Senate Ag Committee Farm Bill: A Mixed Bag

The Senate Agriculture Committee passed their version of the 2012 Farm Bill, the Agricultural Reform, Food, and Jobs Act of 2012, in late April. There’s some good, bad and ugly in it, but one thing is certain. Your action and engagement helped secure solid victories.

For the first time, if this bill becomes law, it will close loopholes mega farms use to evade caps on traditional farm payments. Unfortunately, it does nothing to rein in unlimited crop insurance subsidies.

Part of the bill will protect native prairie ground. An amendment championed by Senators Thune (R-SD), Johanns (R-NE), Nelson (D-NE) and Brown (D-OH) restores a nationwide Sodsaver provision. It doesn’t end subsidized crop insurance coverage on newly broken land, but it scales it back dramatically. Enough to give little incentive to bust up fragile native sod for cropping.

With your help, we had some significant beginning farmer and rancher wins. The Conservation Reserve Program Transition Incentives, championed by Senator Johanns (R-NE), is included with double the funding. It gives two more years of CRP rental payments to landowners who turn their expiring CRP acres over to beginning or socially disadvantaged farmers or ranchers who will manage it with an approved conservation plan.

Veteran beginning farmers get a preference for increased payment rates under the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, a conservation program to help farmers and ranchers implement conservation practices.

The bill also includes an exemption to allow beginning farmers and ranchers to graze land enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program.

The Down Payment Loan Program was improved. The value of land eligible to finance went from $500,000 to $667,000. This makes the program more reflective of current land market realities.

The biggest disappointment for beginning farmers is this. The bill cuts nearly half the funding for the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program. This program supports mentoring and training opportunities for the next generation of farmers and ranchers.

These wins wouldn’t have happened without your help. Stay tuned as the farm bill debate moves forward! Contact me, Traci Bruckner, for updates. Call 402.687.2100 or email tracib@cfra.org.