foodperson.com

The 2007 Farm Bill is back in the news, back on reformers’ agendas—and back to annoying me.

The Farm Bill, like lots of political balls, provokes my political bipolar tendencies as I swing back and forth from idealism to cynicism.

On the one hand, I understand and support the idea that this country needs an overarching agriculture policy and that developing one isn’t easy.

But my hackles and cynicism grow like weeds when confronted with the fact that the Farm Bill is so blasted big and ugly that only devoted ag policy geeks know what’s really in it. How very convenient for special interest groups that can fatten favored politicians’ campaign funds and keep well-fed lobbyists on the job to defend those interests.

It’s almost impossible to get information from someone who doesn’t have a stake in the outcome. Of course, I suppose that’s partly because we all have a stake. Still, most of us are at a loss because we have no idea where our individual interests fit, so we do nothing.

Where it stands

If I understand the situation correctly—and I can’t claim with any certainty that I do —we’re getting near the end of the current Farm Bill saga. (Another gripe and benefit to the special interests—the process drags out so long that it’s very hard for normal people to keep paying attention.)

So far, it appears to be business as usual, with the lion’s share of funding going to food programs (school lunches, food stamps and so on) with the next big pot of money going to commodity programs, that is, the subsidies that go to growers of corn, wheat, soybeans, cotton and other commodities.

Everything else, including conservation, rural development and research, adds up to less than the price of the subsidies. Still (and here my inner idealist rises again), there’s hope that some conservation and healthy-food aspects might make it into the bill.

On desk

The next step comes when the Senate Agriculture Committee takes action, currently scheduled the week of Oct. 22. The Sustainable Agriculture Coalition has an action alert (it’s a Microsoft Word document) that gives helpful information for people like me who get flummoxed on how to talk about the Farm Bill with our lawmakers (or, rather, their staff).

I guess I’ll be giving Sen. Pat Roberts’ office a call again. Wish I could say I thought they cared. They never even ask my name.

Resources

If you want to know more, here are some resources. Penn State University has a PowerPoint presentation whose first few slides nicely summarize the facts of what’s in the Farm Bill (link goes straight to the PP document) although the dollar figures are from the 2002 Farm Bill.

If you’re interested in various perspectives, here are a few:

—U.S. Department of Agriculture

—House Agriculture Committee

—Senate Ag Committee chair Tom Harkin

—Farm and Food Policy Project, a coalition of sustainable farming and environmental organizations, which also has links to get involved

—Farm Policy Facts, a website sponsored by a group of commodity grower associations, including cotton, corn, sugar, milk and wheat producers

—Oxfam American, an antipoverty organization