Food and Ag News Nuggets

Farm Bill Debate Begins, Food Prices Soar and A Meat-Free Food Pyramid?

By Courtney Lowery Cowgill, 1-13-11

With the new GOP at the Congressional helm and the pressure leaders are getting to cut the budget, the 2012 farm bill may be the first in decades to actually have a shot at reforming farm subsidies.

Past discussions have focused on the inequality of farm subsidies and the philosophical opposition, but this time, the main push behind reform is likely to be a budgetary one.

As Charles Abbott reports for Reuters this week, the $5 billion spent on direct payments to farmers is the most likely to take a hit.

Farm subsidies come in several forms: price supports that prop farmers up when commodity prices tank, crop insurance and insurance-like programs and conservation measures. The direct payment program gives farmers annual payments based on past production of commodities like wheat, corn or soybeans. Here’s a good briefing of direct payments from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The large farm lobby (Farm Bureau, Grain Growers, etc.) is likely going to fight to keep direct payments, as they have in every farm bill cycle. And, in the past, Republican lawmakers have been the ones with sympathetic ears. This time though, those subsidy-friendly Republicans might stuck between the farm lobby and their budgetary promises. The Washington Times this week has an interesting piece exploring that dilemma. Reporter Joseph Weber put it this way:

Republicans now controlling the House have wasted no time advertising their determination to rein in federal spending, cutting their own legislative budget on the second day of the 112th Congress. But the dozens of new GOP lawmakers — many hailing from rural districts — could face a more difficult choice considering cuts in the successor to the current five-year, $288 billion farm bill that expires just weeks before the 2012 elections.

On Monday, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told the American Farm Bureau at the group’s national convention to brace for these cuts.

He’s quoted in the report from the Associated Press as saying: “It’s fairly clear. I’m not going to tell you something that you haven’t already heard from your leadership. When you’re dealing with having to reduce deficits, you’re going to have to make difficult choices.” (You can read Vilsack’s full address here.)

And, as Philip Brasher reports for the Des Moines Register’s Green Fields blog, the first order of business for the new Senate agriculture committee, Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., was to explain what a tight spot lawmakers will be in in addressing the farm bill, saying that working it all out will call for “creative solutions.”

In an Associated Press story, Stabenow says direct payments and crop insurance and the “safety net” they combine to make will be under tight scrutiny.

“We have to look at how those two things fit together,” Stabenow said. “Should we be focusing more on crop insurance is one of the questions.”

While subsidy reform will most likely dominate the discussion, there is so much more to the Farm Bill, including the previously-mentioned conservation measures and the other big beast that is the nutrition section (food stamps, etc.)

Julia Olmstead reminds Twin Cities Daily Planet readers of the environmental impacts the Farm Bill can have by proposing a few ideas for a “climate-friendly” farm bill.

Elsewhere in food and agriculture news, food prices are on the rise Bloomberg reports.

Andrew C. Revkin, of the New York Times asks on the Dot Earth blog, “With populations and appetites growing, with climate changing, Is this the edge of the cliff or just another bump in a long, climbing road?”

Either way, rising food prices means somebody is getting rich and Reuters reports that Cargill is one of them.

Following up on one of last week’s roundup items, the case of genetically-engineered alfalfa, Robynn Shrader, the CEO of National Cooperative Grocers Association (NCGA), makes a case for co-existence among organic and bio-tech crops on the Civil Eats site.

Also, a friend pointed out this great primer in The Economist on the possible shift in policy on genetically modified organisms.

And finally, SlashFood asks, “Is the Food Pyramid Wrong?” in a piece that explores an effort remove meat from the food pyramid.

Courtney Lowery Cowgill is a writer and editor (formerly of these pages) who also runs Prairie Heritage Farm, a small farm near Conrad, Montana. She and her husband grow vegetables, turkeys and ancient and heritage grains. As a farmer and writer, she works on and follows food and agriculture issues closely and each week, rounds up the top news stories in this arena for New West. Have an ag story you think should be included in next week’s roundup? You can reach Courtney at courtney@newwest.net.

Like this story? Get more! Sign up for our free newsletters.