More green acres
Chicago Tribune, October 25, 2007

The Democrats took control of Congress with a vow to end the Republicans' profligate ways. But the farm bill being debated on Capitol Hill proves they are as unwilling as the Republicans were to confront the barons of agriculture.

President Bush proposed earlier this year that subsidies be cut off for farmers whose adjusted gross income exceeded $200,000 a year -- a level reached by only 2.3 percent of Americans. That sensible reform sank without a trace. The House in July passed a five-year, $286 billion farm bill that maintains the status quo, keeping millionaire farmers on the federal dole.

What is emerging from the Senate Agriculture Committee this week -- a five-year, $ 288 billion farm bill -- will do nothing to challenge the status quo either. This means Americans will be stuck for another five years with an agricultural policy that pays too much money to too few producers and is unfair to consumers, taxpayers and our trading partners.

Farm policy now primarily rewards growers of just a few crops -- corn, cotton, rice, wheat, soybeans -- while farmers who grow just about everything else get nothing. Two-thirds of federal subsidies go to the richest 10 percent of farmers. It has been that way for years and this new farm bill crafted on the Democrats' watch means more of the same. This is a disgrace.

Senate Democrats are touting as reform this nugget: Non-farmers, those who make less than two-thirds of their income from farming, would be banned from federal payments if their annual income exceeds $750,000. Is this a joke?

If ever there was a time to challenge the status quo that has governed farm policy for more than seven decades in the U.S., this is it. Grain prices are at record levels. The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that farm income will total $87 billion this year, a 50 percent increase from last year.

There is a better way to help farmers. A measure backed by Sens. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) and Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) would slash direct federal farm payments that aren't based either on crop production or prices. In exchange, the Lugar-Lautenberg proposal would expand free crop insurance, covering up to 85 percent of crop revenue, to all farmers with annual incomes below $250,000. Farmers would be eligible to tap this insurance only when they lose money. What a refreshing change that would be. Under current policy, many farmers get federal dollars whether they make money or lose money. The only constant is that taxpayers pay.

The barons of agriculture and their protectors on Capitol Hill don't want this change, or any change for that matter. They like things just the way they are. No surprise there. But the country needs to break the grip they have maintained over farm policy.

If they don't, it will be up to Bush to puncture this bloated farm bill. His veto pen would be as good as a pitchfork.