is commonly known as "Bill W." or "Bill." In order to identify each other, members of AA will sometimes ask others if they are "friends of Bill". Although this question can be confusing, because "Bill" is a common name, it does provide a means of establishing the common experience of AA membership. After Wilson's death in 1971, and amidst much controversy within the fellowship, his full name was included in obituaries by journalists who were unaware of the significance of maintaining anonymity within the organization.

Wilson's sobriety from alcohol, which he maintained until his death, began December 11, 1934. In 1955 Wilson turned over control of AA to a board of trustees. Wilson died of emphysema complicated by pneumonia from smoking tobacco in 1971. In 1999 Time listed him as "Bill W.: The Healer" in the Time 100: The Most Important People of the Century.

Early life

Wilson was born on November 26, 1895, in East Dorset, Vermont, the son of Emily (née Griffith) and Gilman Barrows Wilson. He was born at his parents' home and business, the Mount Aeolus Inn and Tavern. His paternal grandfather, William C. Wilson, was also an alcoholic. William C. Wilson decided to stop drinking alcohol immediately after having a "religious experience" when he was under the influence of nightshade.

Both of Bill's parents abandoned him soon after he and his sister were born—his father never returned from a purported business trip, and his mother left Vermont to study osteopathic medicine. Bill and his sister were raised by their maternal grandparents, Fayette and Ella Griffith. As a teen, Bill showed little interest in his academic studies and was rebellious. During a summer break in high school, he spent months designing and carving a boomerang to throw at birds, raccoons, and other local wildlife. After many difficult years during his early-mid teens, Bill became the captain of his high school's football team, and the principal violinist in its orchestra. Bill also dealt with a serious bout of depression at the age of seventeen, following the death of his first love, Bertha Bamford, who died of complications from surgery.

Marriage, work, and alcoholism

Wilson met his wife Lois Burnham during the summer of 1913, while sailing on Vermont's Emerald Lake; two years later the couple became engaged. He entered Norwich University, but depression and panic attacks forced him to leave during his second semester. The next year he returned, but was soon suspended with a group of students involved in a hazing incident. Because no one would take responsibility, and no one would identify the perpetrators, the entire class was punished.

The June 1916 incursion into the U.S. by Pancho Villa resulted in Wilson's class being mobilized as part of the Vermont National Guard and he was reinstated to serve.  The following year he was commissioned as an artillery officer. During military training in Massachusetts, the young officers were often invited to dinner by the locals, and Wilson had his first drink, a glass of beer, to little effect. A few weeks later at another dinner party, Wilson drank some Bronx cocktails, and felt at ease with the guests and liberated from his awkward shyness; "I had found the elixir of life," he wrote. "Even that first evening I got thoroughly drunk, and within the next time or two I passed out completely. But as everyone drank hard, not too much was made of that."

Wilson married Lois on January 24, 1918, just before he left to serve in World War I as a 2nd lieutenant in the Coast Artillery. After his military service, Wilson returned to live with his wife in New York. He failed to graduate from law school because he was too drunk to pick up his diploma. Wilson became a stock speculator and had success traveling the country with his wife, evaluating companies for potential investors. (During these trips Lois had a hidden agenda: she hoped the travel would keep Wilson from drinking.) However, Wilson's constant drinking made business impossible and ruined his reputation.

In 1933 Wilson was committed to the Charles B. Towns Hospital for Drug and Alcohol Addictions in New York City four times under the care of William Duncan Silkworth. Silkworth's theory was that alcoholism was a matter of both physical and mental control:  a craving, the manifestation of a physical allergy (the physical inability to stop drinking once started) and an obsession of the mind (to take the first drink). Wilson gained hope from Silkworth's assertion that alcoholism was a medical condition, but even that knowledge could not help him. He was eventually told that he would either die from his alcoholism or have to be locked up permanently due to Wernicke encephalopathy (commonly referred to as "wet brain").

