Farm Bill: Focus on reform
Seattle Post-Intelligencer, November 10, 2007

As it prepares to take up the farm bill, the U.S. Senate faces an unusually smart veto threat from President Bush. It's a constructive warning that ought to help guide Congress toward good health, diet, environmental and fiscal sense.

We rarely find ourselves in such strong agreement with the administration. But Congress is in danger of wasting its best chance for serious reform.

We have been shocked by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's blatant use of special interest favoritism to protect freshman Democrats. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid last week spoke in glowing and utterly illusory terms about a Senate committee bill that eschews fundamental reforms and parcels out billions for larger subsidies and the fundamentally dishonest idea of permanent disaster relief.

The Senate could begin voting this week. Many senators in both parties have worked to craft alternatives that would improve diets and cut massive waste. But we are disappointed in the glaring lack of commitment from U.S. Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell to making this a food bill for everyone, including consumers, not a special interest package for producers. This trade-dependent state also needs their support for bringing farm aid into line with international rules.

The best alternative to the committee bill comes from Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., and N.J. Democratic Sen. Frank Lautenberg. Their sweeping proposal would do what a September poll for Environmental Defense showed more than three-fourths of Washingtonians favor: Cut subsidies to wealthy farmers and corporations; put more money into conservation; and focus more on healthy foods. More modest amendments would limit maximum subsidy payments, impose better tests of whether farmers need help and reform crop insurance programs.

Sara Hopper, an Environmental Defense attorney, said the farm bill is one where many senators listen to the loudest, most focused special interests, even when, as with Washington state, large-scale reforms would benefit the state as a whole economically. Reforms also would improve the cleanliness of water, promote soil conservation and help Americans fight obesity and diabetes crises. If our senators let us down on those issues, the president must make good on his veto threat.