1. CONFEREES CONTINUE NEGOTIATIONS ON FARM BILL

Members of the House and Senate continued their discussions of what the "AgPress" is calling the "Etch-A-Sketch" Farm Bill. With perpetual motion changes, this week has been marked by wildly swinging moods of optimism, cancelled meetings and resumed negotiations. In the latest news, House negotiators offered a compromise proposal yesterday, and the Senate produced a counter-offer today. Stark differences still remain between the two proposals: the House continues to direct 60% of conservation funds to the agribusiness heavy EQIP program and implements only a pilot Conservation Security Program, while the Senate directs 7.9 billion to EQIP, while fully funding the CSP at $3.4 billion. In both versions all conservation programs receive less funding than in the Senate-passed Farm Bill. The Senate's version also holds to a $225,000 per year payment limitation, a stance strengthened by yesterday's passage of a House "motion to instruct" conferees to adopt the Senate's payment limitations. This motion passed 265-158. The House offer brings the payment limitation down to $360,000 from $550,000. The Senate's offer is weaker than its original but still stronger than the House offer in some areas: the Senate retains a packer ban, but with a four-year divestment period, while the House commissions a study; the Senate removed cattle but retain swine in the PSA production contract oversight jurisdiction. But the Senate has also dropped the ban on forced arbitration.

The House Farm Bill offer, and an audio link to conference deliberations, are available at http://agriculture.house.gov/farmbill.htm

2. AGRIBUSINESS GIANT CARGILL REPORTS PLUMP 1st Quarter

In the midst of enormously large federal bailouts to the farm sector and continued historically high farm foreclosures, Rueters is reporting that agribusiness giant Cargill Inc. reported plump first quarter profit earnings of 63%. According to Rueters, "buoyed by its food and grain units and lower energy costs" the company benefitted from a domestic sales and a broader base of earnings worldwide." (ED. NOTE) This announcement comes precisely when many in Congress stumble over themselves pumping massive taxpayer subsidies into Farm Bill commodity programs that reward agribusiness and bankrupt family farmers by stimulating environmentally damaging overproduction. Simply put, Cargill is reaping the rewards of this taxpayer subsidized oversupply and benefitting from high returns on raw goods processed through their international "vertically integrated" food production chain. In actual dollars, Cargill, the largest privately held company in the United States posted 2002 first quarter earnings of $683 million. Up from $445 million for the first quarter of 2001.

3. . BIODIVERSITY SPOTLIGHT: GLOBAL PLANT CONSERVATION ADOPTED

Last week, parties to the International Convention on Biological Diversity met in the Hague, Netherlands, to discuss global progress on conserving biological diversity and adopt strategies to better protect biodiversity on a global scale. The conference, which represents the largest international effort to address loss of species and ecosystems, adopted a number of important measures of interest to farmers and rural communities, which we will highlight over the coming weeks in our "Biodiversity Spotlight" feature. One accomplishment of the meeting was the adoption of a Global Strategy for Plant Conservation. A plant strategy is needed to offset ongoing threats to plants that are, or may be "gene reserves" important to crops, medicines and other uses. Recognizing that ecosystems vitality depends on the health of plant communities, the strategy contains 16 goals to be achieved by 2010 to further plant conservation worldwide. These targets include cataloging the world's flora and understanding conservation needs for at least 50% of species; promoting conservation of habitats and managing lands in ways that are consistent with maintaining diversity; managing invasive species; promoting education and capacity building; and improving management of species from which crop plants, medicines and other products are derived.

According to the AP Farmwriter a new Congressional Budget analysis reports that crop prices aren't rising as predicted. With the new projections the farm bill the House and Senate are negotiating is expected to cost taxpayers about $10 billion more than lawmakers anticipated. This scenario worries American Farm Bureau Federation spokesperson Mary Kay Thatcher. "If the bill isn't passed quickly", says Thatcher, "it's feared that its rising price tag will force lawmakers to scale back on some new programs they want to create in the legislation. It's a huge, huge issue." Under the new Congressional Budget Office estimates obtained by The Associated Press, existing programs are expected to cost $107.2 billion over the decade, or $9.6 billion more than projected a year ago. According to the AP report "Some lawmakers say Congress should give up trying to pass a farm bill that would apply to this growing season."

If you would like to subscribe or unsubscribe to this list, visit our
Rural Updates Subscriber Center