Farm Policy Has Impact on All of Us

Every time I start thinking that the concerns of America’s small family farmers are being heard, Congress somehow manages to bungle it up by taking a giant leap backward in our farm policy. Ironically, the drum roll for reform has been quite constant, not just from America’s family farmers, but from folks of all backgrounds, including environmental groups, humanitarian groups and taxpayer groups.

I’m reading more and more about commodity reform in this paper but also The New York Times, the Washington Post and the Chicago Tribune.

All signs pointed to reform. So, you can imagine my surprise when I heard that the House of Representatives passed a Farm Bill that barely limits handouts to corporate farms, while doing nothing really new for the small farmer like myself. To make matters worse, it was all done within the guise of reform in the name of the family farmer!

Frankly, I can’t believe the audacity of our representatives. I really don’t understand how they could claim wanting to support our family farmers, when their actions only continue our broken farm policies that encourage overproduction and consolidation, leaving small farmers like myself in the dust.

When their August vacations conclude, senators will go back to Washington to take their turn at negotiating the Farm Bill, a decision that will ultimately determine who the next generation of farmers in our country will be.

As a farmer, the Farm Bill is obviously important to me. But everyone who votes and pays taxes should pay notice. The Farm Bill is one of the largest debates in Congress as the legislation only comes around every five years, governing not only what and how we farm, but also how we help hungry people in our country, poor people in rural areas and what we do to help the environment

Devised during the Great Depression, the Farm Bill was designed to assist American farmers when the market bottomed out. But today’s Farm Bill gives out large government payments to producers of a select number of crops. Through these commodity subsidies, taxpayers like you and I actually provide the funds that enable the biggest producers to gobble up smaller farms and drive cash rent prices up, making it difficult for family farmers like myself to afford to stay in business and nearly impossible for beginning farmers just starting out. Meanwhile, many American farmers get little or no subsidies and are not adequately protected from dramatic declines in farm prices or the effects of natural disasters.

Today, we are at a historic juncture in American agriculture. Our nation’s broken farm policy has impacted the number and size of farms in the United States. Federally supported farm programs have created an uneven playing field as the small farmer struggles to survive and mega farms continue to overproduce five main commodity crops – cotton, rice, corn, soybeans and wheat.

Contrary to the notion that commodity subsidies help reduce rural- urban migration, many of the counties that receive the most payments have actually lost population since the 1980s. And you can see why. As numbers of farmers decrease, so do the number of businesses and institutions in rural communities that are there to serve them, from stores for farm equipment, hardware, groceries and feed, to grain elevators, schools and churches. All are disappearing at an alarming rate.

Our 2007 Farm Bill is our chance to shift our policy with regard to subsidies paid to farmers. We need real reform! But the House of Representatives ducked. And so, the ball is in the Senate’s court. Sen. Dick Durbin and Sen. Barack Obama must continue to champion reform to the 2007 Farm Bill

Honestly, as a central Illinois corn and soybean farmer I would prefer not to receive subsidy payments. Instead, I, like most of my fellow farmers, would prefer to receive a fair price for the commodities we produce, eliminating the need for subsidy payments. But subsidies lead to overproduction and act to bring down commodity prices!

There must be a shift in our national farm policy to achieve a meaningful level of profitability and sustainability for all farmers. Our senators must do the right thing, and listen to real family farmers during the 2007 Farm Bill debate. If this does not happen, then I fear the family farm will become extinct and rural communities will become boarded up ghost towns across the landscape of America.

I share the anxieties and the frustrations of my fellow family farmers. And I share the concerns you may have about where your taxes go. Hopefully, we all share the hope of prosperity-and act to bring about-meaningful reform in the 2007 Farm Bill.

(c) 2007 State Journal Register. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.