Fix broken farm program
The Register-Guard , November 2, 2007

The U.S. Senate has a chance to scrap this nation’s antiquated and irrational system of federal farm subsidies — a system that preserves large taxpayer-funded payouts for a few crops and mostly wealthy farmers, few of whom are in Oregon.

Earlier this year the House approved a $286 billion farm bill that perpetuates a bloated, wasteful system of price supports and direct payments that has changed little since it was forged in the Great Depression.

Under the House bill, 93 percent of all subsidies would continue to go to just five row crops: wheat, corn, rice, cotton and soybeans, despite near-record prices for several of those commodities.

Willamette Valley fruit and vegetable growers, Eastern Oregon ranchers and other key agricultural groups would receive little or nothing under this bill, just as they have for the past seven decades. That explains why Oregon, an agricultural state, ranks 32nd among states receiving subsidies — and why 89 percent of all Oregon farmers and ranchers receive no subsidy payments.

The time has come to phase out the current subsidy system, which ensures that most of the dollars go to a small percentage of agribusinesses. In 2005, fewer than 10 percent of farms received nearly 55 percent of all subsidies. The average household income of those farmers: $200,000.

The House legislation made some cosmetic fixes. For example, it includes modest new financing for some fruit and vegetable growers who are not covered under current commodity programs — a trade-off intended to win the votes necessary for passage. It also bans subsidies to farmers whose incomes average more than $1 million a year, down from the current limit of $2.5 million.

But the House bill fails to make meaningful changes to a subsidy system that is tantamount to corporate welfare. That pushes out small family farmers and encourages farm consolidation and overproduction of subsidized crops. That inflicts environmental damage by encouraging subsidized farming of marginal farmlands. That drives up land prices, making it too costly for new farmers to get a foothold. That distorts international trade and violates existing agreements, while penalizing farmers in developing nations.

When the Senate takes up the farm bill next week, lawmakers will have an opportunity to get farm subsidy reform back on track.

Several alternative bills have been introduced, the most promising of which was authored by Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., and Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J. It would phase out the existing system of subsidies for a select few crops and replace it with a government-funded crop insurance program that would cover all farms and ranches, whether they grow D’Anjou pears in Oregon or sweet corn in Iowa.

The Lugar-Lautenburg bill would provide more money for environmental, nutritional, conservation, rural development and other worthwhile programs, while saving the U.S. taxpayers $3 billion a year.

America needs a sensible farm policy, one that provides farmers with a reasonable safety net, that protects the environment, that honors this nation’s trade obligations, that doesn’t harm farmers in developing nations and that helps feed the hungry.

The Senate has an opportunity to accomplish all of these things by bucking the powerful farm lobby and passing the Lugar-Lautenberg bill.