Among the small bits of good news regarding the Senate’s vote on Friday on the Farm Bill and various amendments was the news that one of my senators actually voted for the Dorgan-Grassley amendment that would have capped commodity payments to farmers at $250,000.
I’d called the senator’s office a month ago or so, and his aide told me Brownback supported caps. I was skeptical then, so I say thank you now, Senator, for following through. For those who don’t know, Brownback is a conservative Republican senator from Kansas, which produces a lot of commodities, particularly wheat, and uses a lot of commodity corn to fatten cattle.
His colleague Sen. Pat Roberts, however, stood firm in favor of the big money, big ag firms, who are the ones that benefit from our out-of-kilter system. Between Roberts’ determined resistance to reform and his ongoing role as apologist for Bush’s secret wiretapping, I think I’d vote for almost anybody before I’ll vote for him when he runs again next year.
If you want to know more about the Farm Bill’s status and the Democrats failures at reform, Ethicurean.com has a nice roundup of commentary and information about it. You’ll be paying for it with your health and your tax bills.
Darn those small farmers! They got a few bucks | foodperson.com // May 22, 2010 at 3:15 pm
[…] Roberts wants his friends to get all the money, not just 99% of it. Roberts, as you may recall, opposed a cap on support payments to commodity […]