Farm bill affects more than just land and furrows

[nosmokes]

A nice primer on the farm bill in a Q&A format.
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original-latimes

Q & A

Farm bill affects more than just land and furrows

Passed every five years, the measure sets agriculture policy with consequences for the environment, international trade, food safety, rural development and school lunches.
By Nicole Gaouette, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
December 2, 2007
The farm bill -- which sets the nation's agricultural agenda every five years -- could be revived this week after stalling two weeks ago in the Senate.

Some background:



Question: Does the farm bill matter if you're not a farmer?

Answer: The Food and Energy Security Act of 2007, this year's farm bill, sets the country's agriculture policy but it also has consequences for the environment, international trade, food safety, rural development and food assistance for poor families. Lawmakers enact a new farm bill every five years. This year's bill has a price tag of $288 billion and has mushroomed to 1,600 pages. It has come under attack from an array of groups, including physicians and taxpayer advocates, as well as the White House, which has threatened to veto it.



Q: Is this farm bill more controversial than those in the past?

A: Yes. Years of simmering anger about the focus of agricultural policy on a small number of crops and on its wider effect came to a head this year, especially in the Senate.

Historically, farm-state senators from the South and Midwest have funneled billions of dollars in subsidies to a few commodity crops: cotton, wheat, rice, corn and soybeans. Seven states get more than half of all farm spending.

Meantime, important agricultural states that do not concentrate on the favored crops get few benefits. California gets little in subsidy payments even though it leads the nation in agricultural output. Much of the state's farm output is in fruits, vegetables and other crops not covered by commodity subsidies.

Opponents of this year's bill say subsidies should be reexamined, especially because crop prices are at record levels.

Lawmakers from states that benefit from the traditional system argue that the nation's food supply needs a strong safety net. These lawmakers are backed by one of Washington's strongest lobbies.

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complete story here

[flashl]

1. Just read two articles on farming from two view points.

BTW. The link goes to a subscriber page.

Agriculture industry, workers worried

As Americans feast on Thanksgiving meals, the agriculture industry and workers who supplied the bounty have a plate full of worries.

Farmers are caught in a political stalemate over a farm bill designed to provide a safety net for production of their crops, some of which are being enjoyed across the country Thursday.

Many agriculture employers fear crackdowns on illegal immigrant workers will leave them with labor shortages. Meanwhile, farm workers are nervous about planned changes by the Bush administration to a visa program that dictates their pay, work conditions and job competition.

Fingers are being pointed at Congress, which failed to pass a comprehensive immigration reform bill this summer and left for a two-week recess without renewing the farm bill.
Read More ...

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DOC agrees to provide more inmate farmworkers

A pilot program to use inmates from the Department of Corrections as farmworkers opened a new chapter Thursday when DOC officials said they would expand the program to assist five additional farms in Pueblo County.

At a meeting organized by state Rep. Dorothy Butcher, D-Pueblo, state prison officials called last summer's pilot program a great success and agreed to provide work crews to five additional farmers who attended the meeting.

Steve Smith, the acting director of DOC's Correctional Industries, said the additional farm crews would be male inmates, but the department would organize new crews to help the farmers who attended Thursday's meeting at the Pueblo Chamber of Commerce.

"Frankly, we were concerned there would be an even bigger turnout with even larger number of farms wanting work crews," Smith said.

He said the program would benefit from slower expansion. "It takes us 13 or 14 hours of work to provide you a work crew for an eight-hour day," Smith said.

Read More ...

[nosmokes]

2. the link is to the LA Times

The Farm Bill has become such a vote buyer and so corrupted that I honestly don't see any way to set it straight other than to just scrap the whole thing and start fresh. There are so many things buried in the farm bill that have nothing to do w/ agriculture at all that were put there so that Senators and Reps from non-farm states would vote for it and now it's the second largest outlay of funds next to the Defense budget.It's an awful lot of money. And an awful lot of it is misspent.