Charles W. Fluharty, a graduate of Yale Divinity School, is president emeritus and director of policy programs at the Rural Policy Research Institute at the University of Missouri in Columbia.

Barbara J. Dilly is associate professor of anthropology at Creighton University in Omaha, Neb. Her research interests include the rural church and American agriculture.

Daryll E. Ray is a professor and holds the Blasingame Chair of Excellence in Agricultural Policy at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He directs the Agricultural Policy Analysis Center. See a column on the 2012 farm bill that he wrote with Harwood Schaffer, research assistant professor for the center.

Daniel Vestal was the executive coordinator of the Atlanta-headquartered Cooperative Baptist Fellowship until 2012. He lobbied Congress about the 2007 farm bill for reforms aimed at helping rural areas and poor farmers.

Eva Clayton is a former Democratic congresswoman from North Carolina who worked with Bread for the World for change in the 2007 farm bill.

Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., serves on the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee. He did not support the farm bill that came out of that committee.

Howard Leathers is an associate professor of agricultural and resource economics at the University of Maryland, College Park, and specializes in agricultural policy.

Barry L. Denk directs the Center for Rural Pennsylvania, which is a bicameral legislative assembly within Pennsylvania’s General Assembly. It develops rural policy.

Bruce Mallory is interim director of the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire, Durham. The institute’s research includes poverty, rural families and communities, and the environment.