1. TEXAS TORNADO FARM BILL RIPS THROUGH THE HOUSE

Last week, amid accusations of misinformation peddling, the House passed their version of a farm bill dubbed the "Texas Tornado" by rural advocates, who claimed the bill was moving too fast and would do too much damage to family farmers. While bill co-authors House Ag Committee leaders Larry Combest and Charles Stenholm hailed the bill as "balanced", opponents claim it only continues inflated commodities subsidies to agribusiness and will cause more environmental degradation and loss of family farms.

According to Taxpayers for Common Sense it also doles out $170 billion in farm subsidies over the next 10 years -- an increase of $73 billion over the last farm bill. The American Corn Growers Association condemned the bill saying," It is basically the same policy we have had for the past six years, a time period in which farmers of all commodities have experienced the lowest prices and highest expense." On the other hand, the bill which had the strong backing of the American Farm Bureau Federation and giant agribusiness commodities groups. The Texas Tornado now heads for the Senate where it is reported the Senate is under great pressure to push a bill through before the planned recess in late October. View a Summary of House Action on the Farm Bill.

At the same time agribusiness interests were escorting the Texas Tornado through House chambers last week, Representatives rejected an amendment that would have put $1.9 billion annually into farm conservation. While the amendment vote was narrowly defeated by agribusiness interests heavily invested in the status quo, the outcome was overshadowed by widespread accusations of "misinformation peddling." These reports starting circulating on Monday and by midweek the Environmental Working Group had obtained an email that an agriculture committee member had supposedly circulated to members of Congress. This email claimed that passage of the conservation amendment would jeopardize funding for the nutrition and food stamp provisions of the farm bill.

While condemning the misinformation, Rodger Schlickeisen, president of Defenders of Wildlife praised the many House members who voted for the amendment. While "no distortion of the facts was too outrageous, and no threat was too brazen, it was simply amazing to watch the old bulls of the House Agriculture Committee defend their turf against this common-sense amendment."

With conservation and family farm groups reeling from the fast passage of a House farm bill that even the White House does not support, a growing alliance of rural advocates, family farmers and conservationists will be standing side by side as the Senate begins crafting their version of the farm bill. In an effort to cast a wide net of alliance, the National Campaign for Sustainable Agriculture is seeking group sign on in support of a letter to Agricultural leaders Harkin and Lugar. The letter calls for the Senate to reject the house farm bill and asks their help in securing "a new, comprehensive farm bill that works for family farmers and ranchers, the environment, rural communities, food and nutrition program participants and all consumers." Sign the letter on the internet at: http://www.sustainableagriculture.net/aa_Org-Sign-On-10-10-01.htm

With last Friday's passage of the House farm (The Farm Security Act), it is evident that giant agribusiness and commodity interests still control vast political power in Washington, DC. With the fiscal austerity coming on the heels of the terrorists attacks of September 11, just about every federal budget including the Social Security "lock box" is up for grabs. Amazingly, while every coffer in Washington is being scoured for money, the House Agriculture committee is planning a budget field day with huge increases in federal farm subsidies. As mentioned above Taxpayers for Common Sense points out the House farm bill (H.R. 2646) will increase subsidies by $73 billion dollars over the next 10 years. 

How does this play out in various states? According to FAPRI (Food and Agriculture Policy Research Institute) Iowa farm subsidies, for instance, would rise from $821.4 million annually to $1.26 billion, with the vast majority of this going to large agribusiness concerns. For more information on what ought to be called the Agribusiness Security Act see: www.taxpayer.net.

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