American Farm Bureau recommendations for farm bill
Farm and Ranch October 10, 2011 American Farm Bureau Farm Policy Specialist Mary Kay Thatcher says there is about a 50/50 chance that a new farm bill will be done by the end of this year. Thatcher: “That is largely because we are caught in this position of having to recommend changes to the super committee that is trying to come up with 1.2 trillion dollars in cuts by Christmas time and if those cuts that are required of agriculture are great enough you really have to rewrite farm policy.” The Farm Bureau is suggesting that 90% of farm program cuts should be evenly divided on a percentage basis among commodity, conservation and nutrition programs and ten percent cut from the crop insurance program. Thatcher: “We think that if we spread the pain across conservation, commodities, nutrition and crop insurance that, indeed, we can maintain an adequate safety net for farmers.” Thatcher says it is important that the agriculture committees in the House and Senate weigh in on the budget cut decisions. Thatcher: “One of the reasons that it is so important that the House and Senate Ag Committees write these programs rather than leave it to the super committee to determine how the cuts are made, is because they won‘t really, if you make a cut here how does it affect the safety net here? The ag committees will be much more precise about it. Sort of like a doctor using a scalpel rather than a sledge hammer.” The House and Senate Agriculture Committees have until October 14th to make recommendations to the Joint Committee on ways to find savings in agriculture programs. I’m Bob Hoff and that’s the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on Northwest Aginfo Net. ? ?
