If senators want to prove their ability to cross the partisan divide, they’ll make real changes to the draft of the farm bill that the House passed to them. If they want to use their constituents’ taxes wisely, they’ll change that bill. But they have to be willing to make real change for the better in America and the world.
I, for one, can state categorically that I do not want ANY of my tax dollars going to subsidies for millionaires. And yes, I am one of those accursed “tax and spend liberals,” but believe me, my heart’s not bleeding for everybody. One of the changes that the Senate needs to make to the farm bill is to lower the eligibility for subsidies further than the House did.
The House lowered it from $2.5 million yearly sales to $1 million. The Senate needs to actually accept the Administration’s proposal of $200,000, because at that income level farming is still difficult. Small farmers with sales of under $100,000 a year often end up in the red. These are the people who need subsidies, not big agribusiness. The House barely came in under the spending cap for this bill; they could help themselves out by cutting more subsidies.
The Walla Walla area is a case study in conflicting interests when it comes to the farm bill. Wheat is one of the commodities that may lose subsidies if the Senate tightens up the bill, and even though wheat prices are up, farmers still want money available for when those prices drop again. Wheat is a powerful lobby, but outside of our familiar wheat fields, Washington actually produces more currently non-subsidized crops like vegetables and fruit.
Joel Huesby of the organic Thundering Hooves Pastured Meats in Walla Walla wrote to the Union-Bulletin to support changes to the farm bill. He wants to see more money to help farmers switch to sustainable farming practices, pointing out in his letter, “These programs are not meant to create a new ‘culture of dependence,’ but to provide competitive, shot-in-the-arm incentives.”
Huesby was on Ankeny field during lunch last Friday, talking to supporters of Campus Climate Challenge about the upcoming farm bill and the challenges of local farming today. All his livestock is grass-fed, so he doesn’t have to worry about the rising cost of fertilizer for grains, which goes up as oil gets more expensive. He’s concerned, though, that it is getting harder and harder for new farmers to enter the market as more small farms are pushed out of business.
Small farms are crucial to local food networks, which, as Lisa Curtis pointed out in her article last week, may be the future of agriculture as oil prices rise and we become less able to bounce our food around the country as if it were an air hockey table. If we’re going to stop pretending that oil will last forever, we need to create the infrastructure now for the future.
The good news is, now is an opportune time to make real change in our farm system. The fiscally responsible and the environmentally responsible are lining up with the champions of small farms and rural America to support the same changes I’ve outlined here. Commodity prices are up, partially because of corn-based ethanol (not necessarily a good thing), which makes it easier for Congress to cut subsidies. Pressure is high and visible from groups like Oxfam America to cut subsidies that harm farmers in the rest of the world. Political columnists from Kansas to New York City are calling for change. The Senate should respond.
We can respond by e-mailing and calling our senators, urging them to support sustainable farming and cut subsidies for commodities. We can respond by supporting Bon Appetit in buying local and by heading to the farmers’ market on the weekends to buy direct. Come on, Whitman. Make it happen.