A spiritual program for recovery
In November 1934, Wilson was visited by old drinking companion Ebby Thacher. Wilson was astounded to find that Thacher had been sober for several weeks under the guidance of the evangelical Christian Oxford Group. Wilson took some interest in the group, but shortly after Thacher's visit, he was again admitted to Towns Hospital to recover from a bout of drinking. This was his fourth and last stay at Towns hospital under Silkworth's care and he showed signs of delirium tremens. It was while undergoing treatment with The Belladonna Cure that Wilson experienced his "White Light" spiritual conversion and quit drinking. Earlier that evening, Thacher had visited and tried to persuade him to turn himself over to the care of a Christian deity who would liberate him from alcohol. According to Wilson, while lying in bed depressed and despairing, he cried out, "I'll do anything! Anything at all! If there be a God, let Him show Himself!" He then had the sensation of a bright light, a feeling of ecstasy, and a new serenity. He never drank again for the remainder of his life. Wilson described his experience to Silkworth, who told him, "Something has happened to you I don't understand.  But you had better hang on to it".

Wilson joined the Oxford Group and tried to help other alcoholics, but succeeded only in keeping sober himself. During a failed business trip to Akron, Ohio, Wilson was tempted to drink again and decided that to remain sober he needed to help another alcoholic. He called phone numbers in a church directory and eventually secured an introduction to Bob Smith, an alcoholic Oxford Group member. Wilson explained Silkworth's theory that alcoholics suffer from a physical allergy and a mental obsession. Wilson shared that the only way he was able to stay sober was through having had a spiritual experience. Smith was familiar with the tenets of the Oxford Group and upon hearing Wilson's experience, "began to pursue the spiritual remedy for his malady with a willingness that he had never before been able to muster.  After a brief relapse, he sobered, never to drink again up to the moment of his death in 1950". Wilson and Smith began working with other alcoholics. After that summer in Akron, Wilson returned to New York where he began having success helping alcoholics in what they called "a nameless squad of drunks" in an Oxford Group there.

In 1938, after about 100 alcoholics in Akron and New York had become sober, the fellowship decided to promote its program of recovery through the publication of a book, for which Wilson was chosen as primary author. The book was given the title Alcoholics Anonymous and included the list of suggested activities for spiritual growth known as the Twelve Steps. The movement itself took on the name of the book. Bill incorporated the principles of nine of the Twelve Traditions, (a set of spiritual guidelines to ensure the survival of individual AA groups) in his Foreword to the original edition; later, Traditions One, Two, and Ten were clearly specified when all twelve statements were published. The AA general service conference of 1955 was a landmark event for Wilson in which he turned over the leadership of the maturing organization to an elected board.

In 1939, Wilson and Marty Mann visited High Watch Farm in Kent, CT. They would go on to found what is now High Watch Recovery Center, the world's first alcohol and addiction recovery center founded on Twelve Step principles.

Political beliefs

Wilson strongly advocated that AA groups have not the "slightest reform or political complexion". In 1946, he wrote "No AA group or members should ever, in such a way as to implicate AA, express any opinion on outside controversial issues -- particularly those of politics, alcohol reform or sectarian religion. The Alcoholics Anonymous groups oppose no one. Concerning such matters they can express no views whatever." Reworded, this became "Tradition 10" for AA.

The final years

During the last years of his life, Wilson rarely attended AA meetings to avoid being asked to speak as the co-founder rather than as an alcoholic. A heavy smoker, Wilson eventually suffered from emphysema and later pneumonia. He continued to smoke while dependent on an oxygen tank in the late 1960s.  Despite asking for whiskey on his death bed, he drank no alcohol for the final 36 years of his life.

Alleged marital infidelity

Francis Hartigan, biographer of Bill Wilson and personal secretary to Lois Wilson in her later years, wrote that in the mid-1950s Bill began a fifteen-year affair with Helen Wynn, a woman 18 years his junior that he met through AA. Hartigan also asserts that this relationship was preceded by other marital infidelities. Wilson arranged in 1963 to leave 10 percent of his book royalties to Helen Wynn and the rest to his wife Lois.

