Food, farms, and freedom: Vote agriculture for 2026-27
Every year, Stoa lets its members select debate resolutions. This year, I’ll be casting my ballot for agriculture policy.
In my opinion, agriculture is the best option for five reasons: Real-life education, case variety, political philosophy questions, future employment opportunities, and … well, the last one is a surprise.
First, the resolution would provide debaters, coaches, parents, and judges with information applicable to their personal lives. Whether that information relates to food labeling, animal antibiotics, or homemade food laws, it would be something people could actually use to make decisions.
Readers might object that “Everyone uses healthcare (2024-25 season) and energy (2023-24 season), so this isn’t unique. People use infrastructure and intellectual property every day, too.”
Yes, most resolutions can provide Stoa debaters, coaches, parents, and judges with new information. But for energy, infrastructure, and intellectual property — and healthcare, but I think to a lesser extent — there is not a lot of debate info that you can use in the day-to-day, outside of working in the policy space itself. More on that in a second.
This is especially true for agriculture because everyone interacts with food. You can’t pick your electricity provider — in most states, anyway — or your road funding policy or how Congress defines robocalls.
But the information provided by agriculture-related debates could be valuable for how everyone shops and eats.
Dare I say it, I think agriculture is more grounded than intellectual property or infrastructure.
Second, agriculture would provide significant case variety. Sure, RFS and the sugar program might come back. But debaters would also get to debate meat inspection laws, food labeling regs, and USDA nutrition programs. The other day, I made a list of more than 25 cases that could fit into this topic area, with minimal recycling of 16-17 agriculture year cases.
Case variety is not a be-all, end-all for resolutions. In fact, I think infrastructure would have tremendous case variety, so much so that NEG prep would be harder than it should be.
Third, agriculture policy would create an interesting fissure in conservative politics. I think there’s a general belief that most Stoa members are politically conservative. That’s probably true, but I have no way to measure it.
Assuming it is true, agricultural policy often pits traditional free market ideals against supporting rural, ruby-red America through various government programs. Throw in pesticides, antibiotics, and the Make America Healthy Again movement and there will be a lot to chew on.
For those of you who enjoy philosophical conversations, this fissure should be interesting to tease out in rounds. It would also lend itself to creating dynamic thematic cores for both AFF and NEG.
Fourth, agriculture would give debaters avenues to interact with one of the largest industries in the country. The USDA says about 10% of U.S. employment is in agriculture and food-related industries. Agricultural products also make up 5-8% of U.S. exports, depending on the measurement.
For debaters looking ahead to their post-Stoa life, agriculture provides opportunities in policy, economics, biological and chemical research, and — of course — actual farming.
But I readily admit this is a somewhat non-unique benefit.
Fifth, I submitted this resolution to the Debate Committee. Others might have, too, so I can’t take full credit. But I am biased.
Debating agriculture in 2016-17 was a blast. My partner and I ran several cases, including the Unicorn Protection Act. Ask me about it at NITOC if you want a good story. I ended up writing my college honors thesis on one of my other cases from agriculture year, and I get to do some agriculture policy in my current job. I’d love to learn more about it and coach it.
So with that, here’s my ranking:
1, Agriculture
2. Intellectual property
3. Infrastructure
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Jonathan Helton is a Stoa alum, Ambassadors for Christ debate coach, think tanker and aspiring gardener. He can be contacted at tropicality101@gmail.com.