05/14/07 Farm 21

The Food and Agriculture Risk Management for the 21st Century Act or Farm 21 would end the sugar, rice, cotton and MILC programs and that's not all. It would turn direct payments into income stabilization accounts, end countercyclical payments by 2009, replace loan deficiency payments with recourse loans, and remove planting restrictions. The plan would save some 20-billion dollars over five-years say former Senate Ag Committee Chairman Richard Lugar of Indiana, a longtime critic of direct payments to farmers. LUGAR "The bulk of these payments are made to growers of just five crops; cotton, rice, corn, wheat and soybean farmers." Hold on a minute says Colin Peterson, chairman of the House Agriculture Committee. None of the House sponsors of Farm 21 sit on his committee and he says he won't take the bill seriously until a committee member sponsors it. Peterson warned fellow congressman not to try to write the farm bill on the House floor. PETERSON "You have so many people who don't have a deep understanding of just exactly how all of this stuff fits together and that would be a recipe for chaos." Peterson predicts that the basic structure of direct, countercyclical and LDP payments will remain intact in the new Farm Bill. Voice of Idaho Agriculture Bill Scott