Oct 30, 2007

Farm Bills and Food Stamps

by Laura Starita

Last week the Senate Agriculture Committee approved the farm bill currently being worked over in the Senate, keeping more or less intact the practice of paying cash subsidies for farmers. An attempt at compromise is represented by an ‘Average Crop Revenue’ (ACR) program included in the bill as an opt-in alternative to cash subsidies. The Senate committee claims that ACR may save $4 billion over five years—an unimpressive amount given that subsidies payments equate to more than $40 billion annually.

Given all the reporting on the problems with current farm policy that has been done in the past year by publications as politically divergent as the Washington Post, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, it is baffling how such a bill can get passed looking even worse than it did before (an additional disaster relief fund is included in the current version, and looks a lot like a formalized confirmation of continued disaster aid payments for farmers working in arid and semi-arid regions of the country and claiming annual ‘drought’ relief).

A recent Washington Post op-ed presents a possible answer. It argues that the farm bill, no matter what it says, is almost guaranteed passage because the national food stamp provision is included within it. A relative few states in the U.S. have a significant agricultural presence, but nearly every one has a constituency that benefits from food stamps. No politician who likes her (or his) career is going to vote against a bill that provides food for poor children and so—claims the editorialist—they will vote for the bill. And that would be a real shame, since the direct and indirect consequences on the poor (the skewing of our food system so that the foods poor people can afford are calorie-rich, nutrition-poor foods which contribute to the obesity and diabetes epidemics among the nations poorest; the inability of small farmers to make a living) are so extreme as to easily negate the benefits of more cash for food stamps.

Washington Post: Corporate Farming’s Best Friend

Senate Panel Moves $288 Billion Farm Bill: Plan Offers Option of Revenue Guarantee Instead of Subsidies

High Plains Grifters