The U.S. Farm bill: taxpayer subsidies, no strings attached!

Photo: USDA

As Congress takes up the 2012 Farm Bill, it stands to make dramatic cuts to conservation funding while eliminating the longstanding link between crop subsidies and conservation programs that protect land and water from runoff pollution.

Along with our conservation partners, FMR continues to advocate for Congressional action that ensures our natural resources and taxpayers are protected. We urge Congress to amend the 2012 Farm Bill to:

• Provide sound and robust funding for vital conservation programs

  An investment in Farm Bill conservation delivers positive outcomes that benefit everyone. FMR and our conservation partners urge Congress to prioritize the Conservation Title by funding it at the current baseline average of $6 billion a year.

• Re-establish the stewardship compact that ensures basic soil and water conservation on American farmland receiving Farm Bill subsidies

  Congress should re-attach the same basic stewardship obligations that apply to other Farm Bill subsidies, i.e. Conservation Compliance provisions, to combat unintended destructive consequences of taxpayer-subsidized crop insurance.

Ag communities push back

As federal policies put water quality and habitat at risk, agricultural communities are beginning to question the wisdom of the massive expansion of crop insurance programs being pushed through Congress. Below are just a few of this springs news and editorial highlights from ag communities around the country:

• Wildlife habitat: here today, gone tomorrow?, by Gary Howey, Agweek, April 30, 2012:

  The total acres in the Northern Plains states that will be coming out of CRP [the Conservation Reserve Program] is more than 3 million acres, or 4,687.5 square miles which is about the size of Connecticut.

• The seed money of destructionLand Stewardship Project commentary, Star Tribune, March 26, 2012:

  Congress continues to find ways to throw money at farmers, whether they need it or not.

• U.S. aid to farms should have strings, Staff editorial, Des Moines Register, May 4, 2012

  The Senate bill would…eliminate the link between crop subsidies and compliance with conservation programs.

• Reform, jobs nowhere in new farm law, Alan Gueberts nationally syndicated Farm and Food File, May 5, 2012

  The centerpiece of the Senate farm plan is an expansion of crop insurance, because it looks both great and cheap. Two recent examinations of it, however, say it's neither.

• As prices rise, farmers, feds back off conservation program, Tom Lutey, (Billings Gazette, May 4, 2012

  In Montana, over the past four years, [Conservation Reserve Program-protected] acres have decreased roughly 789,000 acres…the number of acres coming out has accelerated every year.