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2012 Farm Bill Update
Posted on Mon, May 24, 2010 by Intern
2 Comments | Categories: Biodiversity, Farms and Farming, Policy, Take Action,
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by intern Shauna Nep
The next Farm Bill isn’t scheduled to move through Congress until 2012, but the House Agriculture Committee has already started gathering input—two-and-a-half years ahead of schedule.
Perhaps that’s good, considering how important the bill is. Both directly and indirectly, the Farm Bill impacts who can farm, how they farm, the types of food that can be grown, and the price of certain foods at the grocery store. In general, farm policy is a big part of the reason fast food is cheap and healthy food is harder to find. So what happens with the 2012 Farm Bill is a matter of concern for everyone, not just farmers.
So far, the House Agriculture Committee’s hearings suggest that the top debate for this Farm Bill will be whether government support programs are being used responsibly and effectively. Another issue will be the USDA’s current emphasis on an approach to rural development that’s broader than just making payments to big corn and soy farms.
While we’re piecing out the upcoming issues in this debate, it’s helpful to look at a few windows of opportunity in the upcoming bill:
-Could there be more incentives for farmers to grow fruits and vegetables, and not just commodity crops?
-Could accepting food stamps at farmers’ markets help to combat obesity?
-Should sodas be banned from the food stamp program, similar to the program’s existing bans on tobacco and alcohol?
-Could a “whole-farm revenue” concept for crop insurance replace the present system that encourages production of a single crop, and instead encourage more diverse crops?
-Could an expansion of the green payments program incentivize sustainable farming rather than overproduction?
Fortunately, Congress is talking like it’s open to change for the 2012 Farm Bill. Ag Committee Chairman Colin Peterson says that he is looking to make fundamental changes, and that everything’s “on the table.” USDA’s Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack has emphasized the importance of local food systems.
Our policymakers are talking like they’re open to change. If you’d like to weigh in, the House Agriculture Committee is currently accepting comments on their website. Let them know your priorities for the future of food and farming in America.
To learn more, check out some of these great resources:
- The Ag Observatory’s Farm Bill Watch has a number of useful documents analyzing how the Farm Bill affects the U.S. and the world.
- The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition’s blog discusses issues related to sustainable farming and federal policy.
- Farm Policy’s daily newsletter about food and farm policy has everything you need to know about what’s going on with the Farm Bill hearings around the country and in D.C.
[image courtesy of flickr creative commons, tipiro]
Member Comments
From Mary Pascall on Mon, May 24, 2010
I agree ,good questions to ask:
Could there be more incentives for farmers to grow fruits and vegetables, and not just commodity crops? The government has been paying farmers for NOT growing certain crops to create world markets for decades. Watch Food, Inc.
-Could accepting food stamps at farmers’ markets help to combat obesity? Need more programs such as Wholesome Wave. People have been really effected philosophically by this current recession. Going back to what’s important. Not just giving our families everything money can buy to looking to giving them something money can’t buy…long, healthy lives. We have been educated to the value of buying locally and when, possible, organically. However, education is only part of the equation. Let’s look at affordability and the reality of how expensive it is to eat healthy. Grocery chains have made millions in profit, even during this recession. It’s time they get real. If a mom has $5, she’s not going to buy a bell pepper at $4.95 a pound or a tiny box of blueberries for $4.00. She’s going to head down the aisle where the “Hamburger Helper” is and then down to where the cheap ground beef is(God only knows what residual products are in it!) a loaf of sliced white bread and she’s going to bulk her kids up. That is the typical scenario of the slippery slope to type II diabetes. How are the farm bill benefits going to filter down to this sector of our communities.
-Should sodas be banned from the food stamp program, similar to the program’s existing bans on tobacco and alcohol? Yep.
-Could a “whole-farm revenue” concept for crop insurance replace the present system that encourages production of a single crop, and instead encourage more diverse crops? rotation. In Tennessee, farmers have AGR-Lite Crop insurance and this is going to really help the small farmers here for sure.
-Could an expansion of the green payments program incentivize sustainable farming rather than overproduction? yes, good management and stewardship should be rewarded.
From Marc on Thu, May 27, 2010
Regarding this question “Could there be more incentives for farmers to grow fruits and vegetables, and not just commodity crops?”
An important goal for proponents of more local fruit and vegetables (i.e., “specialty crops”) is to change the rules that prevent farmers from planting specialty crops on “program acres.” Currently, except for a few places exempted by the last Food and Farm Bill, there are very significant penalties for doing this. A few years ago, during the last Food and Farm Bill debate, Des Moines Register article brought to my attention by the invaluable FarmPolicy.com newsletter discussed the situation. If farmers want to plant fruit and vegetable crops on land enrolled in USDA subsidy programs, they must permanently give up the possibility of receiving benefits on that land. When a farmer is renting the land, it is nearly impossible to convince the landlord to make such a permanent shift. This permanent penalty is far too harsh. How about making the farmer pay a one year penalty and be able to get back into the program the next year or something similarly reasonable?
Another change I’d like to see—one that is probably a fantasy—would be to get the Food and Farm Bill out of the agriculture committee’s complete dominance and have some if it be written by other committees, ones that have members to represent highly urban areas, i.e., those who represent the people that EAT the food. Right now, the Congressional representation on the Ag Committees are too weighted towards agricultural production and not enough on consumption. Basically, we need a Food and Farm Bill that is good for the producers AND the consumers. For example, by expanding fruit and vegetable production in the Midwest, giving incentives for urban farming, building small-scale slaughter houses.
Also, let’s try to call it the “Food and Farm Bill” or something like that. Back in 2007, I wrote about framing guru George Lakoff on “Farm Bill”, and his approach to renaming the legislation.
