08/10/05 Farm Bill forums - the questions,Pt.3

If this topic wasn't originally planned for discussion when the Bush Administration started considerations of how the 2007 Farm Bill would be shaped, it sure became a hot topic in the months to follow. Thanks to the Administration's proposed cuts in a variety of farm payment programs in its fiscal year 2006 budget, and the outcry by several ag groups, the subject is one of six question placed on U.S.D.A.'s Farm Bill Forum questionnaire for participants. The question reads "How should farm policy be designed to effectively and fairly distribute assistance to producers?" Part of the debate over assistance has focused on two angles. One side of the argument says payments encourage farms to grow larger and in a cyclical effect as they become larger become greater recipients of payments, in effect shutting out smaller farmers from such help. However, the other side, like a Commissioner from Louisiana speaking before the national Farm Bill Forum in Nashville last month, believes such subsidies provides incentives to producers to grow more, and in turn, reduce the price paid by consumers for goods. COMMISSIONER: Without some kind of payment program they can't stay in business. One size don't fit all, there's got to be a difference in the Farm Bill between here and out West, there's a difference in this country in difference in production. The Farm Bill & the payment program & is not for the farmer, it's for the consumer. The cheapest food of any where in the world. Ten per cent of the disposable dollar is spent on food. The safest food of anywhere in the world. Some suggestions about assistance have, and are expected to, come from those near the ground level of agriculture & federal U.S.D.A. employees working with agencies like the Natural Resources Conservation Service and Farm Service Agency, and various Extension programs. Take for example some ideas from a Colorado based N.R.C.S. employee to her boss, Ag Secretary Mike Johanns. EMPLOYEE: Increase the direct loan limits and also make them adjusted yearly for inflation, like we've been doing with guaranteed loans for quite a few years. The direct loan limits are still set at $200,000. They've been that way for quite a few years. And here in Western Colorado, $200,000 doesn't cut it. And sometimes even the $813,000 on the guaranteed loan program doesn't cut it. And I'd also like to see the O.L. Youth limits increase to $10,000. They've been $5,000 for quite a few years. In our next program, the focus shifts to forums on more specific Farm Bill topics and questions surrounding conservation programs.