The farm bill is meant to be a safety net for America’s farmers who grow the food that sustains us. But the most recent version of that bill failed to pass the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington, D.C., last week.

The bill garnered no Democratic votes, and ended up losing the support of the conservative Freedom Caucus on the Republican side as well. They were demanding a vote on a hard-line immigration bill that they did not get, and the loss came as a blow to Republican leaders in the House.

In all of this, the farm bill itself became almost irrelevant, a bargaining chip in the Republicans’ political negotiations, but not to our nation’s farmers.

For more on how the bill’s failure could affect the agricultural industry here in Arizona, The Show reached out to Stefanie Smallhouse, president of the Arizona Farm Bureau Federation. Smallhouse is also a farmer and rancher in Pima County.