Six Food System Takeaways From The ‘One Big Beautiful Bill'

Forbes

11-07-2025

WASHINGTON, DC - JULY 04: U.S. President Donald Trump, joined by Republican lawmakers, signs the ... More One, Big Beautiful Bill Act into law during an Independence Day military family picnic on the South Lawn of the White House on July 04, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo by)
On July 4, U.S. President Donald Trump signed the 'One Big Beautiful Bill Act' (OBBBA) into law. The Act, which is essentially a massive budget bill, calls for major changes in federal spending that could ultimately reshape food and health systems, our approach to climate change, and the well-being of hardworking rural and urban communities.
Let's break down six of the many immediate impacts this Act will have on our food system:
1. Cuts to food and health assistance will make more people hungrier and sicker.
The OBBBA enacted the largest spending cuts in history on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Medicaid, exceeding US$1 trillion in budget reductions. As a result, in the coming years, about 5 million people—1 in every 8 SNAP participants—will lose access to some food relief, and nearly 12 million Americans will lose their health care. The nutrition education program SNAP-Ed has been defunded entirely. According to a team of health researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, the Act's cuts to SNAP alone could result in more than 93,000 premature deaths between now and 2039.
2. Parts of the food industry could feel a pinch.
SNAP accounts for about 9 percent of grocery spending, so large corporations could see sales dip especially among packaged food products, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis. That said, the Act keeps income taxes low for corporate retailers, which could help their bottom lines amid high food prices.
3. Immigrants, both documented and undocumented, remain at greater risk.
Provisions in the OBBBA that target immigration will likely have disproportionate impacts within the food system. The Act more than triples the budget of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), with a focus on ramping up detention and deportation of non-citizens. Plus, it revokes SNAP eligibility for some lawful immigrants and levies new taxes on sending money home to families abroad, both of which impact immigrants' access to self-sufficiency through food and restaurateurship.
4. Restaurant workers get a boost—but only some of them, and with conditions.
Some advocates of the OBBBA claimed it would enact 'no taxes on tips,' which is not precisely true but may still be beneficial for some restaurant workers: Through 2028, tipped workers under certain income limits could deduct up to US$25,000 in tip income from federal income taxes. However, undocumented workers—who collectively paid US$96.7 billion in federal, state, and local taxes in 2022—are ineligible for this tax deduction.
5. The Act could help industrial farms—but benefits for rural families are less clear.
Aimed at farmers, the OBBBA calls for tax reductions and increased funding for agriculture commodity support programs and crop insurance subsidies. However, these ag programs tend to support large-scale producers over independent family farms. The Act also creates a US$50 billion fund called the Rural Health Transformation Program that is intended to support rural healthcare, but this amount barely offsets one-third of the money Medicaid had once provided. Now, hundreds of struggling rural hospitals that previously relied on Medicaid dollars to stay open are at even greater risk of closing.
Additionally, farmers' incomes are in jeopardy: Data shows that, out of every dollar spent on food at home around the country, about 25 percent flows back to rural communities—but if SNAP cuts diminish purchasing power, farmers would see less money.
6. Climate-smart initiatives are either on hold, cancelled, or reversed entirely.
The OBBBA continues to reflect the shift in climate priorities throughout the Trump-Vance Administration so far: The Act halts more than US$500 billion in sustainability investments from the Inflation Reduction Act, rolls back incentives for wind and solar energy, and phases out tax credits for new electric vehicles. Meanwhile, industries like coal, oil and gas will receive tax breaks and access to drill for fossil fuels on previously protected lands.
The outcomes of the OBBBA are already reverberating across food and agriculture systems—but so are community-grounded efforts to keep one another nourished and to stand up for our collective well-being. And even more than ever, every food system victory matters.
Every successful unionization vote—like one recently at Abundance Food Co-op in Rochester, New York—matters. Every program that connects schoolchildren to farm-grown foods—like those in Michigan—matters. Every innovative idea—like rethinking corner stores in Pennsylvania or modular hydroponics in Singapore and Boston—matters.
These victories are local, but that doesn't mean they're small. They all can result in mass change across our food and agriculture systems. It's change that comes incrementally—but this means we can work together to ensure that it's sustainable, long-lasting, deeply rooted change that can't easily be undone.