EWG News release
EWG: "We Need Farm Subsidy Reform Now!"
Statement of Scott Faber, Vice President of Government Affairs, Environmental Working Group, on Farm Bill Now Rally:
Congress should not bypass the House to produce a farm bill and miss the chance to reform farm subsidies. We need farm subsidy reform, not a bad farm bill, and certainly not the terrible farm bill proposed by the House Agriculture Committee.
There are only two ways to pass a farm bill now. Either the full House clears one of the worst farm bills in generations, or Congress leapfrogs the House entirely and attaches a “secret farm bill” to must-pass legislation during a lame duck session after the election.
It’s hard to say which would be worse: passing the House Agriculture Committee’s version, which cuts hunger, energy and environmental programs to help finance lavish new subsidies, or subverting the Constitution with a five-year renewal of farm policies that has never been considered by the full House.
The better course is simply for Congress to reject the House farm bill, produce a drought-relief package for livestock farmers, and extend the current farm bill until next year.
The current drought is revealing just how far crop insurance subsidies have strayed from a sensible safety net – and just how urgently crop insurance subsidy reform is needed. And that’s exactly why subsidized agriculture and its allies on Capitol Hill are trying to bypass meaningful debate.
Under the current system, the taxpayer pays roughly 60 percent of the cost of crop insurance premiums, more than $1 billion annually to companies that sell the policies, and pay most of the claims when insured crops fail. In many cases, the policies pay farmers affected by the drought more than they would have made by bringing their crop to harvest and selling it.
But rather than reform a system that could cost taxpayers more than $20 billion this year alone, both the House and Senate farm bills actually expand crop insurance subsidies. No wonder farm lobbyists are afraid to have the full House consider the bill.
For a lot of reasons, there has never been a better time to rein in farm subsidies. Farm income is expected to top $122 billion this year –three times more than farmers earned just a decade ago. Farmers’ equity in their property is expected to rise to an all-time high of almost $2.3 trillion.
Today, the U.S. Census Bureau reports the median annual household income in the U.S. fell 1.5 percent last year from 2010, to $50,054. By contrast, farm household income actually increased by 5.4 percent last year and is expected to increase again this year. The income of larger commercial farms increased by nearly 8 percent last year and is predicted to rise by another 8 percent by year’s end.
If the House were allowed to debate a farm bill, the subsidy lobby and their Congressional champions would have to explain why some of the most profitable businesses in America need taxpayer help buying insurance while poor Americans will be faced to make do with less.
We don’t need a farm bill now, especially one that cuts nutrition assistance funding for millions of hungry kids to increase subsidies to corporate mega-farms. What we need now is farm subsidy reform!! And we need legislators who are willing to ask questions about the need for farm welfare at a time of record farm income.
###