Environmental Working Group’s vice president of government affairs Scott Faber released the following statement on the House agriculture committee leadership’s 2012 farm bill proposal.
“We are disappointed that the leaders of the House agriculture committee have proposed to expand unlimited crop insurance subsidies and to create new budget-busting farm revenue and price guarantees. Eliminating direct payments and enacting reasonable reforms to crop insurance would provide farmers a generous safety net and meet the committee’s deficit reduction goals – without cutting assistance to the hungry and programs that improve the environment. Instead, the committee’s leaders have proposed to plow much of the savings generated from the elimination of direct payments into new entitlements for the largest and most successful farm businesses. We urge Congress to reject these proposed cuts to anti-hunger and conservation programs, to oppose new farm revenue and price guarantees, and to instead support reasonable reforms to unlimited crop insurance subsidies and efforts to promote healthier diets.”
