December 10, 2007

Dear Colleague:

This week the Senate will be considering the 2007 Farm Bill.  In light of this, I would like to again share with you an amendment that I will be offering with Senator Frank Lautenberg and a number of other Senators.  Our amendment, The Farm, Ranch, Equity, Stewardship, and Health Act (FRESH), would dramatically improve the “safety- net” for all American farmers and make significant strides to alleviate hunger, improve our environment, promote energy independence, and reduce our deficit.

As my previous letters have addressed, our current farm policies, 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, these 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 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 only19 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.
• With 57 percent of farms operating without a safety-net and rural development declining, the system is clearly not fair and there is a growing demand for equity among farmers and rural communities. 
• Our current farm policies also violate WTO commitments and soon Brazil will have the authority to retaliate in kind against U.S. products, whether they are agricultural products or intellectual property.

Our Amendment would provide a true safety-net for all farmers, regardless of what they grow or where they live.   For the first time, each farmer would receive – at no cost to the farmer – either expanded county-based crop insurance policies that would cover 85 percent of expected crop revenue or yield, or 80 percent of a farm’s five year average adjusted gross revenue.

This proposal is important because savings from these reforms will allow us to provide billions more in new investments to assist farmers with conservation practices, develop renewable energy, expand access to healthy foods for children and consumers, and assist more hungry Americans. 

Most importantly, our proposal pays for itself from the existing agricultural budget passed by Congress without employing deceptive budgetary maneuvers.  In fact, our bill will save taxpayers $4 billion.  

Agriculture policy is too important for rural America and the economic and budgetary health of our country to continue the current misguided path.  Our amendment provides a much more equitable approach, produces higher net farm income for farmers, increases farm exports, avoids stimulating over-production, and gives more emphasis to environmental, nutritional, energy security and research concerns.  More importantly, this proposal will protect the family farmer through a strong safety-net and encourage rural development in a fiscally responsible and trade compliant manner.