FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. -- The U.S. Department of Agriculture's recent announcement that it will hold forums to consider the next farm bill raises the visibility of a question already being discussed in rural America: What should the next Farm Bill look like?

Just as its predecessors, the 2007 Farm Bill is sure to have a significant impact on the agricultural economy and rural communities. Recognizing the importance of the upcoming 2007 Farm Bill, several states and farm organizations have scheduled summer meetings and public forums to examine the issues involved in the legislation.

To provide easy access to valuable Farm Bill resources, the National Agricultural Law Center has added a special Farm Bills section to its Web site at http://www.NationalAglawCenter.org.

Under a cooperative agreement with USDA's National Agricultural Library, the center digitized all historic farm bill legislation from 1933 to the present and now provides the only Internet access to the text of that legislation. The new section also supplies legislative history for farm bill legislation since 1973 and numerous resource links for the 1996 and 2002 Farm Bills. The center's team of law and research professors, lawyers, other specialists and graduate assistants from the UA graduate program in agricultural law will provide historical analysis of the Farm Bill legislation and will continue to provide updated resources and links as they develop.

"The new Farm Bill will have a tremendous impact on everyone connected with agriculture and food, and we feel it is imperative that all stakeholders have the resources available to make educated choices concerning this important legislation," says Michael T. Roberts, research associate professor of law and director of the center. "With our restructured Web site, we are able to make valuable information easily accessible to everyone."

Congress in 1987 authorized the creation of the center, which is part of the University of Arkansas School of Law in Fayetteville and funded with federal appropriations through the National Agricultural Library, an entity within the USDA Agricultural Research Service. The center conducts legal research and provides information on agricultural and food law that it makes easily accessible to both lawyers and non-lawyers looking for information on developments in agricultural and food law.

Other components of the center's newly restructured Web site include 29 subject-based Reading Rooms that provide a comprehensive list of current electronic resources and an overview article for an agricultural or food law topic. The Web site also offers summaries of recent court decisions, analyses of current legal issues, well-developed research articles, an extensive fully-searchable and quarterly-updated agricultural law bibliography, a comprehensive glossary of agricultural terms, programs, and policies, Congressional resources, and a wide variety of other research resources. It is the sole Internet source for all USDA Judicial Officer decisions since January, 2002.

"Our job is to equip the legal community, policymakers, farmers and agribusiness with the information and resources they need to make informed decisions about the complex issues facing agriculture today," says Roberts.