Some Hope For Agricultural Reform

The Future of Farming

Agro-business and big agricultural corporations have been dictating farm policies in this country for a long time. Our government has given a lot of subsidies to these big businesses that were originally intended to support family farms, farm cooperatives and balance out the import/export policies of competing nations. Somewhere in the process we abandoned the small farm and big agro-businesses began to define what we would eat, how much we would pay for it, what chemicals would be used to pollute our environment, and what would end up in our grocery stores.

There is some hope for reform in this area. But it is only a glimpse of hope until our congress critters find the nerve to put American citizens first and multi-national conglomerate corporations second. We must remind our congressional representatives that all the promises for jobs, trickle-down economics, and the GOP vision for America have failed to produce the desired results... and a new approach is badly needed if we are to restore sanity to our nation. Of course that is not only true for our agricultural endeavors, but for all of our businesses, technologies and governmental agencies. If we start with support for our farmers, we might just get around to the rest of our needs.

Six months ago, it was an even bet whether there would be a new farm bill in 2007. The big commodity farmers, and the interest groups that represent them, were hoping that Congress would simply extend the 2002 Farm Bill, a regressive grab bag for big agriculture. These hopes have now been disappointed. Mike Johanns, the secretary of agriculture, has unveiled his proposals for a new farm bill, which on the whole seems remarkably promising.

Mr. Johanns seems to have little desire to protect entrenched subsidies and a very strong desire to improve the environment. The question is whether Congress will listen to him or to the lobbyists.

The problems with the current farm subsidy system are legion. At home, it drives small farmers out of business and compromises the environment. Abroad, it penalizes third-world farmers and jeopardizes international trade talks.

Mr. Johanns aims to change much of that, first by ending payments to farmers with an adjusted gross income above $200,000. There will also be money for small farmers and growers of specialty crops, loans and grants to poor rural communities and help for young farmers who want to get started in an industry that has grown gray with age.

The bill also calls for $7.8 billion over 10 years to help protect the environment — which makes it the most generous conservation program the Bush administration has offered in the last six years. The bill would make it easier for farmers to enroll in conservation programs and protect conservation acreage from the urge to plow it up when prices skyrocket. The bill could also turn out to be one of the administration’s more innovative energy initiatives. Implicitly recognizing that corn ethanol needs no more subsidies, it offers incentives to grow grasses that could be turned into another fuel called cellulosic ethanol.

There is much to applaud in this bill. Then again, there was much to like about the last farm bill, and we know what happened to that. Congress left many of the old subsidies intact, and failed to nourish the conservation programs. We are hoping the new Congress will have the good sense to reverse the policies that have done so much damage to rural America, and in doing so offer hope to its small farmers.