Flinchbaugh on direct payments

Farm and Ranch November 15, 2011 Federal budget reduction efforts or a new farm bill could bring an end to the direct payments program crop producers like wheat growers receive. Kansas State University ag economist Barry Flinchbaugh thinks there is still a place for the payments. He’s sick and tired of hearing about the current situation as the “new normal.”

Flinchbaugh: “That we are going to have 115, 125 billion of net farm income to eternity, adjusted for inflation. This “new normal.” I have lived through at least three of them, maybe four. This is nonsense. So do direct payments still have a place? If you intend to put a safety net under farm income, yes. And nobody is even talking about WTO because we are not making enough payments to come close to what our limit is in the amber box. Wait two or three years and see where we are at.”

How would Flinchbaugh handle direct payments if he wrote the farm bill”

Flinchbaugh: “I would probably authorize it and not fund it so it is there if things turns sour.”

I’m Bob Hoff and that’s the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on Northwest Aginfo Net.

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