Senator Lugar's Statement at the Press Conference with the Environmental Working Group

Senator Lugar and Environmental Working Group president Ken Cook held a press conference on November 1, 2007, announcing the launch of the EWG report on Direct Payments: Subsidies on Autopilot. Listen to Senator Lugar’s opening statement or read it below:

I join Ken Cook today to highlight the egregious nature of our current Farm Bill policies. As an American farmer myself I fully appreciate the importance of our farmers and believe strongly in providing them a true safety net; one that is there when farmers truly need it, applies to all farmers, and saves taxpayers money.

Our current system of federal payments to farmers, sold to the American public as a safety-net, actually hurt the family farmer.  In the name of maintaining the family farm and preserving rural communities, today’s farm programs have benefited a select few while leaving the majority of farmers without support or a safety-net.  To illustrate, consider some of these facts:

• In the years 2000-05, the farm sector received $112 billion in taxpayer subsidies, but only 43 percent of all farms received payments. The largest 8 percent of all farms received 58 percent of the payments.  In fact, the top 1 percent of the highest earning farmers claimed 17 percent of the crop subsidy benefits between 2003 and 2005.

• Smaller farms that qualify in the current system and that could benefit from additional support did not do as well.  Two-thirds of recipient farms received less than $10,000, accounting for only 7 percent of their gross cash farm income. Minority farmers fared even worse with only 8 percent of farmers even receiving federal farm subsidies.

• Our farm policies also hurt rural development.  Ironically, the counties that receive the most federal subsidies have little job growth and population is actually declining.  Furthermore, half of the federal crop subsidies paid between 2003 and 2005 went to only 19 congressional districts (out of 435).

• Less than 10 percent of rural Americans live on a farm and only 14 percent of the rural workforce is employed in farming.

• Worse, the “safety net” that taxpayers continue to fund for this narrow sector of agriculture does not work.  Billions of dollars are sent out to few farmers regardless of markets or weather conditions, and the rest of the “safety net” does nothing for farmers when they most need it, during droughts, floods, and other disasters. 

• These broken farm policies also violate WTO commitments and soon Brazil will have the authority to retaliate in kind against U.S. products, whether they be agricultural products or intellectual property.   

I, along with Senator Frank Lautenberg and other bi-partisan co-sponsors have introduced true farm bill reform legislation, the Farm and Ranch, Equity, Stewardship, and Health act (FRESH).  This bill would provide all farmers with revenue based insurance programs that are designed to protect against yearly crop losses and dramatic changes in markets, but stop distorting markets.  FRESH would provide significant investments in nutrition, conservation, energy, rural development, and healthy food programs.  In addition to smarter farm policies, it also provides taxpayers with a savings of $3 billion devoted to deficit reduction.