Historian Ernest Kurtz was skeptical of the veracity of the reports of Wilson's womanizing.  He judged that the reports were traceable to a single person, Tom Powers, a formerly close friend of Wilson's with whom he had a falling-out in the mid-1950s.

Personal letters between Wilson and Lois spanning a period of more than 60 years are kept in the archives at Stepping Stones, their former home in Katonah, New York, and in AA's General Service Office archives in New York.

Alternative cures and spiritualism
In the 1950s, Wilson used LSD in medically supervised experiments with Betty Eisner, Gerald Heard, and Aldous Huxley. With Wilson's invitation, his wife Lois, his spiritual adviser Father Ed Dowling, and Nell Wing also participated in experimentation of this drug. Later Wilson wrote to Carl Jung, praising the results and recommending it as validation of Jung's spiritual experience. (The letter was not in fact sent as Jung had died.) According to Wilson, the session allowed him to re-experience a spontaneous spiritual experience he had had years before, which had enabled him to overcome his own alcoholism.

Bill was enthusiastic about his experience; he felt it helped him eliminate many barriers erected by the self, or ego, that stand in the way of one's direct experience of the cosmos and of God. He thought he might have found something that could make a big difference to the lives of many who still suffered. Bill is quoted as saying: "It is a generally acknowledged fact in spiritual development that ego reduction makes the influx of God's grace possible. If, therefore, under LSD   we can have a temporary reduction, so that we can better see what we are and where we are going — well, that might be of some help. The goal might become clearer. So I consider LSD to be of some value to some people, and practically no damage to anyone. It will never take the place of any of the existing means by which we can reduce the ego, and keep it reduced." Wilson felt that regular usage of LSD in a carefully controlled, structured setting would be beneficial for many recovering alcoholics. However, he felt this method only should be attempted by individuals with well-developed super-egos.

In 1957, Wilson wrote a letter to Heard saying: "I am certain that the LSD experiment has helped me very much. I find myself with a heightened colour perception and an appreciation of beauty almost destroyed by my years of depressions." Most AAs were strongly opposed to his experimenting with a mind-altering substance.

Wilson met Abram Hoffer and learned about the potential mood-stabilizing effects of niacin. Wilson was impressed with experiments indicating that alcoholics who were given niacin had a better sobriety rate, and he began to see niacin "as completing the third leg in the stool, the physical to complement the spiritual and emotional." Wilson also believed that niacin had given him relief from depression, and he promoted the vitamin within the AA community and with the National Institute of Mental Health as a treatment for schizophrenia. However, Wilson created a major furor in AA because he used the AA office and letterhead in his promotion.

For Wilson, spiritualism was a lifelong interest. One of his letters to adviser Father Dowling suggests that while Wilson was working on his book Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, he felt that spirits were helping him, in particular a 15th-century monk named Boniface.  Despite his conviction that he had evidence for the reality of the spirit world, Wilson chose not to share this with AA. However, his practices still created controversy within the AA membership. Wilson and his wife continued with their unusual practices in spite of the misgivings of many AA members. In their house they had a "spook room" where they would invite guests to participate in seances using a Ouija board.

Legacy
Alcoholics Anonymous has over 100,000 registered local groups and over two million active members worldwide.

Wilson has often been described as having loved being the center of attention, but after the AA principle of anonymity had become established, he refused an honorary degree from Yale University and refused to allow his picture, even from the back, on the cover of Time. Wilson's persistence, his ability to take and use good ideas, and his entrepreneurial flair are revealed in his pioneering escape from an alcoholic "death sentence," his central role in the development of a program of spiritual growth, and his leadership in creating and building AA, "an independent, entrepreneurial, maddeningly democratic, non-profit organization."

Wilson is perhaps best known as a synthesizer of ideas, the man who pulled together various threads of psychology, theology, and democracy into a workable and life-saving system. Aldous Huxley called him "the greatest social architect of our century," and Time magazine named Wilson to their Time 100 List of The Most Important People of the 20th Century. Wilson's self-description was a man who, "because of his bitter experience, discovered, slowly and through a conversion experience, a system of behavior and a series of actions that work for alcoholics who want to stop drinking."

