What Farmer's Want for the Holiday

What Farmer's Want for the Holiday. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture.

It has taken it's own sweet time. Now according to American Farm Bureau Public Policy Director Dale Moore, the long road to legislation may finally be getting close to the finish line.

MOORE: We were excited last week when we saw the House and Senate farm bill conference have its official kickoff. There's going to be some tough issues they sort out, but the great news is, the House and Senate Agriculture Committees are now sitting down, sorting out the differences between their two bills. We've got the President who made the comment, 'it's time to get a farm bill done.' We've got House and Senate leadership saying that and we've certainly got dedicated chairs and ranking members on both committees they're going to make sure it gets done. So rather than being the glass half full/half empty, I'm going to say right now I'm looking at the glass as three-quarters full and it's not a matter of "if", but just how quickly they can get this done.

But the farm bill gets a lot of negative publicity from political pundits and a lot of apathy from the general public. Moore thinks that's because many don't look at the bill in its entirety.

MOORE: Most folks, when you say 'farm bill', they think of the farm subsidies, they may think of conservation programs, but they don't think of all the other things that are covered, the nutrition side of the equation. When reporters we're talking about the near-trillion dollar farm bill, well, understand that 75 percent of that bill is actually helping feed folks who need nutrition assistance."

That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.