Farm bill needs pruning
San Francisco Chronicle, November 12, 2007

Every now and then, a little bit of partisan gridlock in Washington can be a good thing.

Such is the case with the Farm Bill, where a series of spats between Democrats and Republicans in the Senate applied the brakes to an overbloated $286 billion five-year escalation of taxpayer subsidies to agriculture at a time when crop prices and farm incomes are hitting record highs.

This program is worse than inefficient. It pollutes the land through its encouragement of the use of pesticides, it contributes to childhood obesity and diabetes by producing a cheap supply of sugar and fats, it threatens World Trade Organization talks with its protectionist goodies and it lines the pockets of multimillionaires who get subsidies regardless of whether are actively engaged in farming.

President Bush has threatened a veto.

This is a program in need of major reform that wasn't there in the House version - and has scarcely improved in the Senate.

One of the potential improvements to the bill would be an amendment known as the "Fresh Act," by Sens. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., and Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., that would substitute corn, cotton, wheat, soybean and rice subsidies with an insurance program that would include all farmers - including producers of fruits, nuts and vegetables (staples of California agriculture) who are not currently eligible for the subsidies.

Another area of reform could be to the lavishing of subsidies on mega farms that don't need them. A proposed amendment to create a cap of $250,000 a year on commodity payments, for example could save $500 million that would be better spent on conservation, nutrition, organic farming or other programs. Also, the notion that multimillionaire farmers should be getting this corporate welfare is just absurd. One amendment would limit eligibility to farmers who make $750,000 or less a year.

The Farm Bill is another test of the Democrats' pledge to change the way business is conducted in Washington. So far, they are failing on this one. The Republicans are fighting ridiculousness with ridiculousness: Proposing to lard the Farm Bill with unrelated items on Iraq, labor and the estate tax.

The partisan warfare has produced an opportunity for Congress to reassess the premises of a system that was designed to prop up U.S. agriculture in the Depression era. It's time to update. It's time for major reform.