Biographer Susan Cheever wrote in My Name Is Bill, "Bill Wilson never held himself up as a model: he only hoped to help other people by sharing his own experience, strength and hope. He insisted again and again that he was just an ordinary man".

Wilson bought a house that he and Lois called Stepping Stones on an  estate in Bedford Hills, New York, in 1941, and he lived there with Lois until he died in 1971. After Lois died in 1988, the house was opened for tours and is now on the National Register of Historic Places; it was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2012.

In popular culture
Over the years, Bill W., the formation of AA and also his wife Lois have been the subject of numerous projects, starting with My Name Is Bill W., a 1989 CBS Hallmark Hall of Fame TV movie starring James Woods as Bill W. and James Garner as Bob Smith. Woods won an Emmy for his portrayal of Wilson. He was also depicted in a 2010 TV movie based on Lois' life, When Love Is Not Enough: The Lois Wilson Story, adapted from a 2005 book of the same name written by William G. Borchert. The film starred Winona Ryder as Lois Wilson and Barry Pepper as Bill W.

A 2012 documentary, Bill W., was directed by Dan Carracino and Kevin Hanlon.

The band El Ten Eleven's song "Thanks Bill" is dedicated to Bill W. since lead singer Kristian Dunn's wife got sober due to AA. He states "If she hadn't gotten sober we probably wouldn't be together, so that's my thank you to Bill Wilson who invented AA".

In Michael Graubart's Sober Songs Vol. 1, the song "Hey, Hey, AA" references Bill's encounter with Ebby Thatcher which started him on the path to recovery and eventually the creation of Alcoholics Anonymous. The lyric reads, "Ebby T. comes strolling in.  Bill says, 'Fine, you're a friend of mine.  Don't mind if I drink my gin.'"

See also
 Addiction
 Jim Burwell
 History of Alcoholics Anonymous
 Lucille Kahn
 Rowland Hazard III ("Rowland H")
 Stepping Stones - Historic Home of Bill & Lois Wilson
 Twelve-step program
 Bill W. and Dr. Bob (theatrical play)
 Bob Smith (Dr. Bob), the other co-founder of AA

Notes

References

Sources and further reading
 
  
  ('Big Book')

External links

1895 births
1971 deaths
Alcoholics Anonymous
Deaths from emphysema
People from Dorset, Vermont
Vermont National Guard personnel
Norwich University alumni
Psychedelic drug researchers
Alcohol abuse counselors
Psychedelic drug advocates
Burials in Vermont
People from Katonah, New York
People from Bedford Hills, New York
United States Army personnel of World War I
United States Army officers
Slattery's People is a 1964–65 American television series about local politics starring Richard Crenna as title character James Slattery, a state legislator,  co-starring Ed Asner and Tol Avery, and featuring Carroll O'Connor and Warren Oates in a couple of episodes each. James E. Moser was executive producer. The program, telecast on CBS, was nominated for a Golden Globe Award.

Slattery's People is mainly notable for having been one of the few American television series spotlighting the travails of local politicians, a topic that other programs of the period mainly avoided.  Episodes opened with the following admonition:  "Democracy is a very bad form of government.  But I ask you never to forget:  All the others are so much worse."

Many television critics highly praised the series.  Many politicians also approved of the program.  U.S. Representative James C. Corman said in a Congressional Record statement on September 30, 1964, “I am pleased that they have taken the high road to show a legislator’s life, and have not pandered to sensationalism or unreality to stimulate an audience following.” This series was a major career change for Crenna. Following more than a decade as a lead actor in two popular  network comedies, Our Miss Brooks and The Real McCoys, his role as Jim Slattery opened doors for later guest appearances in several dramatic programs and feature films.

Moser's script for the pilot ("Question: What is truth?") was printed as an appendix in Teleplay; an introduction to television writing by Coles Trapnell.

Television composer Nathan Scott wrote the theme music for Slattery's People.

