Rhea Landholm, brand marketing and communications manager, rheal@cfra.org, 402.687.2100 ext 1025
Lyons, Neb. - Today, the House Agriculture Committee passed the draft of the farm bill, the Agriculture and Nutrition Act of 2018, that they released last week. During their meeting today, the committee made very few changes to the draft of the bill before voting.
In response, the Center for Rural Affairs released the following statement:
The House Agriculture Committee has passed an entirely partisan bill that would gut working lands conservation, eliminate many long-standing subsidy payment limitations for the largest farms, and remove funding for programs that support rural innovations. These proposals are deeply troubling and must not be included in a final farm bill.
The draft bill proposes steep funding cuts to working lands conservation programs, by nearly $5 billion over 10 years. Within these cuts is the elimination of the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP). CSP currently protects over 70 million acres nationwide. By removing the program, the draft bill sends the message that conservation should be a low priority for rural America.
While our agricultural system needs a strong safety net, the current crop insurance system provides unlimited support to the largest farms in the form of premium subsidies. The draft bill instead includes proposals that backtrack on existing payment limitations. By removing subsidy payment limits for corporate farms and widening other payment loopholes, the draft bill would practically guarantee a return to unlimited farm program payments. The country needs a farm safety net, not handouts to the largest and wealthiest operations.
Finally, the draft bill proposes to completely eliminate the funding for several programs that support beginning farmers, rural entrepreneurs, and on-farm diversification. These include: the Rural Microentrepreneur Assistance Program, the Value-Added Producer Grant Program, the National Organic Certification Cost Share Program, and several others.
America needs a bipartisan farm bill that supports rural communities. The House Agriculture Committee was unable to deliver that today.
