Gerardo E. Martínez-Solanas
Admin
| Posts: 315 |  |
|
Congress must reform the 2007 US Farm Bill - 2007/07/02 13:38
US Agricultural subsidies are taken from the tax payer’s pockets. They add up multiple billions of dollars to the US national budget. Subsidies are costly to consumers who are forced to pay much higher prices for food and other agricultural derivates produced in the United States.
The 2002 US Farm Bill is ready now for renewal on September. The new version that Congress passes will either perpetuate the pain and injustice of current policies or lead to changes that can transform the lives of small US farmers and foreign farmers in less developed countries. Over 75% of the world’s poorest people rely on farming for their living. But the 2007 US Farm Bill is under heavy pressure from powerful US agricultural interests, so called farmers with multimillion large-scale industrial investments. These subsidized “farmers” in the US farm belt are very well protected in Congress, mostly by a strong block of Democrats in the Senate.
The 2002 law provides these well-off producers with multi-billion subsidies for their non competitive agricultural crops. This policy results in higher agricultural prices and overproduction. Since American farmers get paid by the acre and bushel, they grow more than the US market can use, thus creating an enormous glut on the markets and driving further down world commodity prices. This policy abnormally increases the price of land, making it hard for small farmers to stay in business and nearly impossible for young farmers getting started.
The Farm Bill made sense during the Great Depression and up to the II World War by helping American farmers survive to the stock market crash and rock bottom farm prices. It also helped the American effort during the war. But it does not make any more sense.
President Bush has proposed a series of improvements on the farm bill this year. His plan would trim farm-bill spending over the next five years by $10 billion. It would end handouts to farmers earning more than $200,000 a year. It would boost funding for land conservation and production of farm-grown fuels.
The Bush administration's plan seeks to end seven decades of agricultural squander policies by limiting some giveaways while harnessing the power of American farmers to reduce the nation's dependence on foreign oil. The heart of the Bush plan trades the failed commodity subsidies for a more reliable farm income maintenance system, coupled with a rural development program and an expanded food stamp program for needy Americans. But the biggest prize would be a phaseout for subsidies of cotton, corn and other overpriced commodities.
Instead of buying only American-grown food and shipping it across the globe –with the food sometimes arriving too late to do any good– Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns wants to use a quarter of the Food for Peace budget to purchase food in poor countries near the famine regions. Such a change would help bolster local farm economies and help poor nations avoid future famines.
The legislation put forth on June 19 by the House Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities and Risk Management has some minor improvements but fails to recognize the need for greater equity and predictability in farm policy, and does nothing to provide a more responsive safety net to small farmers.
Many concerned American citizens and institutions are pushing in Congress for a more radical reform of the 2007 Farm Bill. They focus on drastically reducing misguided agriculture subsidies that do nothing for small farmers and raise food prices for all, put US tax money to work for poor farmers and not big overproducers who are distorting the world economy and creating tensions on free trade agreements with friendly countries, and shift these taxpayer dollars to programs that help conserve the land and the ecology for future generations. Reforming the Farm Bill is one of the US highest priorities this year.
|
Foro / Forum 