Guest stars

Philip Abbott in "Question: What is Honor? What is Death?"
Joan Blackman as Pat Allison in "Question: Remember the Dark Sins of Youth?"
Russ Conway in "Question: Bill Bailey, Why Did You Come Home?"
Don Keefer as George Farnum in "Question: What Did You Do All Day, Mr. Slattery?"
Joyce Meadows as Gert in the episode "Question: Is Laura the Name of the Game?"
John M. Pickard as Vance Durant in "Question: How Long Is the Shadow of a Man?"
Judson Pratt as Harry Daniels in "Question: How Impregnable Is a Magic Tower?"
Robert F. Simon in "Question: What Did You Do All Day, Mr. Slattery?"
Joan Tompkins as Dorothy Ralston in "Question: What Time Is the Next Bandwagon?"
Arthur Hill as Dr. George Allison and Michael Constantine as Paul Hungerford in "Question: Remember the Dark Sins of Youth?"
Ed Wynn as Ezra Tallicott on "What Ever Happened to Ezra?"
Tommy Sands in "Question: Why the Lonely, Why the Misbegotten?"
Ricardo Montalban as Rodriguez in "Question: What Became of the White Tortilla?"
Claude Akins as Dr. Roy Kirk and Barbara Eden as Lucrezia Kirk in "Question: When Do We Hang the Good Samaritan?"
Forrest Tucker as Bill Bailey in "Question: Bill Bailey, Why Did You Come Home?"

Episode list

Season 1 (1964–65)

Season 2 (1965)

See also
Quentin Durgens, M.P., a similar Canadian TV series that aired around the same time.

References

External links 

 Slattery's People | Television Obscurities

1964 American television series debuts
1965 American television series endings
CBS original programming
Television series by CBS Studios
Black-and-white American television shows
English-language television shows
American political drama television series The Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 (, also known as the 2008 U.S. Farm Bill) was a $288 billion, five-year agricultural policy bill that was passed into law by the United States Congress on June 18, 2008. The bill was a continuation of the 2002 Farm Bill. It continues the United States' long history of agricultural subsidies as well as pursuing areas such as energy, conservation, nutrition, and rural development. Some specific initiatives in the bill include increases in Food Stamp benefits, increased support for the production of cellulosic ethanol, and money for the research of pests, diseases and other agricultural problems.

On January 1, 2013, Congress passed the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 to avert the fiscal cliff and the next day President Barack Obama signed the Act into law. (Public Law No: 112-240) The "fiscal cliff" deal was primarily enacted to avoid automatic tax hikes and spending cuts, but also included provisions extending portions of the 2008 Farm Bill for nine months through September 30, 2013. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid demonstrated a commitment to working on a new five-year Farm Bill by reintroducing last session's Senate Farm Bill in the 113th Congress.

Legislative history
One version of this legislation, the Farm, Nutrition, and Bioenergy Act of 2007 was passed by the United States House of Representatives on July 27, 2007. Despite opposition from some senators, including a failed amendment proposal by Senator Richard Lugar and a veto threat by President Bush, the Senate version of the bill, called the Food and Energy Security Act, was passed by the Senate Agriculture Committee on October 25, 2007, and later by the full Senate on December 14. In late April 2008, congressional negotiators finally reached a deal to reconcile the House and Senate bills. The deal increased spending on food stamps and other food programs while mostly maintaining the current farm subsidies, despite record farm profits.

On May 15, the House and Senate passed the bill, but President Bush issued a veto on May 21. The House voted to overturn the president's veto shortly thereafter, and with the margins by which the bill was passed, a Senate override also occurred; so the Congress overrode the president's veto, passing the bill into law (). However, the veto override was moot, as a 34-page section of the bill was omitted in the version sent to the White House. In effect, the President vetoed a bill Congress never considered. The bill had to be re-passed by Congress.

The House passed the Farm Bill again on May 22, and the Senate shortly thereafter. President Bush again vetoed the measure, but this veto was overridden in both Houses on June 18, so the Farm Bill in its entirety became law. A similar situation occurred in 2005 with the Deficit Reduction Act, where in the enrolling process certain mistakes were made changing the text of the bill. In that case, the bill was considered to be law even with the mistakes since the Speaker of the House and the President Pro Tem of the Senate attested that the language sent to the President was indeed the text that was passed by Congress..

