A Farm Bill For All Of Us
The sprawling patchwork of legislation known as ŇThe Farm BillÓ is dealt with
about every five years. This time around, more people who are affected by it
are at the table during negotiations.
The Farm Bill is dealt with mostly
in the agriculture and appropriations committees of Congress. Some 22
congressional districts collect half of all farm spending.
Superimposing maps of that spending,
maps of subsidized acreages base for corn, cotton, rice and wheat, and maps of
the House Agricultural Committee in the 108th Congress, reveal remarkable
congruence. The decision makers on this enormous piece of legislation, reaching
into the lives of virtually all Americans, come from those few,
commodity-producing areas.
Support and focus on those
commodities has skewed not only production and the structure of agriculture,
but also the American diet, in unhealthy ways. At a time when everyone agrees
we should be eating more fruits and vegetables, we lend our support most to
corn, rice and cotton.
For low-income people, fresh fruits
and vegetables are vastly more expensive than macaroni and cheese. The subsidy
to corn producers is also behind the explosive growth of corn-based ethanol, a
strategy originally developed to find a market for excess corn production, not
to wean ourselves from foreign oil. So we find ourselves eating our way to a
nutritionally-based early grave, while gassing up with one of the least
promising biofuels.
We have spent a long time painting
our way into this corner. A survey of any supermarket aisle reveals corn
fructose as a key ingredient in numerous foods. But corn farmers are actually
making money from the marketplace for the first time in a long while, because
oil prices have driven up the demand for corn-based ethanol. Any exit strategy
should not imperil that increasingly rare species: the family farmer.
Over half of last yearŐs USDA
spending was on programs like food stamps, and the distribution of surplus
commodities to food banks and school lunch programs. These are stakeholders
here who need more of a say concerning farm policy. What is on their dining
table needs to change and they need a voice in the farm bill.
Conservation programs that preserve
and protect environmentally sensitive lands, bodies of water, and critical
wildlife habitat are equally important. Some of these programs, like the
Conservation Security Program (CSP) preserve working farm lands, assisting
farmers and ranchers to become better stewards. Tying support to farmers for
protecting our natural resources for future generations is something that the
taxpayer can understand, while it decouples commodity price support, which has
caused over-production.
Family farmers will need help
transitioning. Marketing and rural development granting programs like the
Farmers Market Promotion Program, the National Organic Certification Cost Share
Program, the Value Added Producer Grant Program and farm energy-related grants
can do this. The research and educational assistance we need from our land
grant universities should be channeled through a variety of programs like the
USDA Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program, and the
National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service. More support for
specialty crop research will help our academic colleagues respond to the needs
of new farming systems. Risk Management Association funding can provide us with
the tools we need to mitigate or avoid crop loss as our weather becomes
increasingly unstable.
New faces at the table when this
Farm Bill is developed may seem threatening to farmers at first glance. But
farm supports donŐt stay in the farmerŐs pocket now. Only the absolutely
largest farms are profiting, and much of that money is used to outbid neighbors
for land. Subsidy dollars finally lodge with the likes of Tyson, Cargill and
Archer Daniels Midland on one end or with the input providers on the other end,
a phenomenon well documented in a recent Tufts study.
This Farm Bill offers a chance to
change direction. That change could improve the lives of all of us, even
farmers.
---
Dan Nagengast is executive
director of the Kansas Rural Center.
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