Fam Bill political dynamics are exceptionally tricky and very fluid. Conservationists, family farmers and rural advocates have come together in an unprecedented alliance to face down the forces of agribusiness and craft a better farm policy for rural America. Unfortunately, those powers still have tremendous influence on our lawmakers, as is reflected in the proposed House Bill, H.R. 2646. Now, rural advocates are faced with choices about the best way to proceed with fighting a bad bill and reaching the goals we share.

For a vast array of economic, environmental and social reasons, the Combest-Stenholm Farm Bill is flawed and should not pass in its present state. We aren’t joking when we call this bill the Texas Tornado – it has been moving way too fast and could leave in its wake a swath of devastation across rural America. We know this, the newspapers know this, and the commodity groups (the main beneficiaries of the bill) and the lawmakers themselves (the main beneficiaries of campaign contributions from agribusiness) probably know this. But two facts remain: 1) the Texas Tornado has the blessings of the House Agriculture Committee and a high likelihood of passing the full House; 2) what happens with this bill will set the tone for what happens in the Senate.

We would all like to see improvements to the Farm Bill: the addition of a competition title, more conservation measures for working lands ala CSA, structural mechanisms that allow farmers to get a better price for their crops, and a host of others. It comes down to a political calculation of how to get the most out of what we have been given to work with. Opposing H.R. 2646 is one strategy. We see a lot of danger in that strategy, however, for these reasons:

• If H.R. 2646 fails as currently written, it sends no strong message back to the Agriculture committee about why it failed or how to improve it. The next iteration could conceivably be just as bad.

• If H.R. 2646 passes as currently written (we see this as the more likely possibility), it sends a message to the Senate that this is the kind of bill America wants. They are then pressured to pass a bill that closely matches the House version, and to do so in short order. We see this as the worst possible outcome.

• Even if the Senate does pass a better bill than H.R. 2646 (one that addresses competition, rural development, nutrition and conservation), there is no telling what might be lost when the House and Senate conference to create a final version. Many of the Senate improvements could vanish in the face of little support from the House side.

For these reasons, we support efforts to improve H.R. 2646 in whatever way possible, by adding measures to promote conservation, food safety, family farm-oriented rural development, nutrition assistance, marketing opportunities and improved prices. The proposed amendment that has thus far garnered the most attention and support is the Boehlert-Kind-Gilchrest-Dingell conservation title. We believe that if this bill is successfully attached to H.R. 2646, it sends an important message to both House and Senate:

1. It will become clear to the Agriculture Committee that Americans demand an investment in conservation. Even if H.R. 2646 subsequently fails or is pulled, the Committee will be obligated to address conservation in subsequent versions. Agriculture Committee Chairman Combest has threatened to pull the entire bill if the Amendment is added – this possibility alone is a convincing reason for opponents of H.R. 2646 to fight for passage of the Boehlert amendment.

2. If the Amendment passes and H.R. 2646 passes, the Senate will be strengthened in its efforts to add to their bill the provisions that Harkin, Lugar, Johnson and others have been discussing: a competition title, the Conservation Security Act and others. If the House bill already has a strong conservation provision at that point, the Senate has more leverage to push for such other important measures.

On these grounds, we believe it is critical to support the Boehlert-Kind-Gilchrest-Dingell amendment and then to fight together to strengthen all aspects of the Senate Bill.