The bill originally caused controversy because the "pay-as-you-go" (Clause 10 of Rule XXI of the Rules of the United States House of Representatives) rule was waived. That rule prohibits the consideration of bills that increase the deficit in either a six-year period or an eleven-year period. The bill itself did not cause such an increase if using a "baseline", which is an estimate of future revenue and spending levels of the U.S. government, that was issued in 2007. A more recent baseline, issued in 2008, showed a large increase in the deficit over the applicable time periods. While other points of order are waived under certain circumstances, the paygo point of order is rarely ignored.

Provisions

In regard to farm regulation, this Act focused on adjusting payment levels and eligibility requirements while bringing forth a new Average Crop Revenue Election program. Along with this, a permanent disaster assistance program was introduced with adjustments to the crop insurance program. Several new titles looked towards horticultural crops, organic agriculture, livestock, and poultry. Also, funding is increased and more programs are instituted to support producers who are alternating to organic agriculture. Some new rules were implemented within the Act for governing hog and poultry production contracts and also safety regarding poultry plant foods.

As for conservation, working land conservation and improved environmental practices were implemented. An expansion of the Conservation Security Program gives rise to the new Conservation Stewardship Program which is a voluntary program that influences producers to address resource concerns. This involved improving, maintaining, and managing conservation practices that already exist and also taking part in extra activities. The same changes apply to the energy title of the Act which also expanded the development of bio-based energy sources along with other renewable sources. Tax provisions on biofuels such as ethanol were introduced as well.

Components
The Act accelerated the commercialization of advanced biofuels, including cellulosic ethanol, encourage the production of biomass crops, and expand the current Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Program.

On April 29, 2008, the Farm Bill contained three major components:
 The Average Crop Revenue Election (ACRE) program that will allow farmers to choose revenue-based, market oriented protection instead of subsidy payments based on politically set target prices;
 $4 billion over baseline funding for conservation and working lands programs;
 Funding for local food programs such as the Farmers Market Promotion Program, Community Food Project grants and the Healthy Food Enterprise Development Center—programs.
 This bill included a single line provision (Sec. 14219. Elimination of statute of limitations applicable to collection of debt by administrative offset.) which has already been implemented to collect the tax debt of grandparents.

Main sections 
Section 9003 of the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 provided for grants covering up to 30% of the cost of developing and building demonstration-scale biorefineries for producing "advanced biofuels", which essentially includes all fuels that are not produced from corn kernel starch. It also allows for loan guarantees of up to $250 million for building commercial-scale biorefineries to produce advanced biofuels. The bill funds the biorefinery program by drawing $75 million in funds from the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) for fiscal year (FY) 2009, increasing to $245 million by FY 2010. It also authorizes $150 million per year in discretionary funds for the program.

Section 15321 of the bill established a new tax credit for producers of cellulosic biofuels, that is, biofuels produced from wood, grasses, or the non-edible parts of plants. The new cellulosic biofuel producer credit is set at $1.01 per gallon and applies only to fuel produced and used as fuel in the United States. In addition, Section 9005 of the bill provided $55 million in CCC funds in FY 2009 to support advanced biofuel production, increasing to $105 million by FY 2012. It also authorizes up to $25 million per year in discretionary funding.

The more crop-oriented measures include Section 9010 of the bill, which allowed the CCC to buy sugar from U.S. producers and sell it to bioenergy producers, and Section 9011, which creates the Biomass Crop Assistance Program to support the establishment and production of biomass crops.

Section 9007 of the bill renames the U.S. Department of Agriculture's current Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Program as the "Rural Energy for America Program", providing $55 million in CCC funds for FY 2009, increasing to $70 million for FY 2011 and 2012, while authorizing another $25 million in discretionary funds. The program will provide grants of up to 25% of the cost of renewable energy systems and energy efficiency improvements for agricultural producers and rural small businesses, as well as guarantees for loans as large as $25 million.

