Subsidy-Laden Farm Bill Up for Vote this Week
by Jeremy Elton Jacquot, Los Angeles 
on 07.22.07
Any immediate hope for meaningful reform in the farm bill's larded up subsidy system was dashed when Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) announced that she was "very proud" of it. Despite numerous pleas for change from a variety of progressive organizations, Pelosi decided to ignore them and reinstate a bill that “would keep multibillion-dollar subsidies flowing to cotton, corn and a handful of other crops.”
Claiming to have crafted a bill that would effectively "represent a critical first step toward reform by eliminating payments to millionaires," the House Agricultural Committee then goes and lowers the adjusted gross income limit on farm program payments to a still lofty $1,000,000 for individuals (which is 5 times more than the cap actually sought by the Bush administration) and to $2,000,000 for married couples. As Blog for Rural America's Dan Owens notes, this can hardly be considered "substantive reform."
Perhaps Pelosi's most infuriating remark was her statement that the bill would help "promote our family's farmers." If she believes continuing to dispense seven-figure checks to some of this country's richest farmers and granting huge subsidies to only a handful of crops will accomplish that, she certainly has a strange conception of "promotion."
In justifying this bill's odious provisions, Pelosi likes to claim that implementing any real reform would've cost freshman rural Democrats their next elections. This is patently false: as poll after poll has shown, farmers and Americans living in rural communities actually want these payment limits.
Fortunately, we need not yet abandon all pretense of hope for meaningful reform as we still await the Senate's consideration of the farm bill and the eventually reconciliation that must take place between the two. And while Rep. Ron Kind (D-WI) has vowed to lead a rebellion to amend the bill, the fact that the farm bill is being rushed to the House floor July 26 (meaning that all amendments need to be delivered to the Rules Committee by July 24) will make his prospects for success dim.
Those of you living in the U.S. should take this opportunity to contact Nancy Pelosi and your own representative and urge them to reject this false "reform." We can't embrace any legislation that would force taxpayers to continue providing $2 billion per year in "direct payments" to corn farmers (on top of their already high incomes), regardless of the crop price or income conditions. We need to end all such subsidies that discourage investment and research into new, more cost-efficient forms of alternative energy.
Via ::Mulch: Pelosi "very proud" Of Subsidy Lobby's Farm Bill (blog), ::San Francisco Chronicle: Pelosi promises congressional contempt charge for Harriet Miers (newspaper), ::green LA girl: Time to fight for Farm Bill reform (blog), ::Blog for Rural America: The "Reform" That Wasn't (blog)
See also: ::Round and Round We Go: Is Corn-Based Ethanol Viable?, ::U.S. House Farm Bill Draft Supports Subsidizing Sugar for Ethanol Production, ::Michael Pollan: The Government Makes You Fat, ::Cotton-Subsidy Reform Could Feed, Educate Millions
Image courtesy of Lyndi&Jason
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Thanks for telling people about this issue! It's hugely important, and the farm bill proposed by Pelosi and the Ag. Committee basically preserves the status quo. When even Bush is disappointed by the lack of reform in a bill, you know something is seriously wrong.
Anyway, here are some really easy ways to contact your representatives and tell them how to fix the farm bill:
http://www.healthyfarmbill.org/
http://www.farmandranchfreedom.org/content/action-6-19-07
http://act.oxfamamerica.org/campaign/farmbill
Now is the time to ACT!
-Andrew, of the Eat Well Guide
I'm with Andrew -- it's great to see farm bill coverage on Treehugger. I'd love to see more of it, even!
The Washington Post has a great editorial on the fake reform in the Ag Committee's bill and the real reform in the Fairness Amendment to be offered by Representatives Kind and Flake.
This is really a critical time -- it's crucial that people who care about nutrition, conservation, and equity in farm subsidies contact their representatives and ask them to support REAL reform on the farm bill.
Lots more analysis at Mulch!
well, it passed the house but the senate has not even started debate, so there's still hope. get the word out that there are 2 types of subsidies: fixed and price-sensitive.
EVERYONE should be against fixed subsidies. some might have more sympathy for a safety-net if the bottom drops out of prices (heck, who wouldn't love to have that in our own businesses?).
i think, of course, that they should start shifting the subsidies to sustainable, organic, hormone-free start-ups, greywater and collection systems, and to methane-capture systems (for animal ranches), and other healthful crops and systems rather than the endless CORN obsession ruining our health.
these subsidies are also a large reason why so many people in other countries are exploited and starving to death (and although i"m not, if you are opposed to immigration, this should matter to you). it's like we want everyone else to suffer through the "Grapes of Wrath" while we get fatter and more diseased...