Farm Bill Editorials
Mon, 05/21/2007 - 08:35 — Dan Owens
As I perused my FarmPolicy.com updates from the weekend, it became apparent that this was a particularly robust weekend for farm bill editorials. Links below.
"Farm21" is the recently introduced bill that supports eliminating commodity programs and replacing them with "farmer savings accounts" You can read more about it here.
FarmPolicy links here, here and here.
FarmPolicy links here, here and here.
In favor of reform:
Washington Post
Supports Farm21 and says the full House should rewrite the farm bill if the Ag Committee won't reform;
Winston Salem Journal
Also supports Farm21 and has the line, "The legislation that was designed to put American farm families back on their feet has now become massive giveaway programs to mega-corporations that manage factory farms";
LA Times
Endorse moving money from commodities to food stamps: "Welfare reform limited food stamps, yet the real culture of dependence continues in agri-business.";
National Review
Argues for the elimination of farm programs;
Minneapolis Star Tribune
Supports Farm21, and says "[Farm 21] points farm policy in exactly the right direction, and if it doesn't exert some influence on the big farm bill that Congress will write this summer, then the process will be a failure.
And in the other direction,
Bismarck Tribune
Mark Martin, president of the ND Grain Growers association, endorses the NAWG position of doubling directs and says "Giving up these predictable, World Trade Organization-compliant and market-friendly payments for other priorities is simply not acceptable. There are many areas of agricultural policy that need to be addressed, but federal funding for issues like disaster assistance and biofuels production should never come at the expense of farm stability."
»
- Login to post comments