Section 9009 of the bill creates a new "Rural Energy Self-Sufficiency Initiative", which will support efforts to develop community-wide renewable energy systems. The bill provides no firm funding for the initiative but authorizes up to $5 million per year in discretionary funds.

Section 9013 also authorizes up to $5 million per year to support community-wide wood-fueled energy systems.

Energy efficiency, renewable energy and progress 

The USDA announced on 2008-08-27 that 639 farms and rural businesses in 43 states and the Virgin Islands had been selected to receive $35 million in grants and loan guarantees for renewable energy systems and energy efficiency improvements. While many of the awards typically go towards more energy-efficient grain dryers, the USDA notes that a farm in Iowa will use its grant to replace a propane heating system with a geothermal heating system, while a firm in Louisiana will purchase energy-efficient electric motors for an irrigation well.

On January 16, 2009, the USDA also announced the first loan guarantee for a commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol plant.

Section 9003 allowed the USDA Rural Development office to approve this $80 million loan to Range Fuels Inc. Range Fuels produces low carbon bio fuels from any and all biomass. The $80 million loan is dedicated to building a facility that will produce cellulosic ethanol from wood chips. In 2010 the plant is expected to achieve an output level of 20 million gallons of ethanol per year. Other benefits of the plant include an estimated 63 jobs that will be created to build and operate the facility.

The grants and loans were awarded through the Renewable Energy Systems and Energy Efficiency Improvements Program of the USDA Rural Development office. The program was created by Section 9006 of the 2002 Farm Bill and expanded under the 2008 Farm Bill.

A few renewable energy source programs under the act included:
Bio-refinery Assistance Program: This program aided those who sought help in development and construction of their biorefinery. 
Repowering Assistance: USDA provided $35 million in funds to assist biorefineries in transferring to alternate energy sources for heating and powering their facilities.
Bioenergy Program for Advanced Biofuels: This program gave payments to agricultural producers for the use of advanced biofuels which included fuels obtained from renewable biomass. Around $300 million in funds were released to the program.
Biodiesel Education Program: $1 million annually was distributed to this program to make fleet owners aware of the benefits of biodiesel.
Biomass Research and Development: $118 million was allocated to this area and mainly worked towards the benefit of universities, laboratories, and research agencies.
Rural Energy Self-Sufficiency Initiative: The goal of this program was to inform a community of its energy use by providing assessments of the location and an analysis of where savings were possible. $5 million annually was available for this program.
Biomass Crop Assistance Program: The government issued funds for up to 75% of the cost of research to produce crops for the conversion of bioenergy.
Forest Biomass for Energy Program: This program focused on getting people to use forest biomass for energy and appropriated $15 million annually to the cause.

Food assistance
Food and Nutrition Programs comprise approximately 80% of the total 2008 Food, Conservation & Energy Act bill budget.
Improvements to domestic food nutrition and assistance for low-income families is greatly supported by the bill. This area provides for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Emergency Food Assistance Program, as well as the free fresh fruit and vegetable snack program which is meant to help schools with students in need. Also, the act provides help for organizations such as food banks and soup kitchens. Promoting savings is another provision of the act by improving resources limits and no longer counting tax-preferred retirement accounts and education accounts toward the limit of resources. The purchasing power of SNAP is also going to stop losing value each year under the act and the rules of SNAP will fully account for annual inflation.

The bill also increased funding, with the program being available in 35 elementary schools in each state. It allows more schools to be added in proportion to the student population of each state and schools are selected based on free and reduced lunch percentage. The program no longer permits nuts but rather looks to fresh fruits and vegetables instead. With the extra nutrition title funding, it appropriates $4 million to establish a pilot program in many different schools in several states. This will provide whole grain products to participating school nutrition programs. $50 million a year is distributed to provide schools with fresh fruits and vegetables with the help of the Farm Bill while $3 million is used to conduct surveys about the school nutrition to examine what exactly the students eat.

Opposition
Reports from the United Nations and the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2007 criticized the United States and other developed nations for their continued farm trade subsidies. Such subsidies, according to the reports, prevent fair competition from developing nations. Because of its continued refusal to conform to WTO guidelines, the United States was the target of up to $4 billion of potential trade sanctions by Brazil.

President George W. Bush also expressed opposition to the bill, and vetoed it because of its high cost and negative impact on poorer farmers; his veto threat enabled numerous Republican congressmen to attach pork to it, making the bill more expensive than it would have been otherwise, since Democratic leaders needed Republican votes to override the veto. Bush claimed that it was too generous for already wealthy farmers who did not truly need the extra financial assistance. Others argued that the bill should include more subsidies for renewable energy. In negotiations between Congressional legislators and the White House, Bush indicated that the cap on payments to anyone making over $750,000 per year was still too high, and that if the cap were lowered to anyone making over $200,000, he would support the bill.

Food experts, international aid groups, and the White House suggested that the bill did not focus enough on the globally growing food crisis around the world. Some of the money could have been used to feed poor children who were suffering in other countries but instead farmers in the United States, whom the bill was supposedly designed to assist, were largely flourishing. Only about one percent of the bill's total cost was sent abroad to provide a relatively small amount of food relief to those in need. International aid groups criticized farm bills in the United States for ignoring poor farmers in developing countries by causing them to compete with wealthy, taxpaying American farmers. Billions of dollars in subsidies were distributed to these farmers no matter how much they grow, the groups said, and lawmakers failed to help the people in need.

Payment limits
A major factor and controversial issue involved in the act included the amount of payments the farmers were receiving. Many people who qualified to receive funding were taking advantage of this opportunity by taking steps to substantially increase the funds they were gaining. This included getting access to more land thus leading to more government funds or even using a spouse to potentially be eligible for more payments. Spouses were automatically credited for being married to an actively engaged farmer which allowed for more benefits. So in order to prevent this, certain laws were enacted within the act that reduced this problem so that large operations would be less likely to try and game the system and collect high amounts of direct payments.

One of the limits that was imposed under the Farm Bill's laws was that farms are not eligible if non-farm income exceeds $500,000 or if gross farm income is over $750,000 over a three-year period. Direct and Counter-Cyclical Program limits are the same as what they were in the 2002 Farm Bill. Payments are limited to $40,000 for Direct Payments and for Counter-Cyclical Payments to $65,000 per entity. Also, a limit of $65,000 per individual is placed under ACRE payments. The only real requirement for being able to receive these program payments is to be actively engaged in farming, contributing capital, land, or machinery, and providing labor/management.

Research
The bill created the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) which consolidated federal sector agricultural research. In addition the bill mandated:
 $78 million total for organic agriculture research, fiscal year (FY) 09-12 [+ $25 million/year authorized, subject to appropriations]
 $230 million total for specialty crops research, FY09-12 [+ $100 million/year authorized]
 $118 million total for biomass research and development, FY08-12 [+ $35 million/year authorized]
 IFAFS were still authorized, but the $200 million in mandatory funding per year was removed.
 All mandatory funds were to be distributed by the new NIFA through competitive grants.

References

External links 
 Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 Text (U.S. Government Printing Office), frwebgate.access.gpo.gov.
"USDA Bets the Farm on Animal ID Program", from The Nation, thenation.com
2007 U.S. Farm Bill at Discourse DB, discoursedb.org
2007 Farm Bill Options, from Center for Rural Affairs, cfra.org
2007 Farm Bill Options from Farm Bureau, fb.org
American Farmland Trust, Farm Bill Overview
 Link to house page for more information on research in 2007 Farm Bill, agriculture.house.gov
 Expiration and Extension of the 2008 Farm Bill Congressional Research Service
 Consultative Group to Eliminate the Use of Child Labor and Forced Labor in Imported Agricultural Products

United States federal agriculture legislation
United States federal commodity and futures legislation
United States federal energy legislation
United States federal environmental legislation
Acts of the 110th United States Congress
United States federal welfare and public assistance legislation
2008 in the environment