Farm Bill hits the Senate floor -- for reformers, the last, best hope for change in the next five years

The Farm Bill, which we capitalize partly because it's such a big deal, hits the Senate floor this week. That's a big deal, too, because it means the bill is open to unlimited debate and amendment, the hallmarks of the Senate. In the House and in the Senate Agriculture Committee, a wide range of folks who wanted big changes in the five-year plan for American agriculture and nutrition were largely disappointed. On the Senate floor, they have their last, best shot, so it's time for all of us to pay attention.

Michael Pollan, left, author of books about our food system, is one of those folks who wants change, and is one of the clearest and most compelling advocates for it. But he is also a professor of journalism at the University of California at Berkeley, so we believe he generally gets his facts right about the players and the policies, including the lobbying powerhouses and farm-state politicians who have been writing farm bills for decades. And we've been following the bill, too, so this item includes our own analysis.

In The New York Times today, Pollan writes, "Americans have begun to ask why the farm bill is subsidizing high-fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated oils at a time when rates of diabetes and obesity among children are soaring, or why the farm bill is underwriting factory farming (with subsidized grain) when feedlot wastes are polluting the countryside and, all too often, the meat supply. For the first time, the public health community has raised its voice in support of overturning farm policies that subsidize precisely the wrong kind of calories (added fat and added sugar), helping to make Twinkies cheaper than carrots and Coca-Cola competitive with water."

And here's one more rhetorical blast from the author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma and the forthcoming In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto: "When you consider that farm income is at record levels (thanks to the ethanol boom, itself fueled by another set of federal subsidies); that the World Trade Organization has ruled that several of these subsidies are illegal; that the federal government is broke and the president is threatening a veto, bringing forth a $288 billion farm bill that guarantees billions in payments to commodity farmers seems impressively defiant."

Now for the politics: Pollan says those who wanted change failed to propose "alternative -- and politically appealing -- forms of farm support," and some were "bought off" with what he calls "crumbs" but others call historic progress: the first support for fruits and vegetables (which got the California delegation on board) and billions more for nutrition programs, environmental cleanups, conservation and protection of wetlands and grasslands. The Senate may well add a $250,000 annual limit on subsidies a single farmer can get.

What Pollan and others want, and will probably find hard to get in this bill, are fundamental changes in the bill's commodity title, which includes subsidies for wheat, corn, soybeans, rice and cotton. He promotes an amendment by Sens. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., and Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., to "scrap the current subsidy system and replace it with a form of free government revenue insurance for all American farmers and ranchers, including the ones who grow actual food. Commodity farmers would receive a payment only when their income dropped more than 15 percent as the result of bad weather or price collapse. The $20 billion saved . . . would go to conservation and nutrition programs, as well as to deficit reduction."

Those who want change are disappointed in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's defense of the bill passed by a House committee. "She claimed to be helping freshman Democrats from rural districts," Pollan writes. (Read more) As far as we can tell, that's more than a claim. And we think those rural Democrats were influenced by constituents who are accustomed to the status quo and by campaign contributions from lobbying interests that defend it. Some enterprising reporter needs to compare those contributions with Farm Bill votes, and otherwise help readers, viewers and listeners understand one of the most important pieces of work their elected leaders perform.

For more details on Farm Bill amendments, politics and procedure, from Steve Kopperud of Brownfield Network, click here. Another excellent source of information is Agri-Pulse, a Washington-based newsletter that is offering a four-week free trial, at the ideal time to monitor Farm Bill action. To read it, click here.