"President Obama’s budget puts him on a collision course this year with rural state lawmakers over farm policy," Erik Wasson of The Hill writes, taking a top-level look at a topic that gets more complex with each layer. Farm groups disagree over changes in the Farm Bill that expires in September, but Wasson says that schedule makes it "one of the few
bills with a shot of passing Congress before the election," so farm interests want to get a new bill passed because farm programs could be "a popular target . . . in a lame-duck session where a grand
deficit bargain may be negotiated."
Obama has proposed cutting farm programs by $32 billion over 10 years. "Members of the agriculture committees from both parties are crying foul," Wasson writes. "While Obama has proposed similar cuts in the past, this year he chose to ignore a new proposal developed last fall by a bipartisan group of farm-state lawmakers." It had cuts of $23 billion and an expanded crop-insurance program "that critics say could balloon taxpayer costs in future years." Obama's plan would cut crop insurance by $7 billion, and critics say that may complicate efforts to get a bill passed. (Read more)
Congress could extend the current bill for a year, but that is opposed by a broad array of lobbying groups, Jason Vance of Nebraska Farmer reports. "Unless there is a swift drop in prices this year—resulting in a potentially higher farm bill baseline in 2013—farmers will be better off if Congress passes a farm bill before its members head home for the fall campaign or, failing that, during the lame duck session between the election and the end of December 2012," write Daryll E. Ray and Harwood Schaffer of the Agricultural Policy Analysis Center at the University of Tennessee.
The Congressional Research Service recently published a comprehensive guide to farm programs and the major proposals to change them. The 31-page PDF can be downloaded here.
The heavy attention to the Farm Bill leaves other big farm factors with too little attention, Purdue University economist Mike Boehlje tells Gary Truitt of Hoosier Ag Today: “There are issues like immigration, energy, and even animal welfare, that impact agriculture.” Trade is big: “When 28 percent of your pork is exported, you had better make darn sure you have open markets.” And so is transportation: “At the same time Brazil is building their transportation system, we are letting ours atrophy.” (Read more)
Obama has proposed cutting farm programs by $32 billion over 10 years. "Members of the agriculture committees from both parties are crying foul," Wasson writes. "While Obama has proposed similar cuts in the past, this year he chose to ignore a new proposal developed last fall by a bipartisan group of farm-state lawmakers." It had cuts of $23 billion and an expanded crop-insurance program "that critics say could balloon taxpayer costs in future years." Obama's plan would cut crop insurance by $7 billion, and critics say that may complicate efforts to get a bill passed. (Read more)
Congress could extend the current bill for a year, but that is opposed by a broad array of lobbying groups, Jason Vance of Nebraska Farmer reports. "Unless there is a swift drop in prices this year—resulting in a potentially higher farm bill baseline in 2013—farmers will be better off if Congress passes a farm bill before its members head home for the fall campaign or, failing that, during the lame duck session between the election and the end of December 2012," write Daryll E. Ray and Harwood Schaffer of the Agricultural Policy Analysis Center at the University of Tennessee.
The Congressional Research Service recently published a comprehensive guide to farm programs and the major proposals to change them. The 31-page PDF can be downloaded here.
The heavy attention to the Farm Bill leaves other big farm factors with too little attention, Purdue University economist Mike Boehlje tells Gary Truitt of Hoosier Ag Today: “There are issues like immigration, energy, and even animal welfare, that impact agriculture.” Trade is big: “When 28 percent of your pork is exported, you had better make darn sure you have open markets.” And so is transportation: “At the same time Brazil is building their transportation system, we are letting ours atrophy.” (Read more)
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