6-25 IAN Sugar Farm Bill

 The farm bill has been very good for Idaho’s sugar program.

 A five-year, half trillion dollar farm bill has been passed which ends up cutting farm subsidies and land conservation by approximately $2 billion a year. Nonetheless Idaho sugar growers and 46 million foodstamp  beneficiaries have for the most part been protected. In order to learn more I called Mark Duffin, Executive Director of the Idaho Sugarbeet Growers Association. “In the Senate they passed the farm bill. The sugar policy had come under attack and several and then several votes and amendments to the farm bill we were able to stave off the attack and so the sugar policy has come through with only one minor change so we feel pretty good about the way that came out of the Senate. The only minor change was when the USDA under the existing farm bill they have to set the import levels at the minimum level required under the trade agreements until June 1. Until they see how the crop has been processed and sold and then they can raise it after that after they determine that more is needed. There is an amendment that changes that date to February 1. That is a little early in our opinion because we are still processing our crop and we don’t know how much domestic production has been done but it is still manageable.