News Coverage
Goodlatte, Peers Rain Farm Folly
Published May 22, 2008
May 21--Amid persistent drought in the Shenandoah Valley last week, Washington received a torrential soaking. Faux tears fell from the eyes of politicians moved to the point of appeasement over the conceptual plight of that maudlin anachronism popularly known as the family farm. Dutifully sniffling, lawmakers from both parties -- absent brains, courage and cheesy costumes -- emerged like Dorothy's misfits, adorned in ruby footwear fashioned from a $307 billion farm bill.
Primary among the pandering politicos is our own Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Roanoke, the ranking party member on the House Agricultural Committee, who boldly ventured from the emerald city to tour Valley farms Monday while trumpeting the merits of the monolith. The farm bill, Goodlatte proudly declared, is "a bipartisan piece of work." Well, it is a bipartisan piece of something.
Peppering his back with pats for the kind of courage that would have drawn sneers from Dorothy's lion at his most timorous, Goodlatte pointed to the $400 million the bill includes for reducing nutrient pollution in the Shenandoah River and additional money for dairy farmers to cover the soaring cost of shipping milk over longer distances. Then, with a straight face and crossed fingers, Goodlatte remarked that the bill showed fiscal restraint in both parties.
Never mind that what Goodlatte calls restraint is the sort of binge consumption that sends ordinary gorgers into cardiac arrest. The dairy cow seen grazing over Goodlatte's shoulder in the photograph accompanying Bob Stuart's story in The News Virginian boasts more alluring measurements than the cellulite-laden farm legislation lawmakers laid upon the bowed backs of taxpayers.
An additional $40 billion will be dispensed in subsidies, a large portion of the fiscal fat a payoff to farmers to keep land idle. Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., a senior member of the agriculture committee and a rare voice of reason on the subject, warned his wilting peers that the subsidies violate world trade rules, and will clear the way for foreign countries to hit the U.S. with what he called retaliatory tariffs.
While calculations are not yet complete on the current boondoggle, the farm bill tows a legacy of disparity the likes of which Democrats frequently decry, but ignore when the subject is farming. The top 8 percent of farms historically collect almost 60 percent of the subsidies. Almost the same ratio of farmers receives nothing. From 2003 to 2005, more than half the money went to 19 of the country's 435 congressional districts, according to the nonpartisan Environmental Working Group.
Neither Virginia nor the Valley, where the family farm remains more substance than myth, are counted among the leading beneficiaries, though the rush of federal cash extends here, too.
More than $23 million in direct subsidy payments flowed into the commonwealth last year. Intriguingly, Rockingham and Augusta counties, which rank 1-2 in the state in agricultural productivity, rated 18th and 24th, respectively, in direct subsidies statewide. Southampton County, 17th in productivity, was No. 1 in subsidies, raking in $2.5 million -- more than twice the take in Rockingham and Augusta combined.
In an act of restrained prudence, Democrats and Republicans reduced subsidy eligibility limits from $2.5 million to $500,000 for nonfarm income. That means that previous recipients such as Scottie Pippen and David Letterman might have to search elsewhere for free money, but slimmer fat cats remain on the dole.
These changes are doubtless in mind when Goodlatte declares in a news release that this "is the most reform-minded farm bill that the House has considered." This proves that in the land of political Oz, the circuitous road to reform bears still the glitter of taxpayer-forged gold, the enduring stain of pork and the taint of false hope for better from members of both